Musical Focus on the Fringe - Part Three

Our Focus on the Fringe preview of the Hollywood Fringe Festival continues with a spotlight on more shows below. Check them out and get ready to Fringe-ify your June!

Carpe Noctem
June 10, 15 & 20, 2012

Cabaret Versatile’s CARPE NOCTEM (“Seize the Night”) is set to premiere at the Underground Theatre as part of the 2012 Hollywood Fringe Festival. In an intimate evening of authentic French Cabaret, the personalities of five Parisian Cabaret dancers unfold to the sensual music of Max Raabe, Juliette Greco, Enoch Light and more. Starring Mademoiselles Blasé, Clumsy, Klepto, Blue Eyes and Nympho (aka Alyssa Furhman, Annie Gaia, Charlotte Henry, Julianne Kusmierczyk and Lola OhLaLa) and Mr Beto Ruiz.

Dancer/Choreographer Lola OhLaLa trained in classical and modern dance at St Vincent School, Orleans and in dramatic arts at the Conservatoire National d’Art Dramatique d’Orleans. Over the last ten years she has danced and choreographed shows in France for Cabaret Parad’isiaque, Cabaret Stefano Forever and Cabaret Le Royal Music Hall Palace in Bourges, Paris, Saran and St Tropez. CARPE NOCTEM is the first show she has written for the Los Angeles public.

Tickets $10. Underground Theatre 1314 North Wilton Place, Hollywood, CA 90028. Click Here for tickets.

GENETIC EDDY
June 15, 2012

On June 15th, audiences will get a look at GENETIC EDDY in its first staged reading at the Fringe. The contemporary rock musical is about a small town, an American family, and the fall and rebirth of the automobile industry. In it, a teenaged rocker confronts his feelings of rebellion and loyalty in the face of parental opposition while following his dream. Throw in some quirky science and other comical elements and you have a quirky tale in the vein of Little Shop of Horrors, Grease and Urinetown.

John and Mary Amorosia came up with the story and the original script outline with John also writing music and lyrics. He is an accomplished pianist, studio musician, vocal director and composer who has played and recorded in a wide variety of venues, from Carnegie Recital Hall to CBGB's. John is Past Faculty with the California Conservatory of the Arts and currently at OCHSA. Mary Amorosia is Divisional Head Emeritus of Individual Voice at AMDA in Los Angeles and on the Faculty of OCHSA, Guest Faculty at UCLA, Past Faculty at the California Conservatory of the Arts, and a Private Vocal Instructor and Coach.

Joining them for additional work on the book is James Bontempo. James made his Broadway debut in the Goodspeed Opera House production of Going Up before moving onto productions such as West Side Story with Patrick Swayze and eventually a two year run in A Chorus Line for Michael Bennett. Tickets are $5. Complex Theatres, 6476 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, CA. Click Here for tickets.

ON THE RAG TO RICHES
June 15, 22 & 23, 2012

For Janey, every relationship seems to end before it begins. Was it her first kiss, or was it the book her Mom made her read explaining how her body works? Or maybe there is no time for a relationship with the impending zombie apocalypse. She may never know. Katie Molinaro and Shawn Northrip team up with an all Grrl rock band that will properly melt your face.

Here’s how the show came about. Katie had been working professionally in Washington DC for the past six years and was getting cast as the ingénue in a lot of plays (mostly Shakespeare). Even though she was working, she felt that she wasn’t getting to show everything she could do.

She says, “One day, my boyfriend at the time said something that really sparked a fire in me, which was ‘I'm surprised there are so many great female actors in DC. I've always thought generally men are better actors than women.’ Aww, so cute. He was being a jerk without even realizing that I would retaliate and write a show about it.”

So she wrote a kickass script showcasing what she says she does best…be weird. Then she asked her good friend, Shawn Northrip, to write the music and lyrics. “I fell in love with Shawn's work when I performed in his show, Lunch: The Musical back in 2006. I wanted some grrrl punk Broadway rock mixed with Tenacious D flair and boy, did Shawn deliver! We were in the same room writing together for a week and I was like, ‘let's do this show next year’ and Shawn was like, ‘no, let's do it in July!’”

Ellen Dostal is based in Los Angeles and currently writes a musical theatre blog called Musicals in LA http://musicalsinla.blogspot.com. An actress, singer and voiceover artist, she is also a producer with the Academy for New Musical Theatre, and works with the development of new musicals for theatres across the country.

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