Friday May 4, 2007
'Quixote' is Timely Musical Theater with a Message
By Anne Marie Mills
For The Signal
A teen is bullied and teased. A teen who feels like an outcast. A teen with no social click with which to hang. A loner. Different. Isolated.
The subject of teen angst - taken to the extreme - has rocked the country with the recent outbursts of violence such social outsiders have inflicted
upon their peers. To understand the madness you have to understand the incubator where such madness is crafted. High schools across the country
need to look inside for answers.
"Quixote" authors Flip Kobler and Cindy Marcus have taken up the lance of modern high school reality and skewered it with a cast of characters
taken straight off the campus of any high school - including the Santa Clarita Valley. The smart and witty script takes a serious look at teen angst
- with enough comedy to keep the show from drowning in heavy drama.
In "Quixote" the Cervantes masterpiece "Don Quixote De La Mancha," about a man who retreats into fantasy to become a chivalrous knight
errant, gets an extreme makeover with music, comedy - and a touch of pathos.
High schools across the country should want to perform "Quixote" as a first step in looking at their own cultures and opening a dialogue among
their teens.
Teens and young adults from the SCV are among the cast of "Quixote" now in performance at The Hub Theater in the NoHo Arts District of North
Hollywood.
Despite the tiny theater, (with less than optimal acoustics) this is a full musical production with 10 songs and a cast of 26 - mostly teens and young
adults from the SCV.
Dennis Poore's brilliant musical score spans the Latin rhythm gamut from salsa to mariachi - and beyond.
Ian Gilmore plays the role of "Alonzo" - the high school loner who dreams of a better time, when one individual could change the course of
tomorrow and when Knights upheld justice, chivalry and all things good. Gilmore - who has appeared on the CBS hit "CSI," and "Drake and Josh"
on Nickelodeon is very charming as the misunderstood kid who becomes "Don Quixote."
Armed with a wooden sword, a street sign lance and his old Schwinn bike, he sets out to protect the meek and save the distressed damsels.
His "Dulcinea" - Annie Horak as "Donna" - is another high school outsider. Horak has a "softness wrapped in steel" persona that works well in
the role as the confused object of "Don Quixote's" attentions.
Rachel Glenn as "Sancho" is silly sweetness as Quixote's squire. Playing along with Alonzo's madness, "Sancho" is the perfect comedic foil for
Quixote's serious nature.
The rest of the talented cast portrays one group or another of high school stereotypes.
There are Goths, "skanks," ASB politicians, gearheads, popular girls, gamers and ROTC kids.
Appearing as "The Popular/Smart Kids" are Amie Marie, Nicholas Grimes, Joshua Albrecht, Rachael Odle and Andy Gobienko. True politicians,
this group is as ego-driven as you might imagine.
"The Spice Girls" - Anissa Davis as the evil Mallory (or is she merely misunderstood?), Virginia Pinkers as Sugar, Jessica Odle as Saffron, Brooke
Bovie as Sage and Kristi Lauren as Sinnamon - are dead-on with their "popular girl" conformity.
The Putt-Putt Gang - Beatriz Reyes, Bridget Peterson, Cameron Shim, Matthew Graham and Finn Kobler - ratchet up the laughs as employees of
the failing local miniature golf emporium. The course's windmill attracts "Don Quixote" into battle - with amusing and predictable results.
The ROTC crew, Ian Shin, Matthew Graham and Rachael O'Rourke, seem a little callous for serious military wanna-bes - but, kids will be kids.
Michelle Muldoon, Amanda McWorter and Isabella Oliveira are tremendous fun as "The Skanks" who try to woo the gallant "Don Quixote" from
his quest.
The Gearheads - Cassie Buttelman as Velocity, James Kozeluh as Thrush and Entony Olkovsky as Turbo - offer up hilarious comic relief as they
snatch a prized hubcap and debate the various attributes of an '81 Chevy - or is it a Ford?
Beyond the fun and music that makes you want to stand up and dance - there are the serious subjects of pressure to fit, the fragile line of
popularity, the thin grasp we all have on sanity. In the modern world inundated with the din of competing media - it seems impossible that one lone
voice can make the world a better place.
But this is the kind of musical that makes you leave the theater humming - AND thinking.
"Quixote" plays two more weekends at The Hub Theater, 5245 Lankershim Blvd., NoHo (across the street from the Television Academy of Arts and
Sciences.) Tickets are $10 each. Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. , Friday, May 4; 2 p.m. Saturday, May 5; 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 11 and 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Saturday, May 12. For information visit www.showdownstageco.com. Reservations: (661) 799-0758.
Copyright:The Signal