Mountain Views News          Saturday, August 23, 2014

11

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Mountain Views-News Saturday, August 23, 2014 

Jeff’s Book Picks By Jeff Brown


SEAN’S SHAMELESS 

REVIEWS: 

Edgar Allan Poe: The Fever 
Called Living by Paul Collins 
Looming large in the popular 
imagination as a serious poet and 
lively drunk who died in penury, 
Edgar Allan Poe was also the most 
celebrated and notorious writer of 
his day. He died broke and alone at 
the age of forty, but not before he 
had written some of the greatest 
works in the English language, 
from the chilling “The Tell-Tale 
Heart” to “The Murders in the 
Rue Morgue”, the first modern 
detective story, to the iconic poem 
“The Raven.”Poe’s life was one of 
unremitting hardship. His father 
abandoned the family, and his 
mother died when he was three. 
Poe was thrown out of West 
Point, and married his beloved 
thirteen-year-old cousin, who 
died of tuberculosis at twenty-four. 
He was so poor that he burned 
furniture to stay warm. He was a 
scourge to other poets, but more 
so to himself. In the hands of 
Paul Collins, one of our liveliest 
historians, this mysteriously 
conflicted figure emerges as a 
genius both driven and undone 
by his artistic ambitions. Collins 
illuminates Poe’s huge successes 
and greatest flop (a 143-page prose 
poem titled Eureka), and even 
tracks down what may be Poe’s 
first published fiction, long hidden 
under an enigmatic byline. Edgar 
Allan Poe is a spellbinding story 
about the man once hailed as “the 
Shakespeare of America.”

To the Edge of the World: The 
Story of the Trans-Siberian 
Express, the World’s Greatest 
Railroad by Christian 
Wolmar 

To the Edge of the World is 
an adventure in travel, full of 
extraordinary personalities, more 
than a century of explosive political, 
economic, and cultural events, 
and almost inconceivable feats of 
engineering. Wolmar recounts 
the origins of the railroad, the 
vital artery for Russian expansion 
that spans almost 6,000 miles and 
seven time zones from Moscow to 
Vladivostok. The world’s longest 
train route took a decade to build, 
in the face of punishing climates, 
rampant disease, scarcity of funds 
and materials, and widespread 
corruption. Once built, it led to the 
establishment of new cities and 
transformed the region’s history. 
Exceeding all expectations, it 
became, , “the best thing that ever 
happened to Siberia.”It was not all 
good news, however. The railroad 
was the cause of the 1904–1905 
Russo-Japanese War, and played 
a vital, and at times bloody, role 
in the Russian Revolution and 
the subsequent Civil War. More 
positively, the Russians were able 
to resist the Nazi invasion during 
the Second World War as new 
routes enabled whole industries to 
be sent east. . And what began as 
one meandering, single-track line 
is now, arguably, the world’s most 
important railroad.

The Book of Unknown 
Americans: A novel by 
Cristina Henríquez 

A boy and a girl who fall in love. 
Two families whose hopes collide 
with destiny. An extraordinary 
novel that offers a resonant new 
definition of what it means to 
be American. Arturo and Alma 
Rivera have lived their whole lives 
in Mexico. One day, their beautiful 
fifteen-year-old daughter,

 Maribel, sustains a terrible 
injury, one that casts doubt on 
whether she’ll ever be the same. 
And so, leaving all they have 
behind, the Riveras come to 
America with a single dream: 
that in this country of great 
opportunity and resources, 
Maribel can get better. When 
Mayor Toro, whose family is 
from Panama, sees Maribel in a 
Dollar Tree store, it is love at first 
sight. It’s also the beginning of a 
friendship between the Rivera and 
Toro families, whose web of guilt 
and love and responsibility is at 
this novel’s core. Woven into their 
stories are the testimonials of men 
and women who have come to the 
United States from all over Latin 
America. Their journeys and their 
voices will inspire you, surprise 
you, and break your heart. 
Suspenseful, wry and immediate, 
rich in spirit and humanity, The 
Book of Unknown Americans is a 
work of rare force and originality.

By Sean Kayden

Let’s Be Cops

“Let’s Be Cops” is the 
latest buddy comedy to 
have hit theaters this 
summer. In fact, it’s the last R-rated comedy of the 
season. Is it worth the price of admission? Well, 
that’s a tricky one. The film is no “22 Jump Street” 
(which debuted earlier this summer). 
While in that film, the leads are actually cops 
impersonating college students, “Let’s Be Cops” 
features two best friends who don’t know a thing 
about being a police officer. The film has some 
good laughs and quite a few small chuckles 
mainly through the first half of the film. When 
act three becomes more “serious,” the laughs are 
conspicuously lacking. The plot was pretty generic 
and loose. Most of the funny scenes felt like 
sketches than rather part of the main storyline. 
“Let’s Be Cops” wasn’t as humorous as I was 
anticipating, but it’s not a total waste either. 

The film stars Jake M. Johnson and Damon 
Wayans Jr., (coincidentally both portray 
characters in the TV series, The New Girl.) as two 
struggling 30 year-old buddies that kind of lost 
their way after college. Johnson, plays Ryan, an 
ex-QB for Purdue, who suffered a knee injury that 
ended any shot he had for the pros. He came to 
LA to be an actor, where he’s been living off an 
$11,000 check for a herpes commercial he did two 
years ago. Wayans portrays Justin, an assistant at 
a videogame company where no one gives him the 
time of day for a dream project he wants to create. 
The two attend a “costume” party for their college 
reunion in LA dressed up as police officers. Ryan, 
confused masquerade with costume party and the 
two guys become somewhat of a laughing stock 
with their ridiculous outfits. 

