ION’S “4000 Miles” tugs at the heart

Amy Herzog’s “4000 miles” is one of those pieces that tugs at the heart, touches your tickle bone and forces reflection. It will leave you wanting more of Herzog and wishing you could stay with the characters a bit longer. It will be playing through Oct. 9^th and you won’t want to miss it.

Herzog won the Lincoln Center Obie Award for Best New American play and was Pulitzer Prize finalist. She has also gathered a goodly number of praises and recognition from Yale Rep; New York Theatre workshop; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist; Drama Desk Nomination.

It all makes sense. Her dialogue is intelligent, sharp, and keenly funny and oft times thought bending, never stilted or pretentious. All the characters say what’s on their minds, no filters here, thanks to the ease in which grandson Leo (Connor Sullivan) and grandmother Vera (Jill Drexler) show in trying to build on renewing their familial ties.

Leo and Vera cross the Continental Divide and wind up meeting at the end of Leo’s cross- country journey at ION stage in Hillcrest. Leo suddenly finds his way to his grandmother’s flat  ‘4000 Miles’ from the beginning of his trek in Seattle by way of Minneapolis, because his college girlfriend Bec (Michelle Marie Trester) refuses to let him spend the night at her place.

Sparks fly, memories are unearthed and personalities surface. The reunion of sorts takes place in Vera’s Greenwich Village apartment. The year is 2007 and Vera’s rent controlled apartment looks the same since she and her late husband moved in in the late ’60’s. Raygoza is credited for the period look. He is a master for detail. Paris designed the costumes.

Vera and Leo have not seen each at least for that long. For that matter he’s also been out of touch with the rest his family as well, a point well made over and over again in the play. “The whole family has been worried”.

From my first hand experience grandsons  (I have three) do not gush. They speak the facts, Ma’am and sit back and wait for the fallout. Leo and Vera have that kind of a relationship. Although she is a better listener than yours truly she manages to get her points across, good bad or indifferent. Vera: “It’s three o’clock in the morning, so I’m just asking. Have you eaten in a while?” Leo: “I’m cool.”

That conversation comes after the ‘knock’ at her door at three AM is finally answered. Vera is rightfully taken aback. Teeth out for the night and her whadayacallit (hearing aid) on her night table, 90 something Vera was in a deep sleep. Why and how on earth could she, would she hear anything in that state? And Leo, did he call to say he was on his way? Should she have been startled? You betcha! Oops, he doesn’t own a cell phone.

Connor Sullivan an Jill Dressler

Sullivan’s Leo is laid back yet up tight, easy but edgy, charming and appealing but sometimes cops an attitude. He too is perfect playing against Drexler. It’s called chemistry.

Vera might be pushing ninety something but no grass grows under her feet. When she can’t remember ‘her words’ she’s sympathetic and when she has a point to make she articulates it naturally coherently and pointedly. Jill Drexler (she’s been away too long) paints a perfect picture of an imperfect Vera.

She’s still leery of her grandson’s sudden visit but continues to ‘loan him money’ do his laundry and feed him when she finally learns that his girlfriend Bec wouldn’t let him stay at her place. He’s OK staying for a night or two, but you can guess he stays longer.

Bec does come a calling but things go from bad to worse over the course of the conversation when she lets Leo that it’s over.  Michelle Marie Trester fits the bill as Bec, the girlfriend who wants to move on, yet is still caught in the past of what might have been. No chance of reconciliation here.

The longer Leo stays the more the tensions mount and the more they mount the more we learn about each of them. His biggest sorrow, he confesses was when he and his friends were on a cross -country trip and his best friend met up with a tragic accident.  Leo witnessed it and still feels remorse for not being able to stop it. Now at grandma’s he has found the nurturing he missed but it takes him a while to accept anything from anyone.

Vera, a passionate political activist still longs for the company of her now deceased husband and shares stories with Leo about him. Both need something from the other but it is slow in coming. Oh, she has a neighbor across the hall, both card carrying, well…They call each other every day to make sure each is still alive. That only goes so far because Vera has other things on her mind like some memory loss, hearing loss and some loss of balance. It stinks getting older.

Soon Vera and Leo begin to act like they have finally figured out the formula to make their togetherness work; they enjoy a bit of a smoke together and all seems good. Interactions are real and heartfelt and watching their own personal journeys begin to unravel and find new avenues brings tears as they come into their own.

Founding fathers Glenn Paris and Claudio Raygoza seem to have a penchant for pulling the rabbit out of the hat nine times out of ten. This current production is just the case in point. The play and the characters are well defined yet still leave us with wanting more. There are no resolutions, no great ah ha moments, only questions.

After all is said and done Leo still has miles to go before he sees that there are others in his orbit he might want to care for, but that’s another play and he is only 21 after all.

See you at the theatre.

Dates: Through Oct. 15th

Organization: Ion Theatre Company

Phone: 619-600-5020

Production Type: Comedy/Drama

Where: 6^th Avenue @ Penn, Hillcrest, CA 92103

Ticket Prices: $20.00-$32.00

Web: iontheatre.com

Venue: ION@BLKBOX

Photo: Daren Scott

Sum total of parts light up the night with Globe’s “October Sky”.

The Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park is currently presenting the West Coast premiere production of Brian Hill and Aaron Thielen (book) and Michael Mahler’s (music and lyrics) musical “October Sky” inspired by the Universal Pictures film and “Rocket Boys” by Homer Hickman, Jr. through Oct. 23^rd.

