by Elaine Liner - Dallas Observer
With Paul Rudnick's Valhalla , the Uptown Players plunge right into the sticky-sweet center of a gooey comic confection. This company specializes in gay-themed shows, and if this one were any gayer, Elton John could wear it, Tom Cruise could sue it and Liza Minnelli could marry it.
Playwright Rudnick is the gay Neil Simon, known for rapid-fire quips and outrageous characters. His best-known works for the stage-- I Hate Hamlet , Jeffrey and The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told , a biblical send-up that re-imagined Eden populated by Adam and Steve--aren't as critically embraced as those of that old gay warhorse Terrence McNally, but they are funnier and less formulaic. As a screenwriter, Rudnick's earned hits as a script doctor on The First Wives Club and Addams Family Values and with his own In & Out . Then there was his remake of The Stepford Wives , which might have worked if it had more gay and less Nicole Kidman.
In Valhalla , directed for Uptown by Andi Allen, Rudnick goes all gay, all the time, setting up dueling biographies of conflicted male characters. Galloping first to center stage in this madcap meander through two centuries is Mad King Ludwig II of Bavaria, played by B.J. Cleveland as if his ability to draw breath depended on every laugh. Ludwig, a 19th-century monarch obsessed with architecture and The Ring Cycle , begins the play as a precocious 10-year-old prince (Cleveland in a black pageboy wig, transformed into a pintsized Kaye Ballard).
As a teen, Ludwig dons a nun's habit and torments his idiot brother, Otto (Coy Covington), and mother, Queen Marie (Lisa Hassler). In puberty, he feels his first stirrings of man-on-man passion under (literally) a Teutonic tutor (Kevin Moore) but is forced to audition a string of princesses for matrimony before finding a gemütlich connection with sweet-natured, humpbacked Princess Sophie (Kelly Grandjean). With her encouragement, he begins to fulfill his dream of building a series of castles inspired by Wagner's operas.
Meanwhile, 100 years hence in a small Texas town, a flirty little tough named James Avery (John de los Santos) seduces both his pal Henry Lee Stafford (Moore again) and high school princess Sally Mortimer (Grandjean). Like Ludwig, whom he'll encounter in Act 2 through Rudnick's tricks of time travel, James dreams gorgeous dreams. He craves escape from ugliness and oppressive attitudes, and he hopes to convince Henry Lee, who isn't so copacetic with the boy-boy thing yet, to go with him...wherever.
With six actors playing dozens of oddball entities jumping in and out of the parallel plot lines, Valhalla unfolds like a Wagnerian sitcom. There are princes and villains, gods and monsters, hicks and naked dicks (this is Uptown, after all), trussed up (or not) in costume designer Tommy Bourgeous' lush operatic velvets and brocades, like extras from Lohengrin (a Ludwig favorite). When the Mad King rides onstage on a white jousting pony, it's a visual howler as clever as Rudnick's best jokes.
In Norse mythology, Valhalla was the heavenly banquet hall for slain warriors. By the end of this play, two heroic figures have died tragically in different sorts of battles but only after the playwright has fired heavy rounds of comic artillery in every direction. The best volley of funny comes in a short monologue by the Sally character, who explains her concepts of truth and beauty. "Inner beauty's tricky," she says, "because you can't prove it." Her best girlfriend, Emmeline, is blind. "Sometimes when Emmeline gets depressed," Sally says, "I describe myself."
Returning to their home theater, the cozy 140-seat Trinity River Arts Center, after the fire that forced them to relocate to El Centro College for the summer, the Uptown Players are in top form, going full out with Valhalla . B.J. Cleveland, as Ludwig, finally latches onto a role that requires strenuous overacting, something he's an expert at. As James, John de los Santos doesn't quite have the butch James Dean quality to be a believable delinquent, but his comic timing and physical grace make up for that. Kelly Grandjean, playing five roles, including Marie Antoinette, makes a lithe comic foil for her leading men. And in a dizzying array of character parts, Lisa Hassler, Kevin Moore and Coy Covington keep the laughs and the intricate plot lines zipping along.
Hard to say what deep meaning, if any, is worth gleaning from Rudnick's naughty-but-nice play. There are messages about gay stereotypes and the banality of camp, as when James and Henry Lee suddenly break into a corny movie musical production number onboard a World War II troop ship taking them to battle in Europe. Rudnick seems confused about what this play should do and in his confusion tries to make it do too much. One minute it's a farce, the next it's an attempt to renovate poor Ludwig's image in history (he wasn't really mad--his government had him declared insane to get him off the throne). Throw in a twist of Greater Tuna , and it's a big comic casserole with a side of strudel.