 Dejected and wanting to move back to Ohio, the 
two guys are mistaken for police officers walking 
down a busy boulevard. After a few funny 
encounters, Ryan takes the idea of impersonating 
cops even further. When they are deemed heroes 
at a local diner, they eventually find themselves 
getting tangled up in a real life crime situation. 
Ryan is all for it, but Justin doesn’t want take 
things next to the next level. However, when 
things at work don’t pan out for Justin, he’s easily 
persuaded to join forces (especially since he has 
a crush on a girl at the diner, who thinks he’s 
something special). The setup is actually not bad, 
but unfortunately the film’s writers struggle with 
developing it into something much bigger than 
what it ended up becoming. The steady script 
flaws and sitcom-y situations become a burden for 
“Let’s Be Cops” as it enters the second half. 

 The film navigates through the normal tropes 
found in these genre films. The bad guys are 
nothing special and there’s the inevitable plot twist 
that doesn’t seem organic. It feels cheap, ripped off 
from other, better films. I don’t want to give away 
too much here because frankly, there’s not a lot of 
story involved within the 104 minutes running 
time. Johnson and Waynes have tons of chemistry 
together. I really like both actors and strongly 
believe they have bright futures in comedies 
(especially Jake Johnson, who was fantastic in 
2012’s “Safety Not Guaranteed”). Unfortunately, 
the two had little to work with “Let’s Be Cops.” 
Their natural comedic talents lifted the film above 
mediocrity. In the end, “Let’s Be Cops” is mildly 
funny, but not nearly consistent enough, which is 
a shame given the decent concept and dynamic 
duo on screen. 

Grade: 3 out of 5 


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On the Marquee: Notes from the Sierra MadrePlayhouse


On the Marquee: 

Notes from the Sierra Madre Playhouse

A Set by Any Other Name


By Christian Lebano, Artistic Director

 When a 
theater does 
several plays at 
the same time it is 
called a repertory. 
And when an 
actor participates 
in that kind of 
season he or 
she is called 
a “repertory 
actor”. Well, this 
season SMP has a 
“Repertory Set!” 

 Audiences and critics have been delighted with 
the beautiful set that SMP currently has on its 
stage for 6 RMS RIV VU. Alice-Denise Walker 
in Life in LA said, “The set design by Emmy 
nominated John Vertrees adds an important 
character in the production. It has nice nuanced 
touches of an empty rent controlled apartment…
It has the potential for future greatness.” And 
Dink O’Neal in Arts in LA said, “Scenic designer 
Vertrees works magic, given that the entire set 
contains not one stick of furniture. Out-of-style 
wallpaper, marked with gritty outlines depicting 
where the previous occupant’s framed items hung, 
reveal Vertrees’s exquisite attention to detail.” 

Audiences are in for a surprise when they come to 
see our next production, Amy Herzog’s Pulitzer-
nominated 4000 Miles opening September 
26 and see the same set transformed into an 
apartment that has been lived in for 50 years. It 
will have some very simple changes made – we’ll 
add sliding doors, turn a closet into a bedroom, 
change the color and add lots of furniture and 
the audience will barely recognize it as that other 
empty apartment. 

 And this Spring we’ll use it once again as Oscar 
Madison’s bachelor pad in Neil Simon’s The Odd 
Couple and with John’s skill as a designer it will be 
transformed once again!

Sets are often our biggest expense and I thought 
it would be smart to try to amortize the cost of 
the beautifully realized set for 6 RMS over several 
productions. As a small theater with limited 
resources we have to find economies everywhere 
we can. But with a talent like John’s that makes it 
much easier.

 What a lucky day it was for SMP when John 
walked into the Playhouse to offer his services. 
As he says, “my wife Felicia and I have been 
patrons of the Sierra Madre Playhouse since we 
moved to town three years ago. Friends of ours 
would come from neighboring towns to see 
performances so we’ve felt lucky to have such high 
quality shows so close. As a designer I enjoyed 
the live entertainment experience so much that I 
volunteered to design for the Playhouse.” And I 
quickly jumped at his offer and had him design 
Battledrum for us last season. And this season 
we’ve talked him into three sets albeit all based on 
the same basic apartment.

 As John (who is currently working on a hit 
TV show that he declines to name) says: “There 
are certainly many design differences between 
Theatre, TV and Film. Live theater can be broader 
in scope and style and can be more abstract. I find 
that nothing can compete with live entertainment, 
as there is just something undeniable about a live 
performance that is unique. My college professor 
had a terrific phrase: “Sculptors carve in stone 
while theatre artists carve in ice.”

 Compare the two renderings and then come 
see the shows to see the sets as they were realized 
onstage.

Please let me hear from you about programming 
at the Playhouse. I can be reached at christian.
lebano@sierramadreplayhouse.org

 Come home to the Playhouse – where great 
entertainment journeys begin. For tickets call 
626.355.4318 or go to www.sierramadreplayhouse.
org