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Showing posts with the label theatre

Lyman, Whitford, Reality Check: A Career in the West Wing?

On a chilly Sunday night in February two young girls in jeans and light blouses were standing in front of the artists' entrance of one of two local art theaters in Pasadena, California. The pathway beyond the barrier, an iron gate, was barely lit. It stayed empty for a long time while the girls, shifting weight from one foot to the other, chatted and giggled. After a while a figure emerged from the shadows. The girls fell silent but it was the wrong actor. When the right man, Bradley Whitford, finally appeared he was wearing a bicycle helmet pushed way up on his forehead. Whitford is best known for playing Josh Lyman in the TV series  The West Wing   but on that night he had performed in the Pasadena Playhouse's production of Yasmina Reza’s   Art.  The girls stopped the actor, told him about their social studies class and how the teacher would have them watch The West Wing.  Whitford smiled, asked, "Which school is it?" and autographed the two print...

San Diego: Where California Feels Preppiest

San Diego stuns me. The light is clear, everything looks clean, and people are so laid back and friendly that a stay there often has me wondering whether I might be dreaming. If California's three major cities, San Diego, San Francisco, and L.A., were siblings San Diego would be the one to enjoy golf and to succeed in prep school. That's not a bad thing. It's just that, on a day to day basis, I prefer L.A.'s more pluralistic feel. That said, I do love to go to San Diego for a weekend or so. We have wonderful friends there and we also like to visit the La Jolla Playhouse which ranks as one of the top live theatres in the west and functions as a feeder for Broadway. Thoroughly Modern Millie, Jersey Boys, Memphis... These shows started out at the Playhouse, went on to New York, and won Tony awards. Last Sunday we had tickets to Little Miss Sunshine, a musical based on the 2006 road movie. Will this one make it east too? I'd be surprised. The production was cut...