I\u2019m sure there’s a much deeper meaning to it all, being British and written (in just one week<\/em>, I might add,) in 1945, during the war, but, with so many problems in today\u2019s<\/em> world, I just don’t have the patience to go there. So I took this one on face value. I loved the set, the performances, the occasional humor, and the discovery of just what happened to the poor girl.<\/p>\n Christine Kavanagh, Jeff Harmer, and Lianne Harvey. Photo by Mark Douet, as is the one at the top of this page.<\/p><\/div>\n And it\u2019s all made even better by the perfect, comfortable seats at the Wallis, of course. (Not to mention that we were sitting a row in front of James Franco and his girlfriend, who was wearing boots I was in love with!)<\/p>\n I had seen An Inspector Calls<\/em> at the Ahmanson Theatre in the late \u201990s, but that was in my clubbing days, so all I remembered was the set. (And no–\u201cclubbing\u201d is not a euphemism for \u201cdrugs!\u201d It just means that I was out late every night, dancing and hanging with my posse. \u00a0So events that began at 8pm, three hours before we usually even started to get ready<\/em> to go out, didn’t have my complete attention back then.) So I\u2019m thrilled that I got to see this show again right now, when I’m more present in life.<\/p>\n An Inspector Calls<\/em> is performed in one hour and forty-five minutes with no intermission, but I was never bored nor antsy, which is a rarity for me.<\/p>\n The way the action unfolds had me thinking that Inspector Goole is an old-timey British version of American TV\u2019s Detective Columbo. But, since J.B. Priestley wrote it in 1945, it\u2019s the other way around. I really do wonder now if Columbo<\/em> was based on Goole! (Wikipedia says no, but I\u2019m not convinced.)<\/p>\n I believe this is the first time I\u2019ve ever seen the curtain closed<\/em> at the beginning of a presentation on the Wallis stage, but when the Ian MacNeil-designed set was finally unveiled, I totally understood. I was bowled over by the visuals. I have no idea how the original<\/em> 1945 staging was done, (which actually opened in Moscow<\/em> because all the\u00a0theatres in England<\/em> were already booked,) but this is the way director Steven Daldry conceived it over twenty years ago, for a revival. You have to see it for yourselves to really appreciate the brilliance; the first ten minutes or so are a dinner party done in a tiny closed dining room, high above the stage floor of the cobblestoned streets of England. We can see bits of the participants, and hear them all, but that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n The show could have easily been done on a traditional drawing room set, which would have made it easier to watch, but I really applaud the bold, creative choice of this<\/em> brilliant design. The only problem for me is that I was sitting pretty close-up, (very happily,) so the realistic mist of the foggy night was making my hair frizz!<\/p>\n Liam Brennan as the Inspector, on the left. Photo by Mark Douet.<\/p><\/div>\n Every member of the cast is perfect, (although I still haven\u2019t figured why all of a sudden, there were about a dozen \u201cextras\u201d toward the end. That seemed unnecessary.)<\/p>\n It turns-out that all the actors have extensive credits in Great Britain, but have never worked on this<\/em> side of the pond! Not being familiar with them actually made the production a bit better because I was able to concentrate solely on their characters<\/em>, and not their outside<\/em> lives, as I often do when I know who actors are. So let me laud them all now, with high hopes that I see their work again, no matter where: Lianne Harvey, Hamish Riddle, Andrew Macklin, Liam Brennan, Christine Kavanagh, and Jeff Harmer.<\/p>\n Diana Payne-Myers. Photo by Sean Daniels-DVR Productions.<\/p><\/div>\n And when I read the program later, I discovered that Diana Payne-Myers (what a wonderful name, right?,) who plays the family\u2019s maid, (a strictly movement part, which is good since she\u2019s a decorated dancer,) is ninety-years-old<\/em>! And she\u2019s lifting chairs and buckets and doing tons of business all the time! How impressive is that<\/em>?! What an inspiration. I now have a new idol! (Sorry, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.)