Connie Chats on Opening Night: A Christmas Westside Story | LA

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Connie Chats on Opening Night: A Christmas Westside Story | ...
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Connie Chats on Opening Night:
A Christmas Westside Story
by Connie Danese | December 12, 2011
Connie Danese
“Could it be? Yes it could. Something’s coming, something good…”
The Troubadour Theater Company’s A Christmas Westside Story opened Friday at the Falcon Theatre,
and it is simply spectacular. It combines the plot and setting of the classic 1983 film A Christmas Story
with music and dance inspired by one of Broadway’s favorite musicals, West Side Story. Supporters,
subscribers, critics, friends and family filled the tiny 130-seat jewel of a theater, and you sensed the
warmth generated by their happy anticipation of yet another “Troubie” event.
Falcon founder and board president Garry Marshall, who is a hands-on member of the “Falcon family”,
could not attend because he was in New York for the opening of his latest film, New Year’s Eve, a
romantic comedy with mega-stars but also featuring a few Troubie company members. His daughter and
co-producer, Kathleen Marshall LaGambina, was in the lobby after the show beaming with pride – “My
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father is always here but has been doing press in New York for two days. He actually came to see it
Tuesday night and will be home Sunday. I saw the final dress rehearsal and now the opening. It’s
different every single time and always incredible.”
Joseph Keane and Kathleen Marshall
LaGambina
Opening night parties at the Falcon feel as if you’ve walked into someone’s private home for a delicious
buffet supper. Along with shrimp, cheese, crackers and mini-dessert selections, the parties are famous
for their meatballs — no, not Italian-style meatballs. These are hot, slightly sweet, hickory-smoked
Falcon meatballs. It’s as if your relative with a secret recipe for her famous sauce and meatballs cooked
up a batch for everyone to enjoy and nosh after the show. Of course, like any good host, the Falcon
serves a choice of champagne, pinot noir or merlot to wash it all down.
Marshall LaGambina smiled. “It’s family. We’ve always been a family business and try to bring in
people who want to be a part of our family. The Troubies have been here about 11 years and they are
certainly family members. In fact, we have a front row named the Troubadour row. If you sit up there,
you know you will probably be participating in the show. Basically we try really hard to make it a
wonderful fun night with a lot of laughs and parking.” Ah, the “P” word does resonate with anyone who
has paid for tickets, then paid again for the privilege to leave the car somewhere within shouting
distance of the theater. Falcon patrons park for free — subscribers in the front lot and everyone else
around the corner in a smaller lot or on streets very close-by.
“With a click, with a shock, phone’ll jingle, door’ll knock…”
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Matt Walker, Rick Batalla and Robert Petrarca
Troubie newbie Robert Petrarca happily reported on the recent experience of jumping into his first show
with a well-established troupe that was the toast of the recent Ovation Awards. “It isn’t difficult when
people are as brilliant and welcoming as these guys. The environment is amazing, and they are so
supportive of new actors. I was a bit nervous, because a lot of them have nine or ten shows under their
belt – the musical director has done 28 shows. But they made me feel relaxed and a part of it all.”
Petrarca worked with director Matt Walker six years ago on Happy Days the Musical (book by Garry
Marshall), so he wasn’t asked to audition. “We hadn’t talked much since that time. Matt happened to see
the last show I did here (Laurel and Hardy — Petrarca was the pianist) and said they were looking for
another dancer for their holiday Troubie production, and did I want to do it.” Petrarca’s eyes widened in
recollection. “Uh, I said of course. I had seen many Troubie performances, and I knew if I was given the
opportunity to be a part of this group I needed to jump on it.”
The most exciting part about the evening for Petrarca? “I guess it’s the opening night vibe. There are a
lot of supportive people in this audience. The energy that a Troubie audience brings is unlike any other.
People want to be here. I know, because I’ve been one of them. You always remember your last
experience, and you’re so excited to see something new that will make you feel the way you did at the
last one.”
