Jake Simpson.

The Americana at Brand in Glendale, in partnership with Chris Isaacson Presents, will host a series of weekend concerts featuring the upbeat tunes, every Friday from May 17 to May 31, of current OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network star Jake Simpson. Mr. Simpson will perform live on The Green from 6–9 p.m. singing the best of ‘70s & ‘80s Soul & R&B, as well as his original songs.

Although music has always been a driving force in his life, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network star Jake Simpson more notably began his career in 2003 when he won the top honors in the Adult Singer category on CBS’s Star Search. Jake has recorded, written, and performed with a multitude of artists including Desmond Child, David Archuleta, Adam Lambert, Paula Cole, and most famously on The Oprah Winfrey Show with Stevie Wonder. Most recently, this past summer, Simpson starred in the Roll & Roll revue Arena: Born to Rock at Rolling Stone Los Angeles in Hollywood. Simpson has produced two albums, Star of Wonder and My Song, and recently debuted his new song “I See You” on Oprah’s Where Are They Now? Season 2 on OWN in April 2013, all available on iTunes and CD Baby.

Admission is free and open to the public. The Americana at Brand is located at 889 Americana Way in Glendale. For more information, please call (818) 637-8982 or visit online at AmericanaAtBrand.com and JakeSimpsonMusic.com.

The cast of “Stuck in Neutral,” from left by row, starting at top: Jonathan D. Black, David Michael Trevino, Mary Carrig, Tommy Cramer, Amy Greenspan, Swati Kapila, John Walcutt, Leslie Thurston, and Breana Tomey.

Terry Trueman’s young-adult novel has now been adapted for the stage by writers Allison Cameron Gray and Matt Chorpenning’s first collaboration together. Stuck in Neutral tells the story of 14-year-old Shawn, a boy with cerebral palsy. Told from Shawn’s point of view, to the outside world he’s a seizure-ridden, ignorable mute — but to his family, he’s an extraordinary boy with regular emotions, desires, and thoughts. His siblings treat him with kindness and understanding as his mom showers him with love and attention. But Sydney, Shawn’s father, wants nothing to do with him.

Shawn reveals his out-of-body personality to the audience throughout the play. Editorializing events, cracking jokes, and staring down the dresses of a friend of his sister all unbeknownst to those around him — Shawn’s a regular kid, only attached to a lifeless body. Though he can’t express affection or his needs, his mother, sister, and brother communicate with him as if he can.

Actor Jonathan D. Black radiates as Shawn with an excellent portrayal of the eagerness and energy, hope and maturity every teenager faces. For co-writer Allison Cameron Gray, the play hits especially close to home, having cerebral palsy herself. “[Stuck in Neutral] raises many important questions about what defines quality of life for those who cannot make their thoughts known.”

Stuck in Neutral is now playing at The Secret Rose Theatre at 11246 Magnolia Blvd. in North Hollywood from May 10 to June 9. Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased at facebook.com/StuckInNeutralThePlay.

I said if somebody asked me to name my five favorite Beatles songs, it would take me a while to sift through them because I could probably come up with 50 off the top of my head. If they asked me to hum some melodies, I’d have to decide among all their melodies that waft through my head, like “Yesterday,” “Let It Be,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Ticket to Ride”; the list would go on and on.

There is no comparison between the quality of the music written by The Beatles and the quality of the music written by Bruce Springsteen. That’s proven by the band Rain, which tours the world performing a Beatles concert, with Beatles look- and sound-alikes. Thirty-five years from now does anybody think that there will be look- and sound-alikes of the E Street Band touring the world to sold-out audiences?

The concert starts with videos of the current events from the ‘60s, like the hula hoop, Chubby Checker’s twist, and the Kennedys in the White House. It segues into the concert with Ed Sullivan introducing The Beatles on his television show in 1964, at which point the curtain rises and there are the mop top Beatles singing, “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

Performing before a packed house at the Pantages, Steve Landes, Joey Curatolo, Job Bithorn, and Ralph Castelli, play the roles of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, respectively. Landes has Lennon down cold. His stance at the microphone playing the guitar is exactly as Lennon did, and his voice is an amazing replica. The others are high quality musicians. The arrangements are identical to the Beatles’ recorded performances of the songs, and the music rocks. The audience was up and down throughout the evening, clapping and singing along to the familiar songs, encouraged on by the performers, closing, naturally, with a rousing rendition of “Hey, Jude.”

