REVIEWS!
FROM THE CRITICS
"I went to Zombie Joe's Underground to enjoy one of their usual great theatre productions. However, Emperor Norton The Musical motivated me to do a review. This fabulous musical was done in a 49 seat black box ....just unbelievable that this theatre company would be so ambitious to do a 10-member cast musical including a great piano player (also this production's musical composer-in-the-flesh) Marty Axelrod.
This light hearted musical comedy takes place in the 1850s in San Franciso's Barbary Coast and pays homage to a much loved man of the past, Joshua Norton, a rich business man who lost his fortune and his mind. Joshua played exquisitely by Matthew Tucker proclaimed himself Emperor of the United States making proclamations such as dissolving Congress and building a bridge between San Francisco and Oakland....crazy was he? The cast of this charming musical takes you on a wonderful journey of great comedy, song and dance. The entire cast was multi-talented and did an outstanding job. Some of my favorite numbers included Lucas Salazar singing, "All The Friends You Can Get". Amelia Megan Gotham and Jessica Amal Rice singing "Ain't No Washer Woman No More" and fantastic numbers by the entire cast, "Barbary Coast" and "The King Is Dead". Also, must mention Kyle Clare and Christopher Goodwin's superb portrayal of 2 most lovable dogs. The Director, Jim Eshom is extraordinarily talented to pull off this top notch, full production musical in this "intimate" theatre. Zombie Joe's Underground Theatre Group is a force to be reckoned with....A MUST SEE!"
NoHo Arts District
by Nancy Bianconi
November 2009
GO -- One person’s madman is another’s hero, a sentiment blithely celebrated in Kim Ohanneson and Marty Axelrod’s melodramatic musical based on the life and legend of Joshua A. Norton, a failed businessman who proclaimed himself Emperor of the United States in 1859. Luckily for Norton (Matthew Tucker), he lived in San Francisco, a city that embraces the bizarre and which did the same for the putative sovereign. Narrated by newsboy Smiggy (Lucas Salazar), the tale recounts how various business interests exploited Norton’s eccentric — if not insane — behavior financially while the “Emp” remained a pauper (“commerce over conscience” is a running line.) …Director Jim Eshom and his cast’s commitment to the play’s nonsense saves the day. Kyle Clare and Christopher Goodwin are a hoot as two rat-catching dogs who reputedly tagged after Norton; Aaron Lyons is a scheming villain, replete with waxed mustache, battling Matthew Sklar’s “ethical” newsman; and Amelia Megan Gotham and Jessica Amal Rice are hookers and sisters with hearts of gold, even if they do screech like hyenas. After all, as one song lyric goes, “It helps to be just a little bit crazy.”
LA Weekly
By Martin Hernandez
LA Weekly, November 13, 2009
"...a delightful...historically accurate story that really is a must-see for anyone living in the Bay Area, or anyone with the slightest interest in getting an idea of how San Francisco evolved into what it is today..."
Contra Costa Times
"...sweetly upbeat and crammed with enlightening local trivia..."
San Franciso Chronicle
"Editor's Pick," January 2007
"...a hilarious tribute to Norton, San Francisco and all its eccentricities...any San Francisco enthusiast would be crazy to miss this show."
Theatre Bay Area Magazine
"Ohannesson's book rambunctiously captures the frontier, anything-goes spirit of post-Gold Rush San Francisco. Axelrod's evocative score...combines a honkey-tonk, piano-bar feel... with arias alternately indebted to Gilbert & Sullivan and Lloyd-Webber & Rice."
SF Weekly
"...good humoured and heartwearming... a colorful portrait of a post-Barbary Coast city where anything and everyhting goes..."
KQED Arts & Culture Blog
FROM THE AUDIENCE
"Herb Caen would have loved this show!"
Maggie King
R.N.P.
"Emperor Norton the Musical is one ot the best plays I've ever seen."
Officer James Jarvis
Saloon Historian
Yerba Buena Number One
Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus
San Francisco, CA
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Norton's Cabaret: An Evening of Fun and Frolic at the Bella Union Melodeon
Read about "Norton's Caberet", the fundraiser for Emperor Norton, the Musical, in the SF Chronicle |
EMPEROR NORTON
the MUSICAL
was first presented
at The Dark Room
December 2, 2005 through February 13, 2006
See reviews below
Bay Area Guardian
SF Bay Times
Bay Area Reporter
Pic 1
Pic 2
FARLEY
by Phil Frank
SPECIAL THANKS TO
"There
have been other Emperors in the history of this world of ours
who have been out of their minds--their reigns were marked by
violence and atrocity...But ours was as none of these. CHARITY
TOWARDS ALL AND LOVING KINDNESS WERE IN HIS HEART."
Ernest A. Wiltsee
President, The Emperor Norton Memorial Association
June 30, 1934 |
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