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Last night, we had theatre tickets at the KIrk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. The Kirk Douglas is the old Culver Theatre (where I used to regularly attended horror movies in college with my GF of the time), across from the Culver City City Hall, where we park. As we drove up, we were confronted with a gigantic peaceful protest of the Orange One Who Has A Stick Up His Ass About Biden.

Speaking about things up your ass.

I then learned while we were having dinner about Stephen Colbert. CBS claims it was a financial decision. Sure, when you pay 16 million to the Orange One, you have to find the money somewhere. How much does Colbert cost to produce? I’ve heard 15 million. Here’s hoping the Colbert lands on a streamer/network with guts. Kimmel is also retiring; there’s an opening at ABC, but there’s also Amazon or Netflix. (HBO is out, as they have Oliver; NBC has Fallon; and Fox has no sense of humor). Clearly, Paramount has a stick up their ass. Oh, and Trump is celebrating.

Speaking about things up your ass.

The reason we were in Culver City was to see Puppet Up, an improv comedy piece, with puppets, from the son of Jim Henson. Essentially, it is their training ground for Muppet magicians. Anyone can be a puppeteer, but this is the training ground for making the puppets come to life. As Brian Henson explained it,

I was bemoaning the fact that we would train 20 puppeteers and maybe two had the ability to ad-lib. And Mia Sara, who I was dating, said “You know, you can train that. It’s called improv comedy.” She took me to a Groundlings show, and I said “Wow, they’re really good ad-libbers.”

Mia introduced me to Patrick Bristow, who is a world-renowned improviser and trainer of improv, and we started talking about how to get our puppeteers to improv. At first, he didn’t know if it was going to work because improvisors have to watch each other’s eyes all the time to try and read each other’s minds. In the Henson Company, it’s all about the camera. We watch a monitor to see what the puppets are doing. We’d never look at each other.

We started doing these workshops and what we discovered is that it worked really well. The puppeteers could watch the monitor and read each other’s minds like in improv.

Puppet Up is what that improv morphed into, over time. There is a host who will solicit ideas and terms from the audience, and these are fit into broad pieces that are improved (for example, the trailer for a movie, or a dating game). If anything, it reminded me very much of Freestyle Love Supreme, which was an improvised hip-hop show from the brain of Lin Manual Miranda. As it is based on improv, the show essentially changes every performance, modulo some pieces (at our show, Business Business and Glowworm) that seem to be regular pieces.

Memorable pieces from our show included the dating show with a trump-loving conservative tour guide, a vegan, and a man who liked eating pet food; the audience participation bit with a concert pianist; the James Bond movie with Pussywillow; the deli on the edge of the Grand Canyon, and … well, you get the idea.

Oh, and yes, there are naked puppets.

With the increasingly bad news coming from the Trump administration, and the news about Colbert, this was just the humor that we needed. Much of the run is already sold out, but if you can find a seat, Puppet Up continues at the Kirk Douglas until July 26. Tickets and more information are available here. Puppet Up also has a website where you can sign up for their mailing list. The show was hilarious.

Cast and Crew

Puppet Up! Uncensored. Created by Brian Henson and Patrick Bristow. Directed by Patrick Bristow.

Cast (note: the cast changes every night; see this page for the current list) at our performance: Patrick Bristow Host; Bill Barretta; Grant Baciocco; Peggy Etra; Dan Garza; Brian Hensen; Ted Michaels; Kathryn Chinn Molloy; Stoph Scheer; and the Miskreant Puppets. Other performers in the rotation: Raymond Carr; Brian Clark; Ithamar Enriquez Host; Sarah Oh; Michael Oosterom; Ben Schrader; Colleen Smith; John Tartaglia; and Allan Trautman.

Production and Creative: Willie Etra Music Director; Dan Kelly Audio Supervisor; Jenna Pletcher Lighting Designer; Bishop Rhone Video Supervisor; Kate Russell Video Supervisor; Kathryn Molloy Puppet Wrangler; Rachel Burson Puppet Wrangler; Jordyn Pritsker Company Manager; Cameron Zetty Production Manager; Tim Moore Technical Director; Joe Witt Associate Producer; Brian Henson Producer; WestBeth Entertainment Producer;

Thoughts on One CTG

The Center Theatre Groups likes to promote their subscription as “One CTG”, but that’s not how the treat it internally, and that creates problems. Internally, they treat the single subscription as an Ahmanson Subscription and a Taper Subscription.

This is significant because they don’t coordinate the two, and because of the size difference between the venues, the subscriptions have different weeks. In our case, we seem to have the first Saturday of Ahmanson shows, and the last Saturday of Taper shows. This isn’t a problem if they stagger the shows right, but in the upcoming 2025-2026 season, there are two conflicts. For two of the dates, our Taper shows and our Ahmanson shows are at the same time.