The concert proceeds through the several stages of The Beatles’ short, seven-year life in the limelight, from mop tops to Sgt. Pepper to Abbey Road, with costumes to boot.

There is a camaraderie at these concerts. We all have something in common; we are all Beatlemaniacs. We got there early and sat in the Bar and talked with strangers about The Beatles. It was a wonderful feeling.

Last year I had press passes and sat up front. This year I wanted to experience the show as just a normal person in the audience and sat in row QQ, in the Orchestra but near the rear of the theater, under the balcony. I thought the sound was too loud, but it might have been due to the balcony over our heads because last year I don’t remember it being that loud and I was much closer.

There’s no way they can play the entire repertoire of Beatles music, but I was disappointed that my favorite Beatles song, “Here, There, and Everywhere” was not on the list.

I can’t understand why everyone wouldn’t love The Beatles’ music. However, even though my friend who accompanied me is not a Beatles fan, she loved the show.

At Any Price

Run time 105 minutes.
OK for children.

Dennis Quaid in “At Any Price.”

Although I had been vaguely aware of genetically modified food products, I learned about it in a lot of detail when I recently read the book Wheat Belly. I took that advice to heart and gave up eating wheat, which I learned is a far cry from the natural wheat our parents and grandparents ate, and that what we eat now has unexpected side effects.

Ramin Bahrani, who directed and wrote a terrific script (with Hallie Elizabeth Newton), has created a devastating indictment of modern agriculture and genetically modified seeds (GMO), based on an actual incident that he discovered while doing his research. He stayed with a farmer he had met earlier, Troy Roush, who explained to him how he had been investigated by Monsanto for patent infringement in the use of Monsanto’s GMOs and how two agents followed him around. Facsimiles of those agents appear in this picture.

Dennis Quaid gives an Oscar®-quality performance playing Henry Whipple, a third-generation farmer growing corn and selling GMO seeds. Although Henry is devoted to his family, he seems to spend much of his time as a salesman, and a self-centered one at that. He’s got a devoted wife, Irene (Kim Dickens, in a fine performance), and two sons. One of the sons, Dean (Zac Efron) is more interested in becoming a NASCAR race driver than taking over the family farm. Dean has a cute girlfriend, Cadence (played in her film debut by Maika Monroe, in a performance that marks her as a real comer). Henry is cheating on Irene with Meredith (Heather Graham). There are other relationships with other farmers and their families that come to have ravaging effects on the Whipple family.

Quaid is brilliantly cast in this role. He can flash his fantastic smile at a moment’s notice, regardless of what’s going on inside. He is required to express a wide range of emotions in this film and he never fails.

Efron also gives an exceptional performance as the dissatisfied son. Things progress as they do in real life, as the problems of the Whipple family keep piling up. While this is dramatic, it is so well presented that it looks like we are viewing real lives as they unfold as lives do.

Bahrani has directed a socially valuable and entertaining film. This is a view of farm life that shows it to be far from what most people in the city imagine it to be, abetted by the outstanding performances of the entire cast.

The Iceman

Runtime 105 minutes.
Not for children.

Michael Shannon is “The Iceman.”

This is the mostly true story of a serial killer named Richard Kuklinski (a.k.a. The Iceman) who eventually became a contract killer for the mob. Extremely well directed by Ariel Vroman, who also cowrote the script with Morgan Land, the story and chronology have been changed, probably for the purposes of making it into a movie.

Vroman gets exceptional performances out of Michael Shannon as Kuklinski, Winona Ryder as his wife, Deborah, Chris Evans as fellow hitman Robert “Mr. Softee” Pronge, Stephen Dorff as Kuklinski’s younger brother Joey, Ray Liotta as The Gambino Crime Family soldato, Roy Demeo, and David Schwimmer as Demeo’s goombah Josh Rosenthal. In fact, this is the best performance I’ve ever seen Liotta give. He proves he can act without using an F-bomb every other word.

The only thing off-putting about this film is the graphic violence. Many of Kuklinski’s murders are shown in relatively graphic detail. But the story is so well told that even if you have to avert your eyes a couple of times, it’s an entertaining film.

