Drama Masks: All ABBA the myths of stage critics

This is Drama Masks, a Bay Area performing arts column from a born San Franciscan and longtime theatre artist in an N95 mask. I talk venue safety and dramatic substance, or the lack thereof.

Explaining to folks that you’re a professional critic often involves dispelling misconceptions. But one stereotype that carries a hint of truth is that critics are unable to turn off the scrutinous parts of their minds.

Why should we? We’ve invested a lot into honing this ability—it would be like if you stopped speaking a language just because it isn’t your native tongue.

But I will confess to occasionally being so wrapped up in deconstructing a work that I can miss the forest for the trees. Mind you, we enjoy plenty about what we review (no real critic goes in wanting to hate something). But these days, between documenting CO² levels and examining performances, my head tends to bob up and down from my notepad quite often. I sometimes wonder if I’ve forgotten what it’s like to get lost in a show like the people sitting around me.

That was part of the reason I took up Awesome Theatre’s offer to attend the opening weekend of their new show The Future that Liberals Want (through May 24), even though I wouldn’t be reviewing it. I’ve known the company’s founders for a good decade-plus now and wanted to just watch a scrappy indie production to make me forget about how nearly every arts org in the country got a middle finger from the DOGE-ified NEA this past Friday.

I wanted to see a show with actors who’ve probably never paid AEA fees. I wanted to watch a show written by someone whose name I actually know, instead of some hyped-up flavor-of-the-month from New York. I wanted to watch a show that would, hopefully, acknowledge (at least a few of) my far-leftist, anti-corporate values. Above all, I wanted to see a show by people who just wanted to put on a show for folks who wanted to be there.

Yes, I wore my Flo Mask and brought my Aranet4. No, I didn’t lift the former to take a sip of anything, as I would have in the pre-2020 days. Nevertheless, it was… different to try and just live in the moment as an audience member again. It gave me an even greater appreciation for what the now-polluted NEA and soon-to-be-implemented “movie tariffs” want to take away.

The point of being in an audience is the fact that you aren’t the only one.

THE FUTURE THAT LIBERALS WANT runs through May 24. Eclectic Box, SF. Tickets and more info here.

MAMMA MIA! AT THE ORPHEUM

If there’s a show tailor-made to be crowd-pleasing, it’s Mamma Mia! (through May 11 at the Orpheum Theatre), though it has taken me awhile to warm to the idea. When I first heard there was a wedding-themed jukebox musical based around the music of ABBA, I thought someone had clearly ripped off the fantastic Australian film Muriel’s Wedding, which gave the world Toni Collette. It wasn’t until Berkeley Playhouse’s 2019 production that I finally saw the appeal of the show, even if I wasn’t entirely won over by its conventions.

For those unaware: Mamma Mia! is the story of Sophie (Amy Weaver), a blonde ingenue who’s getting married in a few days on the Greek isle where she lives with her mother, Donna (Christine Sherrill). Sophie’s never known her biological dad, so she steals Donna’s old diary and arbitrarily invites the three dudes Donna hooked up with way back when, without telling her. Sitcom shenanigans ensue as “Dancing Queen” plays. Listen, the show didn’t become (to date) the ninth-longest-running show in Broadway history by being a complex character study.

Nor does it need to be. Jukebox musicals aren’t known for trying very hard, just for holding audience interest between needle-drops.

Mamma Mia! knows its audience, and the cosplaying, “Fernando”-singing, all-ages crowd in attendance opening night got what they wanted. That said, this was a surprisingly low-wattage production. Director Phyllida Lloyd sometimes seems confused as to what should be done with the cast, presumably telling them things like “be happy” or “be angry” as motivation. For instance, Sherrill has real pipes in her portrayal of Donna, but she tends to reduce the role to blocking and high notes. At least the actors playing her besties Tanya (played opening night by Stephanie Genito) and Rosie (Carly Sakalove) really get into the spirit of the show and have fun.

Safety-wise, there were very few masks amongst that opening crowd. My Aranet4 averaged CO² readings of about 1,554ppm, but it got considerably higher. Once again, a BroadwaySF show’s use of dry ice fog shot the numbers on my little box up to 3,377ppm by the final bow. Not as high as last time, but still jarring to see my Aranet hit those numbers.

If you want an ABBA-scored, wedding-themed story with some heart-breaking pathos, the film Muriel’s Wedding is always a good choice. If all you want is nothing more ABBA karaoke to punctuate a sitcom, one could do worse than Mamma Mia!

MAMMA MIA! runs through May 11. Orpheum Theatre, SF. Tickets and more info here.

IRONBOUND BY OAKLAND THEATER PROJECT

It’s not crazy to sometimes think the world is out to get us. But really, it’s the people who run it. They know things would be better for the masses if the richies did their fair share and spread their resources to the people who need them—but we know they never will. The proletariat seem to be stuck in a feedback loop of destruction that has us directing our anger towards one another because we’re always out in the cold.

Just take Darja (Lisa Ramirez), the Polish-born protagonist of Martyna Majok’s Ironbound (extended through May 25 at FLAX art & design). When we meet her in 2014, she’s once again standing on the streets of Elizabeth, New Jersey, arguing with on-again-off-again boyfriend Tommy (Danile Duque-Estrada). He angrily demands she get in his car, which she refuses, since he’s cheated on her some 14 times. Yet, she pleads with him for $3,000 to find her son Alex, who’s known for his substance abuse problems.

The money would be less of a problem when Darja worked at the now-closed paper factory on the other side of the fence. But then, a lot of things are different since she arrived in the country with Alex’s father, Maks (Adam KuveNiemann).

There are two real stars of this show. The first is the “empty” set design by Sam Fehr, which seats the audience in the round to imagine the cold of the streets where Darja sleeps. The other star is actor Kevin Rebultan. Anyone who’s seen Bay Area theatre over the past decade will know the fine trio with whom Rebultan is cast (though Ramirez’s accent noticeably slips), but the young actor brings a wonderful naturalism to his one scene with Ramirez, giving nuance and depth to a role that could easily be stereotypical.

In a way, that sums up Majok’s play: carefully textured in its examination of toxic and failed relationships, and how one winds up in them over and over again. It’s easy to watch someone make a mistake and say “Don’t do that again,” but what’s their other option? It’s easy to escape damaging patterns when the sky is your limit.

Another limit is 1,776ppm, which was the CO² level my Aranet4 read at the end of the 90-or-so-minute show. The opening audience was maybe 80 percent full, with only four or five of us masked. I couldn’t help but think of how I’ve honestly seen more homeless people like Darja donning masks than the well-off. Even with abundant resources, people repeat damaging patterns.

At least Ironbound offers audiences the opportunity to recognize those habits in the hopes that we can avoid them in our own lives. They make for compelling drama by OTP. In a perfect world, that’s all they’d be.

IRONBOUND has been extended to run through May 25. FLAX art & design, Oakland. Tickets and more info here.