Ion Theatre, which lost its space on Ninth Avenue late last year, brought back its hit production of David Ives’ “All in the Timing.” Downtown is still the locale, and under his breath at opening night April 27, producing artistic director Glenn Paris voiced the hope that the production would become the city’s new “Triple Espresso.”
“All in the Timing” plays an open-ended engagement with its original San Diego cast at 6th Avenue Bistro. At the corner of 6th and B, the Bistro is extremely popular with patrons of San Diego Symphony and La Jolla Music Society, who dine there prior to concerts. The underground cabaret, part of the Southern Hotel, is less well known.
The success of “All in the Timing” would be well-deserved and a nice turn of events for all concerned, including Bistro owners Jack and Janet Gambrell. Chef Jack’s food is delicious, his menu varied and his prices right. And yet, “All in the Timing” is the intellectual’s “Triple Espresso” and therefore may not have the broad (and mindless) appeal of the musical, which continues at least through July 1, according to the Horton Grand Theatre box office.
“All in the Timing” is a delicious series of comedy sketches featuring Laura Bozanich, Andrew Kennedy, Jonathan Sachs and Kim Strassburger. Paris and Ion founding executive artistic director Claudio Raygoza co-direct the hilarious, well-timed piece, which is heady indeed and plays very well in the intimate cabaret.
The first sketch ” a romantic chance encounter in a café, acted by Kennedy and Bozanich ” sets up the meaning of “timing” as dialogue proceeds, then regresses at the sound of a bell. Each person restates previous remarks, hoping to score with the other.
We next see three chimps in a cage, played by Kennedy, Sachs and Strassburger. Their keeper is a scientist named Rosenbaum, whose theory is that three apes locked in a cage with typewriters will eventually come up with “Hamlet.” Strassburger is Kafka, Sachs is Milton, and Kennedy is Swift. The dialogue is sprinkled with appropriate quotes, heavy on “Paradise Lost.”
Other sketches concern a fraudulent universal language, featuring Bozanich as student and Kennedy as instructor; the death of Russian exile Leon Trotsky, uproariously played by Sachs as Trotsky, Strassburger as his wife and Kennedy as Ramon, his communist assassin; a restaurant where people are “in a Philadelphia” situation where nothing goes right; and the culminating, cultural piece de resistance, which concerns minimalist composer Philip Glass, as he tries to purchase a loaf of bread. The sketch is sung in Glass’s inimitable style.
Appetizers and drinks (there’s a full-service bar) may be ordered and consumed during the show, which runs approximately 90 minutes with two brief intervals. Those choosing to partake of a full-on meal upstairs prior to curtain receive $5 off show tickets (limit six, regular price $25-$35). Curtain is at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays. For tickets, visit www.iontheatre.com, or www.sixthavenuebistro.com or call (619) 374-6894.
“¢ Here’s some exciting casting: The Old Globe has announced that James Sutorius (George in “Lincolnesque”) and associate artist Monique Fowler will play George and Martha in the upcoming “Classics Up Close” production of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” in the Cassius Carter Centre Stage May 19 through June 24. Richard Seer directs. For tickets ($39-$58) and info, visit www.theoldglobe.org or call (619) 23-GLOBE.