The film was shot almost entirely in Shreveport, Louisiana (because that’s where producer Millennium Films is located), although the settings are New Jersey and New York. While the film shows that Kuklinski was working in a porn film lab when he met Demeo and became a contract killer, in fact his killing spree started in the early to mid-50s when he started killing for the sport of it, and he probably didn’t meet Demeo until the early ‘70s, after he had been a contract killer for Newark’s DeCavalcante crime family for an extended period of time. This only shows a small portion of his murders and completely omits the fact that he killed for the fun of it and was doing so before he hooked up with the mob.

One aspect of the film shows that Kuklinski was extremely protective of his wife and daughters, and that they knew absolutely nothing about his murderous activities. However, this diverges somewhat from the facts and is an oddly sensitive portrayal of a cold-blooded monster. It downplays the fact that while he never mistreated his daughters, he often beat his wife.

The film is well made and holds interest, but I deplore the delicate treatment of this despicable beast. Watching Vroman’s take, one almost feels sympathy for him.

Aroused

Runtime 73 minutes.
Not for children.

This documentary about women who have sex on camera in the porn industry is not as titillating as one would suspect, nor is it as revealing. Director Deborah Anderson interviews 16 of the most successful female porn stars as they are posing for a fine art photographic book. Although they all justify what they do, their justifications for the morality of what they do are mostly puerile rationalizations. I was disappointed that they didn’t go into more detail about how they view the morality of what they do and how their profession of having sex on a daily basis with other actors affects their personal love relationships. Even more disappointing, the film doesn’t show any of the behavior they engage in on camera. That would contrast their actions with their rationalizations. Since there are no sexual acts actually shown (although there is some nudity), the stark contrast between what they say and what they do is missing. To just say that they engage in sex, and then showing them talking about the morality of it isn’t the same as watching the actual acts in which they engage before listening to their justifications. Since it doesn’t do this, it lacks the impact it could have had.

“Genre-loving fans will enjoy it because there’s a plethora of films from around the world that will appeal to a wide audience,” Cushing reports. He, Thomas, and the festival board members (including industry notables Anna Wycoff, Greg Beaton, and Basem Wasef) have been impressed by the entries. “I am awestruck by these young filmmakers and how they are advancing the artistry by being technically savvy with their storytelling,” Thomas says.

What’s most important to Cushing and Thomas is that the festival is very intimate and run by filmmakers. They spend time with the writers and directors and exchange ideas and critiques, plus they have a distribution seminar scheduled. They even have a screenplay competition and recognize great un-produced scripts and giving them exposure to producers and directors.

Last year, producers, actors, writers, and directors from many countries joined the weeklong celebration. This year celebrated director Russell Mulchay (his films include Highlander, Resident Evil: Extinction, The Shadow) will be honored with the Achievement Award for Fear and Fantasy.

The schedule of films includes features: The Ufologist, Mister White, The Fellows Hip, Space Milkshake, Found, An American Terror, and Play Dead. Great fantasy and horror shorts are also on the schedule each day.

The festival is centrally located in the historic downtown Burbank area, at Theatre Banshee at 3435 W. Magnolia Blvd. in Burbank. For tickets and the schedule of films and screening times go to fearandfantasy.com.

Make mom happy this year with Lancers’ special Mother’s Day meal. All meals are served with a sumptuous soup or salad, vegetables, potato, roll and butter, and Jell-O or ice cream.

Lancers Restaurant is located at 697 N. Victory Blvd. in Burbank. Reservations are suggested for holiday meals, so call (818) 843-3433.

Paul Kraus, author of
“Surviving Mesothelioma.”

Author Paul Kraus has not only fought cancer, he’s also the only (documented) person to have been born in a Nazi labor camp and escaped. As the longest living mesothelioma survivor in the world, Paul describes himself as an “optimist.”

The Kraus family immigrated to Australia after WWII where Paul worked in a factory cutting asbestos sheets throughout his college years. He was diagnosed with mesothelioma — the asbestos-caused cancer — at age 52. After being told surgery and chemotherapy would offer little help, Kraus created his own treatment plan with non-conventional physicians. While the usual survival rate for someone with mesothelioma is only one year, Paul will now surpass his 16th year fighting the disease.

