Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Little Miss Sunshine at La Jolla Playhouse

Dick Latessa as “Grandpa” and Georgi James as “Olive Hoover” in Little Miss Sunshine, a musical that “needs work.”
Dick Latessa as “Grandpa” and Georgi James as “Olive Hoover” in Little Miss Sunshine, a musical that “needs work.”

So how do you re-create a road movie on stage? Best of show at La Jolla Playhouse’s hit-and-miss Little Miss Sunshine:

David Korins’s set, enhanced by Ken Billington’s bold lighting, depicts the shifting geography from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Redondo Beach, California. Three fluctuating lines on the rear wall reconfigure hills and mountains. And if you’ve ever made that trek, on old Route 66, one look at the ridgeline would tell you where you are. At Albuquerque, for example, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains loom in the distance about three-quarters of the way up the wall. At Kingman, on a mesa, the terrain is much flatter. At Ontario, you can see the white-capped sliver of a mountain behind the mountains. The Mandell Weiss Theatre has a tall proscenium. Designers have had to fill the top third with something. To my recollection, no one has kept it more alive or interesting at the Weiss than Korins.

The yellow VW microbus — the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine”? — that barely makes the trip also metamorphoses: from a mobile toy that scoots across a walkway to a door-less, topless, life-sized version that breaks down almost as much as the family in it.

Screenwriter Michael Arndt got the idea for the movie from a speech Arnold Schwarzenegger gave to high school students: “If there’s one thing in the world I hate, it’s losers. I despise them.” Arndt despised that attitude, he told an interviewer, and “wanted to attack that idea that in life you’re going up or you’re going down.” James Lapine’s and William Finn’s musical version of the film is on the road, so to speak, but has miles to go to reach California.

The opening-night performance took a good half hour to wake up. The first song — “Ten Steps for Success” — preaches to the audience (the ironies imbedded in its self-help slogans come later), and the second scene brings the family onboard one by one, like Noah’s Ark, with back-story for each.

The Hoover family — wannabe self-help guru Richard, harried wife Sheryl, her suicidal brother Frank, sex-starved, smack-snorting Grandpa, and sullen Dwayne — finally get good news: young Olive qualified for a beauty pageant in Redondo Beach (okay, there were only three contestants: #1 dropped out and #3 had a clubfoot). And off they go. For almost three hours.

Sponsored
Sponsored

At first it looks like each scene will illustrate (or debunk) one of Richard’s bromides (step two: “Good Enough Is Never Good Enough”). But that notion gets dropped around Gallup. What remains consistent: an attempt to encircle real-life stuff (suicide, social stresses, teenage angst, damaging ideals) with a chipper halo, to underline, in effect, the “fun” in dysfunction. The result’s a strange, passive-aggressive tone — ain’t life zany? — determined, above all else, to entertain.

Some of William Finn’s songs develop character (“Grandpa’s Advice,” a paean to sexual vigor belted by Dick Latessa, is a hoot; and Richard’s moving “What You Left Behind,” about a father’s legacy sung with feeling by Hunter Foster, stands out as the real deal). But many early numbers fall on the bland side and slow momentum.

Directed by James Lapine, the production is always theatrical, but much of its energy comes when the script leaves the familiar movie: as when Miss California (Zakiya Young) sings “Too Much Information,” about bouts with bulimia. At the pageant, Young and Eliseo Roman, as the emcee, cut loose with the title song.

The designers solved the story’s biggest problem: how to move visually, on a stage, from New Mexico to California. What happens along the way, however, needs work.


For 28 years, Russ Lewis (1957–2011) was the Reader’s bottom line. As the paper’s main proofreader, he was a warrior for correctness. Gruff, bluntly honest, he took comma splices, dangling modifiers, and stylistic sloth personally, and never held back from informing writers of their failings.

“Man,” he once yelled at me, “you can’t have a noun modifying a noun!”

“But, Russ, ‘life style’ is idiomatic. It’s...”

“Plain WRONG!”

Russ did his job with the drive of an artist — of the invisible: you saw his presence in the absence of mistakes.

Behind the scenes he had a kind of local omniscience. Like God, or J. Edgar Hoover, Russ knew all the “Reader writers’” sins (and maybe hated that expression, another noun modifying a noun, most of all). But beneath the Zeus-grade furor and obsession with order, there beat a heart of gold.

When it came to grammatical niceties, he and I used to battle like brothers, because we were. Even when he was in the hospital (he died of cancer, February 23), I still emailed him my work: out of respect; and in the hope that he might, I don’t know, give it a quick read? ■

Little Miss Sunshine, book by James Lapine, music and lyrics by William Finn.
La Jolla Playhouse, Mandell Weiss Theatre, UCSD.
Directed by James Lapine; cast: Bradley Dean, Carmen Ruby Floyd, Hunter Foster, Malcolm Gets, Georgi James, Dick Latessa, Eliseo Roman, Andrew Samonsky, Jennifer Laura Thompson, Taylor Trensch, Sally Wilfert, Zakiya Young; scenic design, David Korins, costumes, Jennifer Caprio, lighting, Ken Billington, sound, Dan Moses Schreier, musical director, Vadim Feichtner, choreographer, Christopher Gattelli.
Playing through March 27; Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Matinee Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. 858-550-1010.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Todd Gloria gets cash from McDonald's franchise owners

Phil's BBQ owner for Larry Turner
Dick Latessa as “Grandpa” and Georgi James as “Olive Hoover” in Little Miss Sunshine, a musical that “needs work.”
Dick Latessa as “Grandpa” and Georgi James as “Olive Hoover” in Little Miss Sunshine, a musical that “needs work.”

