CLOWNZILLA: A Love Story
Critic’s
Choice
Clownzilla:
A Love Story is staged like a silent movie,
juggling darkness, light and fun with clownish antics.
Don't let the modest means of this oddly delightful assault
on clown social dynamics fool you. Beneath its cracked
sensibility bubbles elemental energy that reaches past
commedia dell'arte to Aristophanes. Clownzilla walks
a tightrope between absurdist angst and daft precocity.
The freewheeling festivities offer a slapstick valentine
to geeks everywhere.
--- LA Times
Clownzilla is something else entirely. The show’s
greatest strength lies in its comedic performances, which
are uniformly excellent.
--- OC Register
The
art of classic whiteface clowning is preserved by
Clownzilla.
In their first show, A
Love Story,
the quintet of performers delivers a lighthearted
look at the pronounced differences between the cool "in" hipsters
and their awkward "out" counterparts.
--- Backstage West
They
give us a chance to laugh wholeheartedly while thinking
about the perennial tendency of humans to form cliques – including
some, excluding others. Alita appears ready to inherit
the mantle of Emmett Kelly... Mugavero projects the
surprised and often baffled look of great silent film
comic Harry Langdon.
All
five performers prove expert in sight gags, mugging
and pratfalls, upholding the circus-clown tradition.
As such, "Clownzilla," which
is framed as a silent film, offers a whirlwind of
wordless clowning.
--- OC Weekly
Fiddler on the Roof
CRITIC'S
PICK
Eli Simon and his technical crew have 'fiddled about'
a bit with the traditional look of the show, imparting
their own viewpoint without destroying the original
intent. There has been no 'ethnic cleansing' in this
production. Simon's direction keeps the action moving
smoothly and briskly in this long show. Simon's most
inspired moment comes with the hilarious 'Tevye's Dream,'
which features a live Fruma-Sarah as well as a large,
three person-operated puppet.
--- Backstage West
A
FINE FIDDLE
PCPA's production of beloved classic lives up to its
rich history. Every scene is delightful...The imagery
in the dream scene is spectacular. Once is not enough
for this show. Two or three times would be better. Simon
chose to show the hopes for a better life and joy of
spreading a rich tradition in his directing.
--- Santa Maria Times
PCPA
PRESENTS FANTASTIC 'FIDDLER'
Fiddler on the Roof is given a fresh face and new heart
by PCPA Theatrefest in a production that has it all.
. . . this team has created a show with high humor,
drama, pathos, memorable songs, dazzling dance and fine
acting. The high moments alternate with sad ones. It's
hard to imagine a better production of this great musical.
--- New-Press Theatre Review
STRONG
PERFORMANCES RAISE THIS 'FIDDLER'
PCPA offers a classic, full-scale, singing, dancing
extravaganza about an entire community. Before you go
to this production, be forewarned: you'll be going around
singing 'If I Were a Rich Man' for weeks to come.
--- Santa Maria Sun
As You Like It
LIES
OF LOVE
Director Eli Simon has brilliantly transposed the action
of the play from its Shakespearean fantasyland to America
in the 1930's, specifically Chicago during the Great
Depression.
--- Chicago Tribune
SHAKESPEARE
FESTIVAL OFFERS LIKEABLE, INTELLIGENT PERFORMANCES
This year's imports from California enrich the festival.
--- Chicago Sun Times
SHAKESPEAREAN
CHICAGO A SURPRISE SUCCESS
Setting 'As You Like It' in the 1930's gives classic
play a fresh appeal. Elizabethan tights are traded for
Chicago grit in a funny, engaging and completely updated
production at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. Simon
evokes this era through telling details. It's a celebration
of the 1930's Midwest, a mythic time of gangsters and
hobos, jazz saturated clubs and poverty-choked farmlands.
--- Journal-Star, Peoria, Ill
Sweeney Todd
'SWEENEY
TODD' RAZOR SHARP AT UCI
Sweeney is swinging his razor with a vengeance at UC
Irvine, where director Eli Simon has mounted a magnificent
production of this nightmarish melodrama. Sweeney Todd
is an overwhelming challenge for any theater group,
and UCI has answered with a dynamic production calculated
to give playgoers nightmares set to music.
--- LA Times.com, Daily Pilot
TALENTED
CAST SHINES IN MACABRE 'SWEENEY TODD'
Credit director Eli Simon, for marshaling together such
a strong cast of 33 performers equally talented in the
acting and singing areas. And it's to his credit that
the gruesome story . . . moves along at a quick-enough
pace.
--- Irvine World News
Twelfth Night
FIRST
RATE TWELFTH NIGHT AT UCI
Director Eli Simon approaches the play with a chuckle,
and with a laudable cast that revels in the romp. The
comic edge Simon gives the production is compounded
in the gorgeous costumes by John Patton, backed up with
an ever-changing projection in Karen Webber’s
scenic design, which under Rebel Luckau’s painterly
lighting, has the effect of an Yves Tanguy painting.
