iTunes Exclusive Episode Bella An American Tall Tale

Woo!
Greetings, Empire member and or members.
If you are hearing the sound of live voice it means the following conditions have been met.
At least once in your life you have listened to the Clubhouse podcast.
Or one stop shop for all things, sports and pop culture, live every Sunday, 70s turn
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But it also means you subscribed to the show on iTunes because it is time for another
actoos exclusive.
The 242nd one of these things as we creep ever closer to another landmark.
My name is Rob, I am the executive producer of the Clubhouse podcast and I am a fan of the
old west.
But I would want to live there.
Joining me for this particular edition is the official fact checker of this show and a man
who can say probably at least once in his life he's felt like he lived in the old
west.
You may know I'm as fond on go but his mom and even don Ford, I'm going to call him
Don Ford.
Welcome sir.
Being born and Wyoming counts as the same.
That's what I was going to do.
Yes, exactly.
There are some places in here that pure western ghost town can imagine.
Whatever we do want to think of these things, it is to review something.
This particular episode is no exception to that.
We are here right now to review for you a stage production, a world premier stage production.
A stage production that has never been done anywhere else in the history of ever.
It is called Bella and American Talltown currently playing at the Wiley Theatre at the Dallas
Theatre Center.
For what's up this whole thing?
Yes sir.
We got to thank Katherine, everybody at the Wiley, Dallas Theatre Center, everybody.
Absolutely.
It's so good.
That's nice.
Very sweet lady.
Great bunch of people there.
Beautiful theater.
Okay, so again.
This is a world premiere musical, first time ever.
Takes place in the late 1870s as the main character Bella, who is a Bella, is boarding
a train.
She is going to be taking this train to Arizona to meet her buffalo soldier boyfriend and
start a new life because some things have happened in her hometown in Tupolo that have
forced her to leave town under an assumed name.
So what's the issue going to?
She's going to, we don't know, somewhere in Arizona, okay, that's all we need to know.
On this train ride, she meets many different characters in which lead her to many different
adventures.
And that's where I'm going to lead it.
Let me first of all say one of the things I love about the Wiley Theatre is how many
different configurations that room can do.
Is it the main stage?
Yes, the main.
Okay.
I mean, we've seen it in so many different iterations depending on the production.
This was pretty much straight up.
There was no runway coming off the stage, so it was pretty much straight seating.
Okay.
I'm like, I think this may be the only time that's ever happened because I want to say
even he-ha.
He-ha.
Not much, but nothing like the big ones, but it was still, it was, the seats were
so angled.
Yes.
This is straight.
This is straight.
Even the first balcony that you walk off the elevator to, all those seats are
just faced forward.
They didn't face this in.
Oh, really?
Yes.
Okay.
Let's see if configuration here was different.
Okay.
Let's just go down the list.
Performance wise.
This cast is amazing.
Is anybody we've seen before?
Maybe one person.
Did it, did it, did it?
Let me get you the name.
Playing aunt Diana.
Okay.
Liz Mikael, M.I.K.E. or Michael.
I want to say she's part of the local troop.
Okay.
None of the other ones I recognized.
All right.
Beautiful performances.
Actually, D. Kelly playing the main character has a purity to her voice that carries
through that room like a sail.
So she plays the Bella.
She does.
She plays Isabella.
So I'm very, very strong performances by Canita Armilla, who plays her mother.
Everybody plays a lot of different roles except for Bella.
Everybody else plays multiple roles.
And performance is also one of my favorites personally is URL.
Is it true?
I'm going to screw this up.
Is she a retta?
I know.
I'm screwing that up.
We're so much nicer.
But one of the first people they encounter was the trains moving is a Vakero, who jumps
on the train.
What's a Vakero?
Spanish cowboy.
Okay.
Very, very funny.
Okay.
His name is Diego.
Diego.
Very, very funny.
Very much enjoyed his performance.
Diego.
Also incredibly strong performances by, let me just make sure I get this right.
Clifton Oliver, who plays her buffalo soldier, man-made allowicious.
Okay.
Very, very strong voice as well as Donald Weber Jr.
who plays the porter on the train.
Okay.
Whose his role kind of evolves a little bit as nothing goes on.
Love the cast.
Cast was insanely good.
Okay.
Was it an even till besides the main characters where this anybody else, they pushed
somebody too much or not enough?
Not really.
I mean, so the balance of the stage time between most of the cast was the right amount.
I mean, everybody.
Actually, D. Kelly has to carry this thing.
Okay.
Because she's literally in every scene.
She has to carry it.
Oh, I'm not actually just like the Chris, maybe two that she's not.