John Garcia - The Column Review
The first question right off the bat concerning Uptown Players' prod -uction of Paul Rudnick's VALHALLA is where on earth did they find this gleaming treasure of a script?!
I've personally have never heard of this play, knew nothing of the piece only that the title sounds a little like Viagra. The story tells the tale of two conflicted men whose lives are played on stage simul -taneously. One is James Avery who lives in a small Texas town. I wonder if Rudnick named the character after the well known Texan jewelry craftsman. The other is King Ludwig of Bavaria, a king who hungers more for opera than running a government. What both men have in common is that they desperately seek for beauty in life as well as those around them.
An interesting fact here is that King Ludwig is an actual person. or The man who would become the king of Bavaria was born in Nymphenburg Palace on August 25, 1845.
*His parents were the 36-year-old Catholic Maximilian II of Bavaria and the 19-year-old Protestant Princess Marie of Prussia (who happened also to be her husband's cousin). Unfortunately, Ludwig's parents were neither very close to each other nor to their first son. Ludwig (whose only brother, Otto, would be born almost exactly three years
later) would grow up in a spartan and sheltered environment. By any measure, he turned out to be a somewhat odd young man who had problems relating to women and people in general.
The boy who would later be known as the "Swan King" spent much of his youth in a castle named Hohenschwangau ("high region of the swan").
His father Max had bought the ancient castle known as Schwanstein in
1832 and remodeled it as a royal residence set in the Bavarian Alps.
Ludwig grew up there among swan images and icons, and the nearby Schwansee, or Swan Lake, featured the real thing. As a 12-year-old boy Ludwig had already developed a fascination with Wagner's Lohengrin and its Swan Knight.
Other mysteries include the enigma of Ludwig's death by drowning in Lake Starnberg south of Munich. Did he commit suicide or was he "helped"? Ludwig died under mysterious circumstances just three days after being declared legally insane. Today Ludwig's extravagances such as his fairy-tale Neuschwanstein castle and his other castles have become a huge tourist draw and a vital source of income for the state of Bavaria. Ludwig's latent homosexuality and his patronage of Richard Wagner have also contributed to the Mad Ludwig legend. .*
Rudnick's script is a little jumbled and puzzling during the first twenty or so minutes of its first Act, but once it finally gets its bearings, it pierces into your heart and funny bone like lightening bolts. The script is an explosion of firecracker comedy with an endearing, loving ending.
There is everything in Rudnick's play: We have love, war, politics, marriage, humpbacks, nudity, comedy, drama, even a musical number and one ofthe funniest damn things that I have ever seen in my entire life on stage-an actual jousting scene!
Andi Allen has become one of the top female directors when it comes to comedy. It is a great injustice that she does not get the recogn -ition she rightly deserves for her superb direction of comedy. Her staging and blocking works like a well oiled machine with Rudnick's playwriting. She has carefully crafted staging that helps the viewer grasp both stories that appear on stage. Allen keeps the pace zooming along with jackrabbit speed, while giving the dramatic scenes a good sense of organic reality. The piece would have become a little much had the entire evening become this huge, over the top piece-but instead she has wisely allowed only scenes and moments do this, keeping the rest of the characterizations grounded in firm reality- while still achieving ear shattering laughter.
The only directing problem I could find was the staging for the end.
It's such a heart-tugging scene, but to have the two actors exit stage right (where it is lit dimly) cripples the dramatic moment. There is a triangle shaped platform that had light bathing it on stage left that would have been much more effective. It actually resembles ascension to heaven, thus it would given the ending that final push for the audience to reach for the Kleenex.
Mind you that is a minor quibble in an otherwise brilliant piece of direction. Ms. Allen directed one of the funniest comedies I have ever seen around the metroplex with SORDID LIVES a few years ago; she has surpassed herself this time with VALHALLA.
Design wise the production glimmers with impeccable sets, lighting, and costume. Wade Giampa's scenic design is composed of decaying columns and white drapery. However, it is his painting design of the stage floor that is simply marvelous. It is a bold, colorful mural that reminds you of those castle ceilings you see in Versailles. Jason Hill's lighting is a soft array of plush pinks and royal blues, with stark individual lighting for dramatic moments.