--- LA Times
Venetian Physician’s Magician
THIS
WEEK IN BAWDINESS
Under Eli Simon’s take-no-prisoners direction,
the California Commedia Troupe isn’t afraid to
sink as low as possible to get the cheapest of cheap
laughs. It’s a nasty brilliance. My only complaint?
Exhausted from laughing for an hour and a half, I didn’t
want to leave when the show was over.
--- O.C. Weekly
VENETIAN
PHYSICIAN’S MAGICIAN FUNNY IN A BAWDY, RISQUE
WAY
Never mind the plot. The jokes reign supreme here. So
if you like those unrestrained Mel Brooks movies but
think they’re still too inhibited, then you’ll
really go wild for Venetian.
---Irvine World News
INTERNATIONAL
STREET THEATRE AT ITS VERY BEST
The California Commedia Troupe performed outside Southport's
Arts Centre. Using zany plots, tricks, and masked characters,
the production was extremely high paced and full of
theatrical stunts and non-stop laughs.
---The Champion, Liverpool
Victor/Victoria
UCI
HITS A HIGH NOTE WITH VICTOR/VICTORIA
Victor/Victoria, under the superlative direction
of Eli Simon, was clearly the top show of the year,
radiating professional quality in all departments.
--- Daily Pilot / LA Times
Guys and Dolls
SOME
GUYS AND DOLLS WITH PANACHE, ENERGY
Director Eli Simon’s staging of Loesser’s
masterpiece is full of life, top-notch musically, and
grinning with all the affection Runyan himself had for
his characters. Masterson, Detroit, and their pals come
to life here with panache and energy. The company makes
Loesser’s score sparkle. Damon
Runyan had a deep affection for those on the edge of
the law, and that fondness shows in his writing. That
same affection runs through director Eli Simon's staging
of the show at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.
---LA Times
GUYS
AND DOLLS A FITTING SHOWPIECE FOR UCI ARTS WEEK
If you’re looking for a fun and funny time in
the theater, run, don’t walk to the Irvine Barclay
Theatre. Guys and Dolls is an absolute treat. The show
deserves no lesss than a team and cast at the peak of
their creativity. And the School of the Arts has managed
that, beginning with dramatic director Eli Simon. He
has assembled an enthusiastic and "into it"
cast that shines in the smaller roles as well as the
principal ones. His sense of pacing moves at the crack
of a whip but without the freneticism required of a
farce, which Guys and Dolls clearly is not. What it
is, is a well-written story with songs, and Simon treats
it as such.
---
Orange County Register
On Borrowed Time
LA
MIRADA LIVES WELL 'ON BORROWED TIME'
Director Eli Simon and a worthy cast find the human
heart of Osborne's warm, gently comic play. In fact,
maturity and restraint mark this show, which in the
wrong hands might easily have seemed dated and one-dimensional.
This is perhaps the best cast yet assembled at the venue.
Fortunately, director Simon, who teaches acting at the
University of California, Irvine, knows exactly what
to do with it.
--- Orange County Register
TENDER
TOUCH TO AN AMERICAN CLASSIC: 'ON BORROWED TIME'
Eli Simon's direction is worthy of any Broadway theatre.
It's clean, lush, not rushed.
---Press Telegram
'ON
BORROWED TIME' AT LA MIRADA THEATER FOR THE PERFORMING
ARTS
With an all-around excellent ensemble, the fortune of
this gentle comedy is a rich one. The production's most
powerful appeal, however, springs from director Eli
Simon's appropriately playful touch and the strong performances
of the entire cast.
--- Dramalogue
Winner
of 9 Dramalogue Awards including Best Production and
Direction
Italian American Reconciliation
EXTRAVAGANT
'RECONCILIATION' MORE ABOUT BUDDIES THAN LOVE
In this highly entertaining production, director Eli
Simon ignores none of the Italian shtick, from the strains
of Sinatra and Pavarotti, to the evocation of New York's
Little Italy. The key word is extravagance, in acting
styles as well as decorative touches.
--- Boston Herald
'ITALIAN
AMERICAN RECONCILIATION': MERRIMACK REPERTORY THEATRE
MRT has done itself proud in this production. Eli Simon
directs the able cast in a well-timed and brilliantly
staged production.
---The Bolton Common
Merchant of Venice
MERCHANT
OF VENICE SELLS PECULIAR MIX OF EMOTIONS, BUT, MOSTLY,
COMEDY IS KING
Boredom will not be one of the experiences of this production.
Confusion? Perhaps. Enjoyment? Most certainly. Eli Simon's
interpretation is a perplexing and fascinating one.