So how do you re-create a road movie on stage? Best of show at La Jolla Playhouse’s hit-and-miss Little Miss Sunshine:

David Korins’s set, enhanced by Ken Billington’s bold lighting, depicts the shifting geography from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Redondo Beach, California. Three fluctuating lines on the rear wall reconfigure hills and mountains. And if you’ve ever made that trek, on old Route 66, one look at the ridgeline would tell you where you are. At Albuquerque, for example, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains loom in the distance about three-quarters of the way up the wall. At Kingman, on a mesa, the terrain is much flatter. At Ontario, you can see the white-capped sliver of a mountain behind the mountains. The Mandell Weiss Theatre has a tall proscenium. Designers have had to fill the top third with something. To my recollection, no one has kept it more alive or interesting at the Weiss than Korins.

The yellow VW microbus — the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine”? — that barely makes the trip also metamorphoses: from a mobile toy that scoots across a walkway to a door-less, topless, life-sized version that breaks down almost as much as the family in it.

Screenwriter Michael Arndt got the idea for the movie from a speech Arnold Schwarzenegger gave to high school students: “If there’s one thing in the world I hate, it’s losers. I despise them.” Arndt despised that attitude, he told an interviewer, and “wanted to attack that idea that in life you’re going up or you’re going down.” James Lapine’s and William Finn’s musical version of the film is on the road, so to speak, but has miles to go to reach California.

The opening-night performance took a good half hour to wake up. The first song — “Ten Steps for Success” — preaches to the audience (the ironies imbedded in its self-help slogans come later), and the second scene brings the family onboard one by one, like Noah’s Ark, with back-story for each.

The Hoover family — wannabe self-help guru Richard, harried wife Sheryl, her suicidal brother Frank, sex-starved, smack-snorting Grandpa, and sullen Dwayne — finally get good news: young Olive qualified for a beauty pageant in Redondo Beach (okay, there were only three contestants: #1 dropped out and #3 had a clubfoot). And off they go. For almost three hours.

Sponsored
Sponsored

At first it looks like each scene will illustrate (or debunk) one of Richard’s bromides (step two: “Good Enough Is Never Good Enough”). But that notion gets dropped around Gallup. What remains consistent: an attempt to encircle real-life stuff (suicide, social stresses, teenage angst, damaging ideals) with a chipper halo, to underline, in effect, the “fun” in dysfunction. The result’s a strange, passive-aggressive tone — ain’t life zany? — determined, above all else, to entertain.

Some of William Finn’s songs develop character (“Grandpa’s Advice,” a paean to sexual vigor belted by Dick Latessa, is a hoot; and Richard’s moving “What You Left Behind,” about a father’s legacy sung with feeling by Hunter Foster, stands out as the real deal). But many early numbers fall on the bland side and slow momentum.

Directed by James Lapine, the production is always theatrical, but much of its energy comes when the script leaves the familiar movie: as when Miss California (Zakiya Young) sings “Too Much Information,” about bouts with bulimia. At the pageant, Young and Eliseo Roman, as the emcee, cut loose with the title song.

The designers solved the story’s biggest problem: how to move visually, on a stage, from New Mexico to California. What happens along the way, however, needs work.


For 28 years, Russ Lewis (1957–2011) was the Reader’s bottom line. As the paper’s main proofreader, he was a warrior for correctness. Gruff, bluntly honest, he took comma splices, dangling modifiers, and stylistic sloth personally, and never held back from informing writers of their failings.

“Man,” he once yelled at me, “you can’t have a noun modifying a noun!”

“But, Russ, ‘life style’ is idiomatic. It’s...”

“Plain WRONG!”

Russ did his job with the drive of an artist — of the invisible: you saw his presence in the absence of mistakes.

Behind the scenes he had a kind of local omniscience. Like God, or J. Edgar Hoover, Russ knew all the “Reader writers’” sins (and maybe hated that expression, another noun modifying a noun, most of all). But beneath the Zeus-grade furor and obsession with order, there beat a heart of gold.

When it came to grammatical niceties, he and I used to battle like brothers, because we were. Even when he was in the hospital (he died of cancer, February 23), I still emailed him my work: out of respect; and in the hope that he might, I don’t know, give it a quick read? ■

Little Miss Sunshine, book by James Lapine, music and lyrics by William Finn.
La Jolla Playhouse, Mandell Weiss Theatre, UCSD.
Directed by James Lapine; cast: Bradley Dean, Carmen Ruby Floyd, Hunter Foster, Malcolm Gets, Georgi James, Dick Latessa, Eliseo Roman, Andrew Samonsky, Jennifer Laura Thompson, Taylor Trensch, Sally Wilfert, Zakiya Young; scenic design, David Korins, costumes, Jennifer Caprio, lighting, Ken Billington, sound, Dan Moses Schreier, musical director, Vadim Feichtner, choreographer, Christopher Gattelli.
Playing through March 27; Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Matinee Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. 858-550-1010.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego Made Holiday Market, Veterans Day Parade & VetFest

Events November 10-November 11, 2024
Next Article

The Fellini of Clairemont High

When gang showers were standard for gym class
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader