Brian Kameoka's blog

Anthropologie Project

That's Anthropologie (-ie) project, not Anthropology.  For a class I just finished as part of my MBA program at Sac State, my team conducted a brand audit on Anthropologie stores.  I thought I'd post a blog entry about it, especially since quite a few of my friends on Facebook took the quick survey we created.  We ended up with 123 responses.  The survey was just a quick one set up on Google Docs to assess brand awareness, and is not statistically significant (just interesting). 

[UPDATE: if you're looking for the official Anthropologie Blog or blogs about Anthropologie, see here]

Results and my commentary after the cut...

Shows to See in Sacramento

Here are some shows in Sacramento I recommend seeing:

• FINAL WEEKEND: Bat Boy: The Musical at Sacramento State.  I wrote a review on my blog here. Amanda Morish and Peter J. Carroll are great, and you can get tickets for as cheap as $5 this weekend.

• I Am My Own Wife at B Street Theatre (closes 11/7). Bee critic Marcus Crowder calls it a "riveting production" with an "astonishing performance by Greg Alexander" and I totally agree.

• tick, tick... BOOM! at New Helvetia Theatre (through 11/14).  A great production of Jonathan Larson's pre-Rent musical. Patti Roberts in the News & Review says it has a "winning combination of a superbly talented cast, a strong and inventive directing team, and a first-rate live cabaret band. [full disclosure: I helped with publicity for this show and took their press photos]

Upcoming (shows I'm planning on seeing):

• Capital Stage's Speech & Debate (through 11/8)

• New interns have arrived at the B Street Theatre, so I plan on checking out their weekly Wednesday post-show performances, which I blogged about previously here because I believe it's Sacramento's best theatre bargain.  These performances should resume 11/11, but call the B Street box office at (916) 443-5300 to confirm.

• Broadway Sacramento presents Spring Awakening (11/4 through 11/15).  I mentioned this on Facebook and Twitter, since I know almost nothing about the show.  Consensus was, "go see it!" so I am.... here's a promo video for the show:
  
   
  

Also, for one of the best online guides to what's playing in town, check out Sacramento365.com.

Theatre Review: Bat Boy at Sac State

At what point in musical theatre history did the audience start to realize that producers would make a musical from just about any source no matter how trite and meaningless?"

Was it with Cats?  Not that all these adaptations are poor, some of these seemingly bad ideas turn into commercial and artistic successes.  Take The Lion King for example.  I go back and forth on the Disney property - is it brilliant realization of Julie Taymor's auteurship, or simply an overpriced and overblown puppet show?  I think the theatre world will continue for a long time to wonder what source material has yet to be plundered . . .  after all, Broadway is supposed to welcome Spiderman in a few months.

Bat Boy is a relatively new musical, first playing off-Broadway in 2001. Drawing from the sketchy details of the original fake tabloid article from the Weekly World News, the plot of Bat Boy starts as an origin story, but begins to drift as it progresses, seemingly lifting plotlines from Frankenstein, Our Town, Romeo and Juliet and more.  It's as if writers Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming felt their title character was original enough that their story didn't have to be.  The music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe are enjoyable and clever, though nothing seems catchy enough to hum on the way out of the theatre.

This CSUS production boasts beautiful sets and some clever bits of staging, though it doesn't quite overcome all the shortcomings of the script and seemed to drag a little.  Ed Brazo directs a large cast and elicits some nice performances.  But it seems as if the Bat Boy script presents a schizophrenic challenge worthly of Bat Boy's own half-bat, half-human lineage - is this a larger-than-life parable on society's aversion to outsiders, or is this meant to be pure camp in the tradition of the ridiculous tabloid that actually gave birth to Bat Boy?  This production seems to split the difference, succeeding on some fronts (Bat Boy's struggles for acceptance provoke empathy throughout) while failing on others (why is one death funny and another one tragic?).  There's a sequence in Act 2 that inexplicably brings the Greek god Pan on stage to sing and encourage the creatures of the forest to mate that, while funny and performed well, pushed the limits of my suspension of disbelief.  I had to chuckle to myself as I thought, "I'm with you on the mad-scientist-cattle-conspiracy-paranormal-interspecies-mutant musical so far, but now THIS is too much!"  So, bravo to the production for the most part - you had me til the forest creature sex number.

The acting and singing are a bit of a mixed bag, though every time I see a show at CSUS, there are a few delightful standout performances.  This time it was Amanda Morish as Meredith Parker, as Bat Boy's adoptive mother, and Peter J. Carroll as Bat Boy that impressed me most.  Morish handles a difficult part with skill, conveying a range of emotions from the angst of difficult circumstances to the joy of motherly love.   She sweetly expresses comfort to the newly displaced Bat Boy in "Home for You," one of several moments when Morish owns the stage with her voice and presence.  Carroll has the daunting task of transforming from feral cave creature to refined, BBC-accented average teenage boy in front of our eyes.  The role's like Eliza Doolittle guest starring on "Fringe," and Carroll performs it well, especially considering he's practically naked at one point, and throughout the show he wears prosthetic ears, fangs and a headset-style body mic.

In the end, I can recommend this as a fun evening out.  Bat Boy runs for one more weekend, and there are some great discounts on October 31st for Halloween, including $5 tickets for high school students for the 5pm performance and $5 tickets for the 9pm performance if you attend in costume.

NOTE: This show has plenty of adult themes and some on stage violence, so it's not appropriate for children.

REMAINING PERFORMANCES:

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 @ 6:30 PM
Thursday, October 29, 2009 @ 6:30 PM
Friday, October 30, 2009 @ 8:00 PM
Saturday, October 31, 2009 @ 5:00 PM and 9:00 PM
Sunday, November 1, 2009 @ 2:00 PM

Tickets $10-$15

LINKS:

CSUS Department of Theatre and Dance page for Bat Boy
Jeffrey Callison interview with Ed Brazo, Peter J. Carrol and Amanda Morish
Buy your tickets for Bat Boy on tickets.com
Buy Bat Boy (2001 Original Off-Broadway Cast) from Amazon.com

Shows to see in Sacramento

Here are some shows in Sacramento I recommend seeing.

• Actor's Theatre of Sacramento - Blackbird (closes 3/22, Sac Bee review here)
• Sacramento State - How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (closes 3/29, my review here)
• Broadway Sacramento - Avenue Q (closes 3/22, reviews from SN&R and Capital Public Radio)

Here are some shows I plan on seeing in the next week (and will post about them here):

• B Street Theatre - Sexy Laundry
• Sacramento Theatre Company - The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged
• Foothill Theatre Company - Sylvia
• B Street Theatre - Acting Interns' Wednesday Monologue Performance (I blogged about it here)

Also, I highly recommend checking out seeaplay.com for complete theatre listings from League of Sacramento Theatres.

Sacramento Theatre: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at Sac State

Two more weekends to catch the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at Sacramento State.

I saw this show last weekend and had a blast.  College theatre can be hit or miss, but most of what I've seen at Sac State has been good - there are always some great performances and from meeting the theatre professors at Sac State and seeing their work, I've mostly been impressed.  Congrats to director Ed Brazo and the Sac State department of Theatre & Dance on a great production.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying originally played Broadway in 1961, winning seven Tony awards, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (a rarity for a musical).  In 1995 there was a popular revival of the show starring Matthew Broderick.  The show follows the ambitious rise of J. Pierpont Finch from simple window washer to high-level exec in the "Worldwide Wicket Company."  While the music doesn't boast any big crossover hits or even songs that have become musical theatre staples, there are some very catchy tunes. 

This production at Sac State is visually very pretty, with a nice 60's-retro scenic design and costumes.  I particularly liked the inclusion of the acoustic-tile ceiling, surely inspired by the television series Mad Men.  Very "meta" - since Mad Men cast Robert Morse as the head honcho of Sterling Cooper (Robert Morse was the original Finch on Broadway and in the film).  And there are some great performances in this show - Stephanie Zito is phenomenal with a beautiful voice and a touching performance as Rosemary, Finch's love interest.  Brad Bong hams it up as Bud Frump, Finch's inept rival, and Dan Demers as head honcho J.B. Biggley is perfectly cast and is hilarious.  His comic timing is spot on.  Brittni Barger plays bimbo/hottie Hedy LaRue to broad comic effect and sports some outrageously sexy costumes.  But she never slips into caricature, in fact, her duet "Heart of Gold" (with Demers) is one of the most touching parts of the show - painting a more in depth portrait of two of the shows larger-than-life characters.  The strong ensemble is led by Ryan Ritter as Finch, who I wasn't as crazy about, as his performance didn't seem as up to the level of the rest of the cast.  His voice and acting were fine, but in a cast of standouts he seemed a weak link, but perhaps I saw him on an off night.

I recommend catching this show, which runs through March 29th.  Click here for show dates and times, if you're on Facebook, you can RSVP to the event using this link.  The show is in Shasta Hall on the Sac State Campus, and tickets are $7 to $15.