When asked what prompted him to write his most recent book Surviving Mesothelioma and Other Cancers, Paul responds, “Suffering from a cancer with such a poor prognosis and given the fact that I had outlived my prognosis ten-fold in 2005, I felt that my fellow sufferers needed the inspiration that came from reading my story.”

Paul’s experiences fighting for his life have made him more in tune with the world around him. His gratitude and appreciation have also helped him hone his craft as a writer. “My struggles with cancer and heart problems have changed me as an author. My subsequent cancers, prostate and a benign brain tumor were all pointers to the fact that our time is finite and we need to use it carefully. My illnesses have shown me that our time is a gift that we need to nurture.”

Surviving Mesothelioma is the best-selling book on the subject. Cancer expert Dr. Bernie Siegel said, “Paul Kraus’ book has all the information a cancer patient needs to have in order to learn what survival behavior is about.”

To learn more, go to: survivingmesothelioma.com.

Brazilian-born Marcelo Lehninger of the New West Symphony is recognized
as one of the most gifted conductors of his generation.

The New West Symphony’s Masterpiece Series presents Beethoven Ninth: Leonore Overture No. 3 in C Major, Opus 72a and Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Opus 125 (Choral) this Friday, May 10 in Oxnard, Saturday, May 11 in Thousand Oaks and Sunday, May 12 in Santa Monica.

The New West Symphony is the professional, resident orchestra of the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, and Barnum Hall in Santa Monica respectively.

Led by acclaimed new music director Marcelo Lehninger, the Symphony presents six Masterpiece Series concerts annually.

Taking the stage will be conductor Lehninger along with Emily Dyer, soprano, Grace Newberry, mezzo-soprano, Casey Candebat, tenor, and Steve Pence, bass-baritone — all award winners. Lesley Leighton directs the New West Symphony Chorus and Los Robles Master Chorale.

Ticket prices start at just $30. For tickets and information call 1-866-776-8400 or newwestsymphony.org.

Playwright Jane’s Grandma Ida and her mother, “The Big Bubie.”

Having been a performer since 1962, actress, mother, grandmother, and now playwright Jane Press has written My Mother’s Keeper to break the confines of older women in stage roles. “Too often, depictions of our mothers and grandmothers are portrayed — if at all — through trivialized stereotypes and caricatures. Just when actresses have a lifetime of experience honing their craft to contribute, they are all too often rendered invisible, tricked out to act younger, or relegated roles of old, old. I wanted to address this by writing seven wonderful roles for women in their 50s and late 60s.”

Furthermore, the play was written with specific production dates in mind. My Mother’s Keeper was designed to be produced every Mother’s Day. It debuted at the Carl Cherry Theater in Carmel, CA on Mother’s Day of 2012, playing a five-week run to packed houses. At the debut, Jane’s daughter sat next to her 82-year-old mother. Three days later her daughter gave birth to her first child. Jane says, “MMK is completely autobiographical, though some of the names have been changed slightly to protect the guilty.”

Jane is also an acting instructor. She teaches children, ages 5-12, “The Art of Playing the Part of Being a Human Being” at the Community Partnership for Youth.

My Mother’s Keeper opens Mother’s Day, May 12. It’s playing at the Electric Lodge Theater in Venice, ending Father’s Day, June 16. Next year MMK will open in New York.

For more information or for tickets, go to: electriclodge.org.

Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s

Run time 93 minutes.
OK for children.

People who take fashion seriously are idiots.

— Joan Rivers

“Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s.”

Rivers says this at the beginning of the film. Brilliantly directed by Matthew Miele, however, what follows is a parade of people who take fashion very seriously. This is a delightful, informative, educational, and highly entertaining documentary about the 111-year history of the iconic New York department store Bergdorf Goodman. The title is from one of The New Yorker’s classic cartoons by Victoria Roberts.

Fashion maven after fashion maven appears before the cameras to tell the importance of Bergdorf to fashion and their careers. However, even though the production values of this film are extraordinarily high, the filmmakers make the same mistake made by most documentary makers in that they identify the talking heads by an identifying graphic the first couple of times they appear on the screen, then no more. This is a problem because there are so many people whose faces are unfamiliar to ordinary viewers that it is not possible to remember who is who. Whenever somebody appears on the screen, that person should be identified by a graphic throughout the entire film to refresh the viewer’s memory.

