Still drunk on “Sideways”

Photo by Kevin Berne

On Sunday, I attended opening night of Sideways at La Jolla Playhouse (read a Q & A with the author and UCSD alum Rex Pickett here). The play was based on the novel that became a 2004 movie starring Paul Giamatti, Thomas Hayden Church, and Sandra Oh.

For those who haven’t seen the movie (full disclosure: I had only seen a few clips), the story follows two old friends on a bachelor party-wine tour week from Santa Monica to Paso Robles. Miles (Patrick Breen) is a depressive, failed writer/divorcee/oenophile and Jack (Sean Allan Krill) is his TV-directing, commitmentphobe buddy (he’s the one getting married).

All four leads were outstanding (Breen, Krill, and Zoe Chao as Terra and Nadia Bowers as Maya), as well as Cynthia Mace, who plays Miles’s mother.

The fast-paced dialogue is an intoxicating mix of smart wine talk, literary references, funny one-liners, and outrageous pick-up lines.

My dad (my date for the night) said the play had more depth than the movie, and that the play was indeed superior to the film. (I’m guessing Director Emeritus Des McAnuff sprinkled some of his magic on the script.) My dad was also excited that he had been to some of the actual wineries visited by the characters.

Things took a slight left turn with a wild boar-hunting scene. I could have done without it—especially because it would have cut down the 2.5-hour run time, but other than that, Sideways was quite impressive.

A warning: If you’re a sensitive theatergoer (Mom), this play contains a lot of F-bombs, a little nudity, some loud lovemaking noises, and lines like, “This wine is tighter than my high school girlfriend.” And if you’re a teetotaler, well, the actors poured and imbibed so many glasses onstage, I practically sprinted in my 5-inch heels to the concession stand at intermission for a pinot noir.

All told, it was the best show I’ve seen at the Playhouse in the last few years. Better than Chaplin, Sleeping Beauty Wakes, Little Miss Sunshine, Glengarry Glen Ross, Hands on a Hardbody…even His Girl Friday, dare I say it. Maybe even better than the Des McAnuff-directed Jesus Christ Superstar. Sideways should go to Broadway and I hope it does.

Make sure to get tickets before the final performance on August 25.

Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse

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His Girl Friday, now at the La Jolla Playhouse, was written by Broadway stud John Guare (Six Degrees of Separation). The “romantic newsroom comedy” is an updated, adapted version of both the movie His Girl Friday and the play The Front Page—only this time it is set in 1939, on the brink of World War II.

In the press room at a Chicago courthouse, reporters wait for the hanging of a man named Earl. Meantime, ex-reporter Hildy Johnson (played brilliantly by Jenn Lyon) is back for a visit, just before her upcoming wedding. Enter her ex-husband and newspaper owner Walter Burns (Douglas Sills, another major standout), who wants her back—and working on a story about Earl, who he thinks is innocent.

The snappy dialogue, the humor, and the detailed set (designed by Robert Brill) make this three-hour play fly by. Put simply, this is one of the best shows I have seen in San Diego, not just at the Playhouse. Normally, to see this kind of theater, you have to first pay for a plane ticket to New York. So get thee to the Playhouse. I will say no more.

Review: His Girl Friday

Kevin Berne

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Last night I attended La Jolla Playhouse’s ACCOMPLICE: SAN DIEGO, part of their Without Walls series. It was the most unique theater experience I’ve ever had.

There were about 12 audience members total. A few days prior, each of us had been phoned by an actor—in character—from a blocked number, telling us where and when to meet.

An actor found us at the appointed time on a corner in Little Italy and the journey began. I won’t give away the locations or the plot, but basically it followed an ex-criminal in hiding who needed our help connecting with other ex-cons.

Actors were planted throughout Little Italy—on the streets but also in businesses and restaurants. The acting was really good—more than once, I couldn’t tell who was in the play and who was just a man on the street. It was interesting how the lines between reality and fiction blurred.

There were times Accomplice was more of a scavenger hunt than a play. The actors would give the audience clues and an assignment and then we would essentially exit the performance. Suddenly, we were part of the play!

I went with a friend and that might have been distracting because we weren’t always 100 percent engaged in the action. But several of us had clues or props to hold—or a line to read—and we did participate most of the time.

It was cool to see a few restaurants’ secret nooks and private patios I’d never noticed before. It was good exposure for the businesses, too. (The play was interesting on so many levels…as a business model, marketing strategy…) Appetizers and wine/beer were also offered along the way and were certainly welcome with this critic.

Another cool perk of Accomplice: the exercise. Normally when you plan to see a play or musical, you sit all day at your office desk, and then you sit in your car and drive to the theater where you sit for two to three hours more. But hey, it’s really true that physical inactivity is the number one cause of health problems—more so than cigarettes or sleep loss—so this type of theater falls right in line with the needs of the day. (Dork that I am, I set the pedometer on my iPhone and found that during the course of the show I walked about 4,000 of the recommended 10,000 steps a day. Not bad! Thanks, Accomplice.)

Round of applause!

See the show in Little Italy. For more info, click here.

A Review of Accomplice: San Diego

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