Just like the Christmas Carol, we did where the one screw, the screws were one character
carry the whole thing.
He's in there all the time.
Kelly did an amazing job here.
Very, very excellent job.
Didn't find a week link in the entire cast.
Everybody in this is incredibly strong.
The voices, everybody singing.
Okay.
There's no orchestra.
There's a live band.
There's the stage within the stage.
Yeah.
And the stage within the stage is a mini version of the main stage.
Okay.
Exactly.
Replica.
Okay.
So there is a 1, 2, 3, 4.
8 piece band.
Back there.
Are they there the whole time?
Yes.
Okay.
But there's a curtain that draws everyone.
Always see them.
But they're always there.
They're set there.
Excellent work by the musicians.
I really enjoyed especially the work of, I'm sure I get this right.
Guitar player Todd Parsnell did he built.
He played a guitar, he played a banjo, he played multiple instruments going back and forth
in an amazing job.
Visually, before I get to that guy, the sound did it one, the singing overdue the sound
or was it all?
So was the great work by the sound engineers.
Usually an absolutely gorgeous set, great use of the technology.
When they were on the train, there was no real set.
It was just a bunch of like chairs, but the chairs looked like you're in a train car, basically.
No, they were just a bunch of chairs.
If you were sitting in.
Okay.
As if they were set up on a train.
But the lighting around it made it look like maybe the idea that they were moving.
But the stage also is a turntable.
Okay.
So that worked well, especially in the scenes on the train.
It really worked well, transitioning, okay.
This story is a mess.
Okay.
Before we get to that, I'm just going to say it up front.
Well, hold that thought.
You know in some of these films, one of my pet peeves, one of the space productions?
Yes.
Is that there's, the pot is like who cares, and let's just think of something minimal
and it's all about the singing.
Was it a lot of singing, singing, what's the way through or was it half and half?
No.
Would you say balance with the singing?
But the singing didn't carry the story.
Okay.
The story is so all over the place.
There were moments that I was just like, what are we doing here?
What is this?
Wait.
Is it?
I'm going to say this because I don't think this is a spoiler because the opening number
is called the girl with Tupolo with the big booty.
Okay.
That's interesting.
Okay.
The booty plays a role in the production.
I'm not getting you here.
Okay.
If certain mix a lot had written a musical in the old West, this is what we're dealing with.
Okay.
So was the pot more of a bad, like, clouds of sales, Maria's or not a cup where you just
don't know, like, what's going on?
It was one of those deals were to me it felt like you had a bunch of writers in a room
together and everything everybody said got put in.
So that you had 10 writers and 10 people want something put in there because, okay, let's
put your part, your part, your part and they just, you weren't at all in the other.
So you're going like, there was there were scenes that to me were served no other purpose
than shock value.
Like there's a scene with Aloysius where he, there's a point where Bella ends up
joining the circus and Aloysius finds out that she's part of the circus and he kind
of freaks out.
So you get this part of it because you want to show the emotion of how he deals with
his, his be troved going in the direction that he's not a fan of.
Well, so as he finds this out, Aloysius bartender whiskey and then all of a sudden,
all hell breaks loose.
Him and his buddies start singing a song about racism and about him being called the
N word and the song actually says, if you don't start no S, there won't be no S. And
they're like, stop calling us the N word or whatever. Like four of the guys in the
chorus are white. This was just, I sat there in the audience like am I the only one missing
something here?
So it was a kind of like that kind of scenario where you're driving down the road and
you say, you know what, let's just take a right turn at this street for an inexplicable
reason because it just seems like even though there's a tree there and we're probably
getting hit it.
Yeah, but let's just, you know, take a right down this street that says dead in just
for the heck of it, kind of thing. It was just like I was sitting there going, why, why,
why, why, why, what was the point of that song or what was the point of that thing?
There was a lot of that, especially in the second act. Like there's a point where she
has a dream sequence with a technology works kind of cool because it introduces a character
that's in her dream and the way he shows up is kind of neat. Okay. But a lot of it
I was just like, what's this necessary? Like even as the thing unfolded and we got
to the climax and the resolution, I was even just like, I guess I give you points
for me not knowing where this was going and then you got there, but I don't know that
you really got there for me. It was just, I mean, I was really, really intrigued going
into this thing and then it just kind of fell apart. So question, would it be if I was
there going, excuse me? Huh? What, what, could someone explain to me what's going on in
English here? I'm telling you, you were just like, what, what did I miss? What am I missing
here? This is weird. Singing was great, but you're just great performance. This is great
set design great visually, but you can't make up for a bad script. Because it's just out of
the blue. It's just, we're talking about, you know, it's like they're talking about baseball and
hey, let's talk about the price of price in China. Pretty much. Okay. And I said this in my
written review, which is located at www.theclubhousepodcast.com, which is our website. I can see
the potential for this going to something on a bigger scale, but not necessarily in its current
incarnation. It's going to have to be retooled quite a bit, the script. Absolutely. I mean,
you could take this company on the road. They were amazing from top to bottom. And they made
the best they could with what they had. So let's put this in perspective as they kind of like,
you have one of the top chefs in the world like Gordon Ramsay. You put them in a professional
kitchen like Ed something in in Paris or something in downtown Manhattan, New York, Stalk Kitchen.