If this were truly One CTG, then CTG would resolve the differences. But this being really Two CTGs, we’re on our own. The first day you can exchange tickets, its up to you to resolve things with whatever seats are available to exchange.

ETA: Oh, and it turns out that the first day you can exchange tickets … you can’t, if you are on a payment plan. They don’t bother to tell you this. I had to find out when I tried to do the exchange at the box office at Puppet Up (because I couldn’t figure out how to do things online).

CTG, this is poor form. If you want to want to be the best in customer service, you will work to resolve this. Broadway in Hollywood did, ensuring that Dolby Shows and Pantages Shows didn’t leave subscribers with conflicts. You can do better.

More importantly, if you want people to subscribe, you need to reduce the friction. CTG: Although you are great on parking and accessibility, this ticketing situation is poor customer experience. Subscribers should be easily able to find out their shows, and know that the shows as they come from the box office have no conflicts on dates. As for 5-Star Theatricals, where we’re going Saturday: Parking there — in an empty garage — has gone up to $16, and security is more draconian than going through TSA. This is a large amount of friction — so much that we’re thinking of dropping the 5-Star Subscription after this season and looking into the Rubicon in Ventura.

Don’t bemoan the fact you are losing subscribers, when you are actively making theatre uncomfortable for the subscribers.

Administrivia

I am not a professional critic. I’m a cybersecurity professional, a roadgeek who does a highway site and a podcast about California Highways, and someone who loves live performance. I buy all my own tickets, unless explicitly noted otherwise. I do these writeups to share my thoughts on shows with my friends and the community. I encourage you to go to your local theatres and support them (ideally, by purchasing full price tickets, if you can afford to do so). We currently subscribe or have memberships at: Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre; Broadway in Hollywood/Pantages Theatre; Pasadena Playhouse; The Soraya, and 5-Star Theatricals. We’re looking for the right intimate theatre to subscribe at — it hasn’t been the same since Rep East died (it’s now The Main, and although it does a lot of theatre, it doesn’t have seasons or a resident company), and post-COVID, most 99-seaters aren’t back to doing seasons (or seasons we like). I used to do more detailed writeups; here’s my current approach.

Upcoming ♦ Theatre / ♣ Music / ◊ Other Live Performance – Next 90ish Days (⊕ indicates ticketing is pending).

July: ♦ Frozen at 5-Star Theatricals
August: ♦ Some Like It Hot at BIH/Pantages; ♦ & Juliet at CTG/Ahmanson
September: ♦ Shucked at BIH/Pantages; ♦ Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish at The Soraya; ♦ Eureka Day at Pasadena Playhouse
October: ♣ Fly Me to the Moon at The Soraya; ♦ Hairspray at 5-Star Theatricals

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as Improv With a Hand Up Your Ass | "Puppet Up" @ CTG/Kirk Douglas by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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cahwyguy

A Beautiful Noise - BIH/Pantages Fan Service.

It’s an interesting thing. The term tends to refer to some entertainment property whose reason for existence is to make fans of the artist or IP in question happy. IP properties, such as the new Superman movie or the recent Harry Potter play are good examples of fan service. Jukebox musicals are also often fan service: they serve the fans of the artist in question; rarely are they notable for their plot. To put it another way: No one goes to see Mamma Mia to see a story about a girl looking to determine the identity of her father. They go to hear ABBA music wrapped in a simple story.

Sometimes, the fan service works well. Mamma Mia is a clear example of that. Sometimes it fails miserably, such as Girl from the North Country, which didn’t provide an entertaining story or serve the Dylan’s music well. Sometimes there is too much fan, and not enough service, such as the recent Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which served fans well but left non-fans confused.

Last night, we saw A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical at the Pantages. It did fan service right. It took the Neil Diamond catalog, and delivered the hits that the audience expected. It used an interesting conceit: Having the older Diamond talking to a shrink, using his songs and their lyrics to illustrate his story. It had an engaging actor playing the younger Diamond who could actually plausibly cover Diamond — his sound and mannerisms. Lastly, the story had the smack of plausibility, as (in real life) Diamond has been felled by Parkinsons Disease (like Linda Ronstadt), and thus has had to withdraw from performing and touring.

So, the plot, such as it is, really isn’t much more than Diamond’s story. We learn about his three marriages (although not that much on the last). We learn about his transition from a songwriter for others (think “I’m a Believer” for the Monkees) to being a major singer-songwriter. We learn about his disastrous contract with Bang! Records, which was a front for the mob (and, yes, I do have his “Do It!” album that he did for Bang! as one of the 19 Diamond albums I have). We learn about his extensive and exhausting concert and tour schedule during the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. We learn about his isolation and his demons and the clouds and the blues, and we learn how work became the refuge from the blues. We don’t learn anything about Jonathan Livingston Seagull, which everyone has forgotten about. For good reason.