Appearing throughout the film are Giorgio Armani, Candice Bergen, Manolo Blahnik, Dolce & Gabbana, Marc Jacobs, Naeem Khan, Michael Kors, Karl Lagerfeld, Lauren Bush, Susan Lucci, Christian Louboutin, Catherine Malandrino, Gilles Mendel, Isaac Mizrahi, Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen, Thakoon Panichgul, Rivers and Jason Wu, and this is just the short list.

But better than all these designers and stars are the detailed stories of the employees who make the store such a special place, including fashion director Linda Fargo, the powerful woman who makes the career-making (or breaking) decision of which new designer gets in and which doesn’t; window decorator David Hoey who makes the Bergdorf Christmas windows look like they should be displayed in an art gallery; and personal shopper Betty Halbreich, who helps A-list movie stars, politicians, and fashionistas make their choices. Her caustic wit is responsible for some of the biggest laughs provided by the film.

There are so many wonderful anecdotes that I don’t want to spoil the film by repeating them. However just as an example, the story is told that one Christmas Eve, Yoko Ono called at closing time and said that she and John Lennon wanted to come down and look at some fur coats. Naturally, because of who they were, the store remained open for them. Yoko arrived, but they had to wait two hours for John to come. When he finally arrived they ended up buying 80 fur coats, one each for their entire staff, at a cost of over $2 million.

While I was looking forward to this, because I do like documentaries, even in my anticipation I could not have realized how entertaining this is, clearly one of the most entertaining films of the year. The photography is beautiful, and the graphics are large, shadowed, and easy to read.

There are also some fantastic pictures of New York from the beginning of the 20th century. Bergdorf’s is on Fifth Avenue at 57th Street, right across the street from the Plaza Hotel, so the photographs are of a location that should be familiar to the vast majority of people.

I’m not going to give away any spoilers, but when you learn what the Bergdorf salespeople make, your jaw will drop.

Love Is All You Need

Runtime 110 minutes.
OK for children.

Pierce Brosnan and Trine Dyrholm in “Love Is All You Need.”

This is a terrific film about two lonely, vulnerable, middle-aged people and the emotions they go through when they both travel, separately, to Italy for the marriage of their children to one another. The acting by Pierce Brosnan and Trine Dyrholm is nothing short of spectacular. However, despite the title, this has nothing to do with The Beatles (whose song was entitled, “All You Need Is Love”).

Directed by Susanne Bier from a story by Bier and Anders Thomas Jensen, who wrote the screenplay, this is a tender, sensitive, romantic film that also presents terrific shots of Sorrento by director of photography Morten Søborg and music by composer Johan Söderqvist that is at once lighthearted and magical, and also touching and affective. Dean Martin’s 1953 megahit “That’s Amore” is played throughout, enhancing the romance. It’s the rare film that gets me to laugh and cry within the space of 110 minutes.

40 year-old Dyrholm gives an award–quality performance as a woman battling cancer, dealing with a cheating husband, all the while being a good, understanding mother to her two children and flashing one of the best smiles on film. I have rarely seen a performance as good as the one she gives here. But that should not be too surprising, as she appeared in the best movie I saw last year, A Royal Affair. After Alec Baldwin saw her in Troubled Water (2008), he called her the best actress ever. After seeing her performance here, I cannot disagree with him.

After decades as an actor, Brosnan reaches his peak with this role. He’s wasted his time with a lot of junk, like being a not very convincing James Bond, participating in a horrible cast in Mamma Mia, and he was as horrible in that as everybody else. But occasionally, I should say rarely, he has branched out and taken roles that require talent and range. He was good in The Ghost Writer (2010) and much better in The Matador (also 2010). But here he reaches his zenith.

The supporting cast is equally good. Paprika Steen is convincing as Brosnan’s hateful sister-in-law. Kim Bodnia is Dyrholm’s equally unappealing husband. Sebastian Jessen is a Hugh Grant look-alike as Brosnan’s son. Molly Blixt Egelind and Christiane Schaumburg-Müller round out the cast giving good performances as Dyrholm’s daughter and Bodia’s mistress, respectively.

This movie has several twists and turns, but it proceeds apace and, like most good films, it’s best seen not knowing much about what’s going to happen. 110 minutes might sound like a long time for a film like this, but the time never dragged for me. In English, Danish, and Italian.