“The Puerto Ricans grumble: Fair fight. But if they start a rumble …”
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Ameenah Kaplan and Lisa Valenzuela
Ameenah Kaplan, fight choreographer for this production and two-time Ovation nominee in this year’s
awards, has worked with the Troubies many times. Referring to the dance in A Christmas Westside
Story, Kaplan called it “wonderful. Molly Alvarez (2011 Ovation nominee for the Troubies’ The First
Jo-el) is a great choreographer and did a fantastic job on tonight’s show. My training is in martial arts,
kung fu and a spattering of other things, so whether I’m choreographing dance or fight staging I like to
bring that element in plus rhythm. We’ve done so much before that honestly it all came together in about
three hours. The Troubies are not from a hard-core dance background, and I think that’s part of the
charm of the company. Choreographers are pulling out pretty complicated dance moves from
non-dancers, and they all do really well.”
“We’re gonna rock it tonight. We’re gonna jazz it up and have us a ball…”
Morgan Rusler, Corey Womack and Sharon
McGunigle
Sharon McGunigle, a three-time Ovation nominee for Troubie costumes, didn’t design this show’s
outfits, but she disclosed her favorite costume piece in it. “I saw the preview, and she (costume designer
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Naomi Yoshida) has added many things since then. One was the striped shirt she put on the Toadie
character (Christine Lakin). It was a perfect West Side Story beatnik thing. I thought the costumes were
spot-on great. It made me so happy to see what Naomi had done as far as the nod to both the movie and
the musical. She evoked that world the story takes place in (fictional Hohman, Indiana), yet always with
a nod to the West Side (New York) “story”. Each time I saw another little reference that would crack me
up.”
“Well they began it. Well, they began it…”
“I met Matt (Walker) when we were 15 and 16 at Santa Monica High School.” Troubie veteran Lisa
Valenzuela (teacher Ms. Shields), said Walker is older but, “I’m not going to tell you our age.” For the
record, I didn’t ask. No fool, I. “There was an open call for Grease, and I was the nerd in the choir.
Matty was Danny Zuko and breaking hearts in our high school. He’s always been a major talent. I’ve
always been a singer. This whole acting thing came about when I was doing slide whistle and sound
effects for him and singing back-up for the musicals. One day he said, why don’t you jump on stage?
And I screamed, what do you mean?” She grins. “But I did it.”
Cast and Crew of "A Christmas Westside Story"
Valenzuela revealed how the show changes every night. “We have a script, but it’s just a frame. We’re all
about current events, so whatever happens that day we just put it in the show.” The morning the show
opened, a shooting at Sunset and Vine in Hollywood caused traffic detours into the evening hours and
delays in arrivals for the performance. After the show began, two exceptionally late audience members
delighted the cast. “When we don’t have one, we’re disappointed. Oh, we’re sad. We hope someone’s
late, because then we ‘get them’. But it’s never a set-up.” Suffice it to say the entire cast ended the ‘get’
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with a hilarious song. I won’t mention the title and spoil it, but I do hope you get a chance to experience
their fourth wall break and “latecomer number”.
Originally an improvisational reaction, Valenzuela explained, “Matt came up with that one night, and it
went over so well, we all said okay, now that’s our latecomer song. We have something for everything. If
you could spend a week with us at rehearsal, you’d see it’s like going to clown college and funny on
every level.
“Since the Ovation Awards, Matty is in great demand. People all over are like, ‘Hello, can we play’?”
When asked to explain their enormous fan base, Valenzuela paused for a moment. “All of us are really
down to earth. We know there’s a chance there will be a mistake here and there, but we thrive on our
mistakes. I think the audience relates to that — to making a mistake. They relate to the humanity of the
actors and the warmth on stage between everyone in the company.”
Matt Walker and Katherine
Malak in "A Christmas Westside
Story"
While on the subject of improvised material, I should mention that at one point (during a first act scene),
an audience member seated in the third row quietly opened his program. Walker — who plays the
Christmas Story boy Ralphie — didn’t miss a beat, made a joke about it, and then added, “Oops. Just
noticed he has a pencil and a big white press kit.” Big laugh, as Walker apologized and told the critic it
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was okay to read…and write.
I grabbed Walker and congratulated him on yet another superb production. What inspires this incredibly
creative man? “Well, in this instance it was the blending of the two source materials. When we came up
with the title, I thought I just can’t wait to do that. I think we bit off a bit more than we realized because
the score is so complicated and the movement is complicated.” Speaking of the score, kudos to the gifted
four-piece band led by Eric Heinly, who makes it sound like an entire orchestra.