--- The Salt Lake Tribune
City of Angels
FAST
PACED RIDE THROUGH 'CITY OF ANGELS'
In this snappy revival at the Irvine Barklay, the show
has to move as fast as the films it is about. Simon
gets top-flight performances from his cast, many of
whom not only play characters in Stine's real world
but also double as the characters he has created for
the film.
--- LA Times
STRONG
DIRECTION, TALENT GIVE FLIGHT TO THIS 'CITY OF ANGELS'
Given the scarcity of professional venues here...universities
have long provided Orange County with some of its best
theatrical productions. The latest proof is 'City of
Angels'. This is a show blessed with a big budget, capable
direction and lots of promising talent drawn from UCI's
departments of dance, drama, and music. The result is
a strong, highly entertaining staging of the jazzy,
technically challenging musical.
--- Orange County Register
Noises Off
'NOISES':
INS AND OUTS OF FARCE ON-STAGE AND OFF
The trip is hilarious. For the most part, Eli Simon's
direction approaches realism, and when it does, players
both on and backstage are very funny.
--- LA Times
Show
of the Year, 1995
Alekhine's Defense
SCR:
THE CAST SUPPLIES THE BRIGHT SPOTS IN 'ALEKHINE'S DEFENSE'
As directed by Eli Simon, the sparks between Fulton's
June and Sicular's Alan keep flickering throughout the
evening.
--- LA Times
'DEFENSE':
CHECK YOUR MATE
South Coast Rep's premiere production of Alekhine's
Defense, attentively staged by Eli Simon, has pinpointed
such comic vital signs as a sometimes dourly witty script
offers.
--- Orange County Register
Death of a Salesman
USF
STAGES ENTHRALLING 'DEATH OF A SALESMAN'
Ever so seldom a wonderful phenomenon happens in the
theater: The world outside ceases to exist and, for
a few hours, actor and audience become one. There is
no explaining how or why, it just is. Such an occasion
was the opening performance of Death of a Salesman at
the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Under the superb guidance
of director Eli Simon it is an aching love story of
a man who never understood who he was.
--- The Salt Lake Tribune
'DEATH
OF A SALESMAN' OFFERS BRILLIANT TRAGEDY
In bringing Miller's masterpiece to the Utah Shakespearean
Festival sage, director
Eli Simon and his talented cast have created a visual
and emotional panorama that lends itself brilliantly
to Death of a Salesman's familiar framework.
--- Daily Spectrum
Threepenny Opera
HIGH-STYLE
'THREEPENNY OPERA'
The production at UCI is a knockout. The sparks fly
under Eli Simon's effervescent direction. Simon approaches
camp but not closely enough to be anything but high
style. He passes off the script's intratheatrical devices
--- dialogue or action that reminds the audience they're
watching a play --- with fine tuned understatement,
and he moves the company like figures out of Hogarth.
--- LA Times
Show
of the Year, 1993
Rimers of Eldritch
'RIMERS OF ELDRITCH: A TRIUMPH AT WESTERN
Eli Simon's direction is as complex as the choreography
in a two-hour Russian ballet. If an evening of fine
and stylish ensemble acting is your meat, 'Rimers' is
well worth the trip.
--- Herald
THE
RIMERS OF ELDRITCH
Director Eli Simon has directed an excellent ensemble
in creating a visually and emotionally powerful production.
With a minimal set and no props, Simon focused his attention
on Wilson's words.
--- Coast Weekly
Golden Boy
ODETS'
'GOLDEN BOY' IS STILL POWERFUL IN BOLD UCI REVIVAL
Odets' allegory remains as powerful today as when it
first graced the Broadway stage 52 years ago. Simon's
touch goes much deeper than setting the tone. Simon
chooses to stage Joe's violin playing scene in full
view and he manages to achieve a breathtaking effect.
The experience seemed miraculous on opening night, and
the audience was properly mesmerized.
--- LA Times
Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality
Act
UCI FINDS POETRY ARRESTING IN EARLY ONE-ACT BY FUGARD
The anger and bitter honesty in 'Statements After an
Arrest Under the Immorality Act' are vividly present
in a production at the Village Theatre. But more important,
director Eli Simon has found the rich lyricism and the
early humor in Fugard's writing. He conducts the one-act
drama like a chamber concerto, with a light touch that
is often giddy in its affection for the human comedy
and yet can reverberate with thundering effect when
the action warrants. Simon's staging is impeccable,
theatrically mesmerizing even on a bare stage dressed
only with a blanket on the floor.
--- LA Times
Show
of the Year, 1994
Cloud 9
UCI
PLAYERS IN 7TH HEAVEN ON 'CLOUD 9'
The UCI production, under the direction of Eli Simon
confirms the assessment that this play is singularly
brilliant achievement. He has assembled a fine student
cast and the technical aspects of the production are
splendid.
---
LA Times