As for Tommy Bourgeous's costumes, well what can I say except that they are works of costume art. These costumes are some of the most beautiful costumes I have ever seen grace a metroplex stage. These period costumes are layered in lace, silk, satin, ruffles, rich fabrics, covered in massive amounts of sequins and rhinestones. Even the shoes are dipped in glittery finery!
If I had to pick my favorite costume pieces, it would have to be Ludwig's coronation costume and the sumptuous outfits that the two fops wear in Act Two. Those two costumes are swimming in so many sequins your retinas have trouble readjusting to normal lighting afterwards.
As the two central figures of the piece, BJ Cleveland and John De La Santos both deliver prodigious performances. I particularly thought the idea of making one of them flamboyant and the other masculine balance and compliment each other throughout the evening.
Cleveland channels Martin Short as the King who really gets into designing outlandish properties, has an addiction (Opera), and goes mad – typical politician. Cleveland uses his face to wring out the best possible laughs-and succeeds marvelously. A perfect example of this is his coronation scene. He works his costume as though he was at the Marie Antoinette fashion show. His runway walk would make Janice Dickenson purr in approval.
Cleveland's performance is so hilarious, I thought my bladder was going to give out. At the opening night performance, Cleveland had a mishap with the scepter's tassel, but using some razor sharp adlibbing he recovered, having the audience roaring in laughter in the process.
During the "going mad" scene, Cleveland is under a special light of stark white, while dressed in a white button down shirt. With his mannerisms, facial expressions, and short wig-he sort of resembled Judy Garland! I thought at any moment he was going to break into "The Man Who Got Away".
As "James Avery', John De Los Santos swaggers around the stage ala James Dean, right down to the white t-shirt and tight jeans. The actor is a nice balance to Cleveland's campiness, in giving his characte -rization a dark layer of sexual wild abandonment and rebellion. He uses his comedic talents of delivery, timing, and phrasing with a sharp sense of organic naturalism. It's not forced or pushed to the extremes, but instead he allows the comic zingers to come out of nowhere, thereby leaving the audience guffawing endlessly. De Los Santos also has a devastating second act arc that he crests with truthfulness and not become histrionic.
De Los Santos chemistry is both erotic and very sensual with his two love interests (Kelly Grandjean & Kevin Moore). This does assist the audience in believing his love and compassion for both sexes.
Cleveland and De Los Santos are supported on stage by a quartet of tour de force thespians who deliver scene-stealing performances.
Coy Covington plays an array of various characters that has the audience in the palms of his hands. He is "Otto", the king's brother who is a momma's boy and is sacked with a very funny lisp. With the blonde pageboy wig and his facial expressions, Covington resembles Carol Channing- that is if Dolly Levi lisped. Another character in Covington's trunk of roles is "Princess Ursula", a Southern Belle (in
Bavaria!) who has overtones of Vivian Leigh. The major role Covington portrays is "Pfeiffer", the secretary/assistant to the King. Wearing a wig that had to come from the Monty Python "Prince Hubert" collec -tion and using a clipped British accent, Covington achieves loud laughs as this man who tries to understand his monarch and his bizarre lifestyle.
What a great treat it was to find that Kevin Moore has a hysterical sense of comedic timing & delivery. Moore is completely hilarious in his plethora of characterizations. Examples of these include a Swedish personal trainer and a dumb as rocks opera performer. However his central character is Henry Lee Stafford. Henry is the man who steals James' heart; heck James even tattoos Henry's name on his arm as proof! Moore gives Henry this element of All American Country boy who is lost emotionally. Moore's facial expressions and comedic delivery are terrific and are solid perfection, resulting in an endless waves of jovial laughter. Moore and De Los Santos even have a zinger of a musical number that is set on a ship while both are in the Army. It's a very amusing number that unfolds on stage, thanks primarily to the talents of these two.
Covington and Moore use various dialects to give their characters distinct, individuality that greatly aids in the storytelling.
Lisa Hassler is marvelous as the mother to the King (Cleveland) and as James' mom (De Los Santos). One reminds you as though she stepped out of Robert Altman's COME BACK TO THE FIVE AND DIME JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN, while the other-"Queen Marie"- oddly reminded me of the Queen from the film, CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG. Nonetheless both characterizations are very mirth provoking. One is stern, rigid, mother from the South, while the other is sacked with a nellie son who can't run a country. Hassler has some dirty laughs in another role as a Princess who resembles Ludwig's momma-except this lady has a slight S&M fetish. Wait tell you hear her filthy limerick! Another laugh getting character under Hassler's belt is the Jewish tour guide in the second act. Her off the cuff comments as that character were too, too funny!