<\/p>\n In real life, I\u2019m always fascinated by how things are connected, and also at the chain<\/em> of events, and An Inspector Calls<\/em> has all that. (Here\u2019s an example from my<\/em> life of what I mean: If I hadn\u2019t chosen my first college, and then dated my theatre professor there, which got me friendly with another of his students who was coming out here to LA for the summer and told me to come visit him, which I did, and I got here just in time to see Mr. X on stage and fall in love with him from afar, and then I met people in that play, who brought me on stage for the last night, (long story,) which is how I met Mr. X, I would have never stayed in LA\u2014to work hard on Hamish Riddle and Lianne Harvey. Photo by Mark Douet.<\/p><\/div>\n Highlighted in the narrative of An Inspector Calls<\/em> is just how spoiled and high-and-mighty this upper-class family is. And lest you think that this extreme level of being spoiled is mainly fictitious, I\u2019m here to tell you that it is not. I had a really good friend some years ago who called me one day to tell me that it had been \u201cthe worst day\u201d of her life. I panicked, thinking something horrible had happened to her. But it turned-out that she just could not find a dress for a black-tie event! I kid you not. And the daughter in this play totally reminded me of that<\/em> little episode.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s not forget the many technical<\/em> aspects of this production. I enjoyed the mysterious music that underscores some of the action. It gives the show a movie quality at times. (And, I noticed, keeps some audience members awake.)<\/p>\n I also admire the artistic lighting, but darkness like that of the first half hour or so just strains my eyes and makes me drowsy.<\/p>\n Andrew Macklin. Photo by Mark Douet.<\/p><\/div>\n And I do have to admit that the staging<\/em> is a tad hard to get into, but I\u2019m sure it\u2019s all to accommodate that unique set.<\/p>\n The wardrobe is excellent, but there\u2019s one tiny thing that bothered me a tad. The mother\u2019s dress is stunning, but the beads on the bottom of the back of it make too much noise on the cobblestones, so maybe they should go.<\/p>\n Since this show is a mystery<\/em>, I kept thinking that the very rude latecomers (some walking down the aisle twenty minutes<\/em> late!,) were part of the show! That threw me off occasionally.<\/p>\n And, in that mystery category, the ending is, indeed, a mystery to me. (Upon seeing An Inspector Calls<\/em> right after I saw this year\u2019s film The Favourite<\/em>, I have concluded that Brits are just not fans of endings.)<\/p>\n So, here\u2019s a bit of a Spoiler Alert: If you don\u2019t want to know what I<\/em> think the ending should<\/em> have been, skip down to the info below, followed by a special announcement. Okay, here it is: I thought the Inspector was going to turn-out to be the dead girl\u2019s brother, out for revenge. A few people I told that to liked it better than the original, so, if you do, too, just imagine that to be it.<\/p>\n An Inspector Calls<\/em>\u00a0running through February 10, 2019<\/strong> But there\u2019s no mystery about this<\/em>\u2014I\u2019ll be live-tweeting the Screen Actors Guild Awards this\u00a0Sunday, beginning with the arrivals at 3PM West Coast time.\u00a0 So, if you don\u2019t already follow me on Twitter, this would be the time.\u00a0 My handle is @Majorcelebrity<\/strong>.\u00a0 I may even reveal for whom I voted, too, which trust me, no other SAG members do. (Unless they\u2019re trying to kiss a celeb\u2019s butt!\u00a0 And, in those cases, how honest are they really?)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" AN INSPECTOR CALLS I love\u00a0a good mystery. And that\u2019s exactly what this classic play from England is. On the surface, An Inspector Calls is the riveting story of an Inspector\u2019s interrogation of five members of a wealthy English family in 1912, over the death of a pretty young working-class girl, whom they all claim not<\/p>\n![\"Christine](\"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/org_img_1540241909_L-An-Inspector-Calls-Tour-2018-19.-Photo-by-Mark-Douet.-1D8A1840.jpg\")
<\/a><\/a><\/a> reeling him in<\/del> getting him to be my boyfriend\u2014and my current life would have been totally different!) So I really<\/em> loved watching the Inspector unravel the chain of events in this play, which are somewhat more dramatic than my own<\/em> timeline. (But not totally<\/em>\u2014you have to wait for my<\/em> play to discover all that. Only mine will, for sure, have no mist!)<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>
\n Wallis Annenberg Theater For The Performing Arts<\/strong>
\n 9390 N. Santa Monica Boulevard Beverly Hills 310-746-4000\u00a0www.thewallis.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n