Walker explained the reason the Troubie material is unpublished. “A lot of it has to do with licensing the
music. Because we feel copyright-protected through the Fair Use Act, we’re able to appropriate the
material as long as it’s a parody or satire. That may not translate if different groups do it. If you take the
show at face value without the undercurrent of satire, you can get into a gray area. But, I think
eventually we’ll cross those bridges and find artists willing to license their material so we can produce
shows like Mamma Mia! and the Billy Joel musical (Movin’ Out), because that seems to be the
landscape now and we’ve been doing it for 15 years.”
Walker added, “the Falcon has been so generous. Garry and Kathleen make us feel really welcome and
at home. The staff is always top-notch and really cares about the product. We won the best season
[Ovation] award two out of the last three years and I tell everyone — for instance Joe, who runs the front
house and box office, ‘Congratulations,’ and they ask for what? And, I say for the best season award.
They say, ‘Oh, I don’t really do anything’. But that’s not true. I tell them it takes a village. And, that’s
what’s great about being with the Falcon.”
CHAT CITE: “There’s a place for us, somewhere a place for us. Peace and quiet and open air wait for us
somewhere.” –Stephen Sondheim/West Side Story
***All photos by Chelsea Sutton
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Connie Chats on
Opening Night:
A Christmas Westside
Story
Page 3
Page 2
Page 4
The Elephant Goes
Retro with Tennessee
LA STAGE INSIDER
LA STAGE INSIDER Williams’
Baby Doll
Mason Peels the Hidden
Histories of Onion Creek Producing and
Donate Your Theater
Videographing the
A Triangle Within
Programs to the LA
Ovations Ceremony
The Animal Within
An Ex-Catholic Iraqi
Public Library
Immigrant Recalls
Rarely Produced Short LA STAGE INSIDER
Coming Out in
An Atomic Holiday
Eyes Invites Danger
Blood Fruit
Circus at the Actors’
and Innovation
Mining Gay Pulp
Gang
Novels for Posing
Have Yourself a
Aunt
and
Godmother
Strap Pirates
Theatrical Little
The Wonderettes Winter Christmas
Tales in Woodard’s
in Long Beach
Night Watcher
David Dean Bottrell
— The Power Of
Short Eyes. And Two
LA STAGE INSIDER
Sibling Stories in
“Yes”
Comedies About Being
Prison
is
Where
I
Jewish in America.
Mistresses and Masters
Learned to Fly
For Robin Givens,
of the House
The Sky’s The Limit
Bates Wears
2011
Ovations:
We
Rose-Colored Glasses
Troubie Talk — Walker
Laughed, We Cried,
Going Underground
and Kennedy on
We
Complained
in the Middle East’s
LA STAGE INSIDER
Christmas Eve
Holy Ground
Surf’s Up for Santaland Pat Kinevane
Beulah Baptiste’s Brief Diaries
Remembers the Irish Bring It On: The
Baptism on the
Forgotten
Musical Crosses the
Boards…Bombs
Line
CTG’s LA Grade Rises to
A Troubie Triumph at
C+ with A+ Night
Shinsai Event to Benefit Watcher, Pasadena
the Ovation Awards
From Belfast to
Japanese Theater
Kampala to LA With
Playhouse Bounces Back
Community
Connie Chats on
Daddy O’Callaghan
with Blues
Opening Night: Bring
The Understudy and the A Playground at the
it On: The Musical
Anna Gunn Plays
Deep Blue Sea
Alan Alda’s Marie
School of Hard Knocks
Mother Nature Won’t Curie at the Geffen
Journalists At Risk
Be Fooled in Sherry
Elektra Meets the Boss
Examined by Global
Glaser’s
Esther’s Moustache
Theatre Project
Second Coming
Writer/Director
Artists at Play Push
Debates Herself
Buttons With Ching
Twelfth Night — If
Mancuso
Is
Interim
Chong
21st-Century Updates Be
Producing Director at The Cates Years at
the Food of Liberation,
Geffen
the Geffen — A Hard
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Connie Chats on Opening Night: A Christmas Westside Story | LA

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