We learn about this in a setting that focuses on the performance, not the flash. There are no real projects. No major set pieces. Some chairs, some tables, some risers. Some abstract background. The basic staging is something that could likely be replicated in a reasonable regional production, so don’t be surprised if this piece has a long licensing life, much like Beautiful or Jersey Boys.

The show also understand the Diamond audience well. Diamond’s songs are so well known that they encourage singing along, and there are points where the cast just gives into that. In songs like “Sweet Caroline”, “Brother Love”, and others, the cast turns to the audience to participate because, well, the audience has been trained on these songs to do so. They don’t overdo it, but in those moments where they know the audience would want to, they give in. C’mon, you can’t listen to Sweet Caroline without singing.

What makes this production stand far and above many others is the casting. The North American Tour is lucky to have Nick Fradiani as the younger Neil. Fradiani, an American Idol winner, captures the gravelly voice and charisma that made Diamond a star. He is entertaining and delight to watch, and has such a great voice that after the show, I went and downloaded his most recent individual album. It is rare to find a stage artist, let alone a touring artist, that makes one want to buy their album. He was, as Diamond might say, “so good.”

But Robert Westenberg as the old Diamond was no slouch either. He really doesn’t sing (except in the last song), but he captures the characterization of the older Diamond well. If you watch him closely, you can see the Parkinson hesitation and tremors, and you can see someone who wants to be back on stage, back touring … but can’t. We saw the older Diamond back at the Hollywood Bowl in 2015, and I wrote: “The music was everything you would expect from Neil. The set list is below. Where something was slightly lacking was in Neil’s dialogue with the audience; at least in the beginning. He started out low energy, he seemed confused and perhaps befuddled. During “Red Red Wine” he walked out the walkway to the audience, and then wondered how he got out there and how to get back. Although it was funny, it was also a reminder that the artists of our youth are aging; they are senior citizens and may not be around for much longer.” Westenberg captured this older and aging Diamond well. In fact, during the portion of the musical where Diamond talked about his upbringing in Brooklyn, my mind flashed back to the similar segment in the 2015 concert.

The central character was Diamond. There were some other primary characters — the doctor, his wives, Ellie Greenwich from the Brill Building, the folks from the Bitter End and Bang! records — but they were clearly supporting. There was also a group of nameless backup singers and the broader chorus, which the program called “A Beautiful Noise”. Notable among these for their joy and enthusiasm were Ginger Hurley, Deirdre Dunkin, and Thabitha Moruthane. Hannah Jewel Kohn did a great job as Marcia Murphey, Diamond’s second wife.

This show was clearly designed to preserve Diamond’s legacy, and to play to the older theatre-going audience that grew up with Diamond’s music in the 1960s-1990s. Do the kids of today know Diamond’s music, other than what they hear on Senior, excuse me, Classic Rock stations? Is it to them what Sinatra’s music was to children of the 1980s? It’s hard to say. I think Diamond’s music is timeless, but I’m of Diamond’s generation. Its hard to face the fact that the music of your generation is not the music of the kids, but you can take comfort in the fact that one day it will be rediscovered, just as Big Band and Swing has been rediscovered. But there are memes going around showing these cute-young-things™ at the beach in their bikinis rocking to the radio, and pointing out that they are the grandmothers of today. It’s sad to admit that the music of Neil Diamond, Carole Kink, The Beatles, and even groups like the Rolling Stones and the Who are the music of the grandparents. As for the kids, the music they listen too today is just noise (or hip-hop or rap, which is sometimes close enough). Actually, that’s being disingenuous and stereotypical, because I don’t really know what the kids are listening too these days. The current pop artists I know, such as Taylor Swift, aren’t bad. Oh, and get off my lawn.

Will A Beautiful Noise have the staying power to preserve Diamond’s music for a new generation? It’s hard to say. There are shows like Grease that have preserve the 1950s sounds almost 70 years later. But many shows have failed to have that long life. So: If you grew up with Diamond’s music, and you want to learn more about the man while seeing some really spectacular performance that evoke his style and voice well, go see this show.

There is one “alas”, however. This show has succumbed to the current trend of the confetti/streamer cannon, both on-stage and into the audience. Every show I’ve seen of late seems to want to punctuate the show at the end by shooting stuff into the audience, creating a mess for the theatre folks to clean up afterwards. I blame Spamalot, which I claim started the trend. It needs to end. We have far too much mylar confetti littering the joint. I’ll say it again, “get off my yard“.

A Beautiful Noise continues at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre through July 27, 2025. You can learn more about the show and order tickets through the Pantages page.