It is gaudy, big and brash, and features the mind of man in all its permutations \u2014 the self-critic, the pervert, the overly analytical \u2014 all hyper-kinetic and noisy parts of the psyche that prevent deep connection to, and empathy for, others.<\/p>\n We are so distracted by listening to ourselves, we don\u2019t listen to or share with others. Furthermore, we are intent on \u201ceducating\u201d others to feel and think as we do, and when they don\u2019t, we abuse them for their ignorance. The \u201cwe,\u201d of course, is modern-day narcissistic humanity and the \u201cup there\u201d of the musical\u2019s title refers to the axons and dendrites that make up the individual\u2019s galaxy or horde of internal advisers.<\/p>\n The mind in question is that of Dan, the Computer Man (Matt Bittner, a simply marvelous singer), who falls for a Mac user named Lindsay (Betsy Wolfe) when he\u2019s called in to save her dead hard drive.<\/p>\n The book of the musical consists of guy-meets-gal, gets-gal and loses-gal (Getting from A to B to C takes up the entire first act. The second act concerns getting girl back) because of his clamorous inner world, some benevolent, some downright nasty. These \u201cup there\u201d are played by an ensemble of 20 directed by Alex Timbers, costumed by Ann Closs-Farley, choreographed by Joshua Bergasse, fight-directed by George Y\u00e9, lighted by David J. Weiner, and amplified by Peter Sylenski. They are accompanied by a 10-piece orchestra (Music Director\/incidental music by Aron (sic) Accurso, orchestrations by Dave Metzger, and vocal arrangements by Robert Lopez). And don\u2019t forget the puppets by Michelle Zamora.<\/p>\n All the makings of a Broadway hit are here. They just need to be tamed, refined and clarified. Maybe that will happen during the rest of the Playhouse engagement.<\/p>\n \u2014Charlene Baldridge has been writing about the arts since 1979. You can follow her blog at charlenebaldridge.com<\/a> o llegar a ella en charb81@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Charlene Baldridge There\u2019s enough production expenditure before our eyes to feed a frugal family of four for 50 years. Well, perhaps that\u2019s an exaggeration, but La Jolla Playhouse\u2019s world-premiere production of \u201cUp Here\u201d (book, music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez) is all about exaggerating and breaking traditions.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":731,"featured_media":249019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Extravagant \u2018Up Here\u2019","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/731"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/19732098114_39d5807988_oweb.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Betsy](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/20166753068_5282fcc383_oweb-236x300.jpg\")
<\/a>
(Photo by Matthew Murphy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Screen-Shot-2015-08-13-at-2.25.31-PM.png\")
<\/a>Don\u2019t fail to note the Child (wonderful Giovanni Cozic) who punctuates the show, appearing and prefacing his remarks, \u201cMeanwhile \u2026\u201d. The musical\u2019s most astonishing scene, musically and dramaturgically (the chorus sings counterpoint), is the 11th-hour duet between Dan and the Child. Another top scene is played by Eric Petersen (Lindsay\u2019s challenged brother, Tim) as he woos his former boss (Zonya Love) in the song \u201cThere\u2019s No Such Thing as the Number One\u201d at the Best Buy she runs. Tim is the show\u2019s most appealing, most fleshed out, most sympathetic character. Though they are given numerous appealing songs and duets (\u201cI Have No Idea What I\u2019m Doing,\u201d \u201cI Feel Like I\u2019ve Always Known You,\u201d and \u201cI Can Never Know You,\u201d among others), Dan and Lindsay are ciphers until the second act; he because of his annoying entourage and she because we\u2019ve no idea what really makes her tick.<\/p>\n