Live stage show a little sketchy
Results were sketchy at “CenterStage Live” last Saturday night – as you might expect from a sketch-comedy-variety show. Hey, even “Saturday Night Live” is hit-and-miss.
Yet, based on my visit, the show has plenty of good moments. The real appeal is its local nature, with many references to Spokane’s various mayors and marmots.
It was written locally by head writer Reed McColm along with Tim Behrens, Leslie Ann Grove and Janean Jorgensen. They are all performers in the show as well, along with the talented Darin Jones.
Some of the best stuff came in the “Spokane Report,” a parody of a local news broadcast, complete with a weathercaster who tries to whip up panic over “white death” – i.e., snow.
The show also includes a mock trial in which ex-mayor Jim West tries to sue the devil for breach of contract (apparently, this particular “deal with the devil” did not turn out as promised).
Some numbers landed with a thud. Behrens did three poetry interludes, which were about two too many. The magician segments were less than magical. The musical numbers tended to have less energy than they should.
Yet there is one wonderful bit in which McColm does a “signing-for-the-deaf” version of “Breaking Up is Hard to Do,” in which his hand gestures become increasingly hysterical.
This is the kind of show that should work better as time goes on and the cast finds out what works and what doesn’t.
“CenterStage Live” is taking St. Patrick’s weekend off, but will return March 24, 25, 31 and April 1 (and maybe longer).
CenterStage is at 1017 W. First Ave. Tickets are $39 with dinner, $19 show only, available by calling 747-8243.
Darren McGavin info
We heard from many readers who had information to share about actor Darren McGavin, who was born in Spokane and died on Feb. 25.
Several skilled genealogy sleuths found evidence of his parents living at various Spokane addresses – sometimes together, sometimes apart – through about 1924, two years after he was born.
Then he shows up under his real name, William L. Richardson, in Pierce County in 1930.
We also heard from some Spokane residents who went to high school with him in Puyallup, near Tacoma. Betty Stack said she was in an operetta with him in high school and he was “a lot of fun, really polite and wore nicer clothes” – nicer, that is, than the other boys at his boy’s home.
He already possessed the talent that would take him to Hollywood. Stack said that during rehearsals the teacher turned to him and said, “Richardson, you are a natural.”
Fanny Brice at the Fox
The Fox Theater, now undergoing renovations, is approaching an important anniversary: Its first live road show was on March 17, 1932.
The Fox had been open since the previous September, but was used mainly as a movie palace. So you can imagine the excitement when a “special train” showed up in town that week carrying nearly 100 cast and crew members of Billy Rose’s “Crazy Quilt.”
One of the stars was Fanny Brice, later immortalized by Barbra Streisand in “Funny Girl.”
The show drew 4,000 people to two performances, and The Spokesman-Review announced the next day, “Big Revue Goes Over Big With Audiences” – but then was forced to add, “SOME OF IT IS SMUTTY.”
The reviewer blamed comedian Ted Healy (who created the original Three Stooges act) for most of the low humor, which involved attempts to wrestle with a bear and ride a mule.
“All of it was smutty and some of it messy,” the reviewer wrote.
Some of it was apparently not smutty enough for the reviewer’s taste.
“The young ladies squirmed and wiggled in a syncopated accompaniment that was cooch technique (apparently a variation on hoochie-coochie) without the label,” wrote the reviewer.
“A novel effect was introduced in the black patent leather belts over undraped abdomens. With this one exception, there was little feminine epidermis on display. The 18 girls were frequently on stage and in motion, but they were overdressed in most scenes.”
But the reviewer said Brice “emptied the bag of most of her songs,” including “My Man” and “Rose of Washington Square.” He allowed that she was “inclined to clowning and slapstick comedy.”
“The show probably shocked the old town a little … but it was a good spring tonic as such,” he concluded.