And when they go into the, to get the food to prep, it's canned oysters. It's, that's exactly it.
It's, uh, dried pasta. Yeah. It's TV dinners for the Southberry steak kind of thing.
And you have, you have so much potential, but there's this, that one thing. It's just like
eight working. I will say there were moments that I did last. Yeah. There were moments. Okay. But it
was so for lack of a better term scatter shot that I would just, I walked out like what, what just
happened here. You know what, come again? I don't, I, I just, I can't put it all together.
And maybe I'm just not cultured enough to do so. I don't know. But if that's the case, I'm kind
of okay with that. Because I was just like, this, this, this is a mess. And it just, uh,
I wanted to be so excited going in because I was very intrigued because I didn't know a lot about it.
And by the end of it, I was, I was disappointed in the actual story itself. Everybody else was
amazing. Every other aspect of this thing was absolutely amazing. Any consensus from the crowd and
stuff and the people there. Very mixed. Uh, there was an older couple that sat next to me.
I could tell when things were a little too much for them because they would clap normally.
There was sometimes it, that they didn't clap at all. Yeah. Uh, there were different groups of people
around me that acted different ways and different scenes. Yeah. And maybe that was the intent.
I don't know. But if it was, you still need to rework it. Yeah. You know. But again,
outside of the script itself. I mean, I can't, I really enjoyed the performances. I enjoyed the
tech. I enjoyed the, the musicians themselves. It just fell flat for me when it came to the story.
No, okay. From that point, just go to the final analysis. The way we do the final analysis on this show.
If you just joined us for the first time, we're not going to give you thumbs up thumbs down. We're
not going to give you numbers, letter grades, anything like that. Two questions. Question number one is,
what I see this production again at the answers. No, we're done here. The answer is yes.
Then it's going to be with since this is a stage production. The question becomes how far
we're on it. Where do I want to sit? Because I'll let you know how much money I'd be willing to pay,
which kind of gives you my sense of urgency. I personally would not see this again. I've seen worse.
Don't get me wrong. Yes. But I personally would not see this again. If you would recommend
it, I would only recommend this would it be someone's curiosity was so peat that they had to see it.
Because it's different. It's a different kind of a production. And somebody wanted to see it. Would you
save me in four second tier or third balcony? I'd say maybe that second balcony. Okay.
Because where you sit doesn't really dictate like your view. Okay. Anywhere you sit,
you're going to have a good view with this thing. But you can barely recommend it for the right
group of people if you do. Don't spend too much. Yeah, pretty much. I mean, that's really the only way
I can put it. Well, before we end this thing again, we're going to have to thank Katherine,
thank you so much from the Wiley and it's called Bella and American Tall Tale. It is playing
at the Wiley Theater Center through October the 22nd. That is the run on this thing. That being said,
let's do the plugs. Visit our website, the aforementioned www.theclubhousepodcast.com.
Find out everything you need to know in some stuff you don't. You can follow us on Twitter at
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You can follow me on social media. My Twitter and my Instagram are both the S. That Rob Irvin
that is spelled ERV-I-N. My normal co-host for this show is Chad Wamik. You can follow him on Twitter at
ChadNPG69. I'm at Fondango and you can email me at Don at theclubhousepodcast.com. Email
Don for information how we can come to a live show for you. We got some live shows coming up that
we're very excited about. We're going to tell you about very soon. You can email me if you'd like
questions, comments, concerns, tell me to go out and send. I am Rob at theclubhousepodcast.com.
Chad is Chad at theclubhousepodcast.com. Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest because we are morally
obligated to say that and Jules Wamik probably wherever Chad is. Our normal show every Sunday,
night, seven Eastern for Pacific is your one stop shop for all things pop culture or just keep
subscribing on iTunes and you get everything. So until next time, for Don for the Empire,
I'm Rob. Clubhouse is closed. New month on the Brittany Palmer calendar.