The play is set in Coalwood, West Virginia 1957-1959. Coalwood, as the name of the town implies, is a coal-mining town and its residents for the most part are coalminers. Juxtaposed by the events in history when in 1957 Sputnik 1 was launched and crossed the October Sky over Coalwood, WV, our story plays like a push me pull you battle for the future.  

We meet up with the skeptics, in particular Homer’s Dad, John (Ron Bohmer) and high school principal Mr. Turner (Nick Sullivan) and the believers, Homer’s teacher Miss Riley (Sandra DeNise), his girlfriend Dorothy (Eliza Palasz) and of course his mother Elise (Kelly O’Malley).

The Miners

When the miners open with  “To The Mine”, “Never Getting Out Alive” and Homer (Kyle Selig) counters with “Look To The Stars”, the beginning of this battle that runs as deep as the mines is already developing. “You Are What You Are”. (John)

 “October Sky” fits beautifully into Kevin Depinet’s awesome and inspired set. We watch as the mine’s elevator surfaces as the day shift miners ascend. In other scenes and other shifts they are swallowed into the elevator shafts disappearing into the tunnels. Overhead is a huge arc of dilapidated railroad tracks stretching across the proscenium, hinting the cars that pull the men to the various veins.

The set is eye-popping, the orchestrations by Bruce Coughlin along with the nine member band under the baton of Charlie Alterman, the projections by Shawn Sagady, the lighting by Japhy Weideman and Garth Helm’s sound, Markus Maurette’s special effects (Oh those rocket launches) and Linda Cho’s period piece costumes along with a strong supporting cast of wonderful voices and outstanding acting give this piece the feel of a Broadway show.

I was drawn in hook, line and sinker from that opening number to the final lift off of the coveted rocket that ended with a first place medal (along with a scholarship) at the National Science Fair in Indianapolis for the three lads that worked on the project with Homer: O’Dell (Austyn Myers), Roy Lee (Patrick Rooney) and Quentin (Conner Russell).

This eventually would lead to a new career at NASA in 1981 (as an aerospace engineer) for Homer Hickam, Jr. whose signature song in the musical, “Look To The Stars”, became his personal anthem in his quest to build a rocket.

Based on the true story (“Rocket Boys” the book/memoir and “October Sky” the movie) Homer Hickam’s journey unfolds tracing his last years in high school and the village it took for Coalwood to be recognized as a place where coal was mined and rockets were launched.

Homer’s story is on a new path with “October Sky” the musical. This is only its second outing away from the movie version. It premiered at the Marriott Theatre just outside Milwaukie, Wisconsin. There are musicals and there are musicals.

The creators of “October Sky” have a great thing going with the authenticity that’s being driven with some excellent music and lyrics, filled with emotion and humor, conflict and satisfaction, excitement and trauma, love and trust.

Working with a large and talented cast director/choreographer Rachel Rockwell’s view of the big picture is one of coherency and fluidity. Scenes move quickly and seamlessly.

 Kyle Selig, founder of  ‘The Rocket Boys’, is most believable as Homer the advocate, respectful of his parents yet willing to put his status as the good son on the line. Kerry O’Malley is what every young person would want as a parent. She is soft, but mighty, loving but fierce when it comes to protecting her young’uns and faithful but brutally truthful with her husband.

Sandra DeNise, Homer’s chemistry and physics teacher, Miss Riley is Homer’s inspiration urging the boys on to compete in the Science Fair. One might say she is the boys’ biggest advocate. Miss DeNise has a beautiful voice and is more than convincing as his friend and teacher.

Last but not least on the female side of the equation, in the almost thankless role of the overlooked girlfriend Dorothy, Ms. Palasz fits the bill holding back a la 1950’s by playing coy. The three women are on top of the game with “The Last Kiss Goodbye” It about sums up their admiration and love for Homer. All the female voices are gorgeous.

Ron Bohmer plays John close to the vest as the steel minded, hardheaded mine foreman and Dad. It’s unclear why he is so against his son wanting to leave the mines. He comes across as angry, sullen and a spoiled child and it takes a warning from his wife to get to know his son or else he’ll be bacheloring it for some time to come.

Jim (Liam Quealy), Homer’s older brother pretty much get a pass from his father because he is BMOC on the football field. All the other Rocket Boys, Austyn Myers, Patrick Rooney and Conner Russell are shown in varying degrees of teenage playfulness, or lack thereof as in the case of the outcast, but brilliant Quentin. 

Following the story’s trajectory has its ups and downs and oft times it struggles to get it just right the first time and so it repeats itself, a minor problem that will be worked out as the authors look closely at the book.

Sandra DeNise, Kerry O'Malley and Eliza Palasz

No doubt they will and will find ways to cut some of the story back or perhaps eliminate a song or three.  There are about 25 of them and some are reprisals. Most notable is the music that pays homage to the region, “with shades of bluegrass, Appalachian folk music, a Jug Band on stage (“Moonshine”) and sweeping Americana of Copeland… and some sounds of the beginning of rock ‘n roll.”

“I tried to give the characters in this story things to sing that were essential. “ M.M.

There’s a lot going on in “October Sky” but none can fault the rocket makers, because in the final analysis a rocket is launched (“We’re Gonna Build A Rocket”) from a platform in Coalwood, W.V. and short of a trip to Cape Canaveral, we all saw it happen and you can too.

THE ROCKET BOYS!

Enjoy.

See you at the theatre.

Dates: Through Oct. 23rd

Organization: The old Globe

Phone: 619-234-5623

Production Type: Musical

Where: 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92103

Ticket Prices: Start at $37.00

Web: theoldglobe.org

Venue: Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage

Photo: Jim Cox