From: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org (believers-digest) To: believers-digest@smoe.org Subject: believers-digest V11 #125 Reply-To: believers@smoe.org Sender: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk believers-digest Tuesday, September 9 2008 Volume 11 : Number 125 In Today's believer's digest: ----------------- Another Review of "My Strange Nation" ["Kellie Lin Knott" ] Re: Susan's Take on Palo Alto ["Ron Rosen" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2008 11:33:45 -0400 From: "Kellie Lin Knott" Subject: Another Review of "My Strange Nation" http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/story.php?story_id=9300 A noteworthy premiere Theatre Q opens smart, feisty Susan Werner revue by Kevin Kirby Share: ADVERTISEMENT [image: My Director's Cut] It's been a good year for theatre Q, with the company taking up residence at the Dragon Theatre in Palo Alto and producing a cluster of noteworthy shows. Now, artistic director Dale Albright is closing out the company's fourth season by taking a calculated risk. That risk is "My Strange Nation: The Music of Susan Werner," a musical revue that Albright has fashioned from the discography of a genre-bending singer-songwriter who  despite the left-leaning politics that inform many of her lyrics  has a stronger following in her native Philadelphia than here in the Bay Area. While individual songs by Werner have been covered by other artists, this show marks the first time her music has been singled out for this sort of theatrical production. It's also the first time theatre Q has ventured into musical waters. It's important to note that "My Strange Nation" is not actually a musical  not even the kind of musical you get by stitching a bunch of ABBA tunes together with a far-fetched plot. Nor is it  and this might surprise those who have pigeonholed theatre Q as an "LGBT issues" theater  an evening of strident lesbian anthems. It is a collection of roughly 20 songs by an artist with a nice ear for melody, a feisty sense of humor and a humanist philosophy wherein the skeptic's mind has made peace with the heart of the believer. Performed *con brio* by five talented singers and actresses, it is also an enjoyable evening of toe-tapping entertainment. The show's opening number is its most overtly political. It is Werner's open-eyed paean to "my strange nation, America," where our leaders are as "straight and white as our teeth." Touching on everything from slavery to the allegations of a stolen presidential election in 2000, it is nonetheless a funny and hopeful song. We come to realize, as the evening goes on, that this optimism in the face of a disappointing reality is a typically Wernerian approach. Many of the songs in "My Strange Nation" have a reassuring gospel blues feel about them, and many ponder questions of a religious nature. Werner may not be among The Faithful but she is far from lacking faith. She aims her barbs not at religion in general but at religious intolerance, at those "who have loaded their Bibles / And armed their disciples" and "are calling for war." "Lord..." she asks in another song, "deliver us from those who think they're You." As for the love songs  and there are plenty here  those that Albright has chosen run the gamut from serene to world-weary to hilariously desperate. There is very little, even in the love songs, to suggest any particular sexual orientation. Instead, there is a universality in all Werner's themes and scenarios, even when the staging provides an overt lesbian interpretation. At two points during the evening, Albright pipes in recorded anti-gay diatribes by the Reverend Fred Phelps and other arch-Fundamentalists, letting their ideas of love, religion and America stand in sharp counterpoint to Werner's. The point makes itself, and Albright does not belabor it in any way. Apart from the handful of political moments and one or two poignant love songs, he directs the bulk of the evening's songs for laughs. This is good, since most were clearly written for laughs. He has also cast the show with this in mind. All five of the singers have strong voices, and the too-infrequent moments when they harmonize are truly lovely. Beyond their vocal chops, though, at least three of the women have excellent comic skills, and it is those skills that keep the evening moving along. Connie Nelson is the world's most delightful agnostic in "Probably Not," a droll musical version of Pascal's Wager. ("But what if I've been wrong / And God's been up there all along / And he hands me a heavenly crown / Would I dare to turn it down? / Probably not. / Probably not.") Jenny Debevec milks the angst of "Maybe If I Sang Cole Porter" for all it's worth, vamping it up for someone whose attention she just can't seem to capture. ("Maybe if I spoke some football / Maybe if I waxed my car / Maybe if I chewed tobacco: / Believe me, I would go that far.") The funniest performance of the evening, though, comes from Diahanna Davidson as a sleazy male lounge singer who is Misery personified. ("Misery / Woos you when his show is over, / Buys you drinks and keeps you laughing / While he's looking down your shirt.") It's harder to assess the acting skills of the other two women, Halili Knox and Jennifer Knisbell, since their solo numbers don't allow them the same sort of breadth. The singers are accompanied by Todd Troutman on dual keyboards. There are times when it would be nice to have a fuller sound backing them up, and a few points at which the piano seems a bit labored, but it's an acceptable solution for a musical revue performed in a tiny space. The set is simple: a platform, two sets of stairs, and a few other objects that come and go (an easel, a pulpit, a big jigsaw map of the U.S. that's more bother than it's worth). Much like the lone pianist, it's a minimal solution that gets the job done. "My Strange Nation" is a funny, well-assembled, sometimes touching look at Susan Werner's songbook. Given that Werner is hardly a household name, it will be interesting to see if the show finds an audience. The performances and the material deserve it. *What: "My Strange Nation: The Music of Susan Werner," a theatre Q musical revue* * * * **Where: Dragon Theatre, 535 Alma St., Palo Alto* * * * **When: Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., through Sept. 7 * * * * **Cost: Tickets are $25 general admission; $20 for seniors, youth and groups of 10+.* * * * **Info: Go to www.theatreq.org or call 415-433-1235.* HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs http://worldcafecds.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:30:43 +0000 From: capitoltee@comcast.net Subject: Susan's Take on Palo Alto Hey, does anybody know if Susan has attended the Palo Alto review? Anybody know what her reaction/opinion is of what they've done with her material? I'm really intrigued by the 'I Like That You're Pretty' number - has anybody heard that song? Has anybody on the list made it to the show? I sent the info to a friend of mine in Sacramento, but he wasn't able to fit it in. Okay, too many questions. Sounds like great fun. Wish I didn't have to wait till November to see SW again. Suzie T. in Michigan HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs http://worldcafecds.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2008 19:12:18 -0400 From: "Tracy J. Wells" Subject: Re: Susan's Take on Palo Alto I asked Susan about this after I saw her in Colorado in August at the Song School and Rocky Mountain Folks Fest - was wondering how involved she was in the production and all or if they just took her songs and ran with them... she said that she was only minimally involved in the show's production, but that she did provide them a few pieces that have never been recorded before, like the "I Like That You're Pretty" song (I have no idea what that one sounds like). She apparently went out there after it opened and saw the show and gave them some feedback on it (suggesting different arrangements, etc, on a few things) but didn't know if they were going to change anything about it or not. She said it was "a real thrill to see." That's as much as I know! And I don't know anyone who's actually seen it... (well, besides Susie herself, of course)... Tracy in Atlanta On Sep 8, 2008, at 12:30 PM, capitoltee@comcast.net wrote: > Hey, does anybody know if Susan has attended the Palo Alto review? > Anybody know what her reaction/opinion is of what they've done with > her material? I'm really intrigued by the 'I Like That You're > Pretty' number - has anybody heard that song? > > Has anybody on the list made it to the show? I sent the info to a > friend of mine in Sacramento, but he wasn't able to fit it in. > > Okay, too many questions. Sounds like great fun. Wish I didn't > have to wait till November to see SW again. > > Suzie T. in Michigan > > HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org > Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs > http://worldcafecds.com HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs http://worldcafecds.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2008 16:20:59 -0700 From: "Ron Rosen" Subject: Re: Susan's Take on Palo Alto I assume that the people who put this show together were already known to her as fans? HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs http://worldcafecds.com ------------------------------ End of believers-digest V11 #125 ******************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------- This has been a posting from the Susan Werner believers-digest To unsubscribe send mail to Majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe believers-digest" in the body of the message