Rounding out this glowing company of actors is Kelly Grandjean. Ms.
Grandjean had only two characters to portray, but both were solid, indefectible, and sensational in regards to detail, arc and organic truth. There was "Sally", a good Southern girl who is totally in love with the bisexual James, but sadly wished she could love more her beau-Henry Lee. The other is Princess Patricia, the role that had the audience laughing so hard that I was expecting those oxygen masks to drop from the ceiling like they do on airplanes due to all the air inhaled from laughing so hard. I won't spoil the fun of why this character is so special or why it is so hilarious!
This beautiful actress covers "Sally" in down home Southern charm and beliefs, but has an underlying tone of a sexually repressed woman who needs it bad. For the Princess, it is a girl who transforms from any ugly duckling to a gorgeous swan. Grandjean's comedic chops rival her male co-stars and she holds her own big time with the others on stage.
Where there any problems with this production you ask? Pressed to find, there were some minor errors. Such as a couple line flubs, a few missed cues in lighting and sound-but really those are so minor and will completely fixed by the time you read this review.
In a year of cob webbed covered old relics from the canons of past musicals and plays that were produced this season, what a refreshing breath of fresh air it was to sit through something new, unique, and so hysterically funny that you are crossing your legs for fear of tinkling in your seat because you're laughing so hard.
VALHALLA is a gleaming bauble that Uptown has kept hidden from its audiences, and has now allowed us to view this splendid production with its comedic brilliance-thanks to an excellent company of actors; a gorgeous palette of design elements; and a director at the top of her game.
Earlier this season I said THE NORMAL HEART was one of the best dramatic plays mounted this season, suffice to say VALHALLA is one of the best comedies to be presented to a metroplex audience this season.
I enjoyed it so much that I have to go back to see what I missed the first time cause I was laughing so much. How often do you hear that comment from anyone these days?
GRADE: A
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Arnold Wayne Jones - Dallas Voice
Most comedies can ultimately be categorized as either romantic, squishy stuff or brassy laughfests. Occasionally, something like Roberto Benigni's “Life Is Beautiful” bridges the gap between playful and poignant.
Valhalla, Paul Rudnick's visionary revisionist history play at Uptown Players, manages the same bit of sleight-of-hand. Silly camp shares the stage with homespun sweetness and touching emotional resonance. It is the most unexpectedly moving production in years.
The play begins with the subtlety of the “Fractured Fairy Tales” segment of “The Bullwinkle Show.” Little Prince Ludwig (B.J. Cleveland), eventually to be the king of Bavaria, pitches fits like a spoiled child. Only Ludwig doesn't crave chocolates or toys, but a world as beautiful as the ones he imagines from watching Wagner's operas — a place so lovely, one character observes, “you'd get a boner.”
Meanwhile, 50 years later, a queer Texas version of Huck Finn named James Avery (John de los Santos) has similar desires. James, though, finds perfection not in opera, but in dime-store glass trinkets (he'd trade sex for cut lead crystal) and in the body of his classmate, Henry Lee (Kevin Moore).
The parallel lives of James and Ludwig play out mostly independently, until James and Henry Lee, as soldiers during World War II, stumble into Ludwig's greatest legacy: Neuschwanstein, his storybook castle. From there on, despite a constant cascade of jokes, the theme becomes more like “The Hours,” where generations of strangers are linked by fate.
The actors, all veterans of comedic shtick, show themselves adept at drama. Cleveland's over-the-top Ludwig is ideally suited for his brand of Jerry Lewis-style humor. His countless costume changes, culminating in flamboyant coronation robes that Liberace would declare tacky and distasteful, serve as visual punch lines. But he also conveys depth in a wonderful mad scene.
This is De los Santos' best performance to date — brazen but mature and unaffected. Lisa Hassler and Kelly Grandjean, playing all the women (except one that goes to Coy Covington, natch), and Moore are also hilarious.
There's a lot under the surface of “Valhalla,” like how madness occupies the space a hair's breadth from a sense of aesthetics, and how it is considered queer to look at the world and revel in all its useless beauty. Too bad, Rudnick laments, that everyone isn't that queer.
Fortunately, “Valhalla” is that queer — a dazzling diamond refracting a rainbow of beauty.
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