I first attended a show at the Covina Center for the Performing Arts (CCPA) many years ago around Halloweentime. We saw the cousin of my wife (then girlfriend) sing in the musical “A Funny Thing Happened to Me on the way to the Forum”. I enjoyed the show very much. It was very funny. I think our cousin played one of the Proteans, though he may have had a few lines. I don’t remember much about the theatre except that it was very far from where I lived at the time in Miracle Mile (a.k.a. the “Trendy Rectangle”) are of West L.A. I didn’t even remember that it was in Covina or where Covina was.
Years later we moved to southeast Azusa that’s very close to Covina. At the time that we moved, the CCPA was closed for renovation. My wife had to remind me that we had been there before. In late 2007, the CCPA opened newly renovated. It now has an impressive new marquee that shows the names, dates, and times of the shows scrolling across it. We always wanted to see a show there and we finally got around to it on Monday, July 27, 2009.
They’ve produced musicals, revues, and plays at the CCPA such as “Smokey Joe’s Café” back when it first reopened in 2007 to a recent production of “Godspell” in 2009. In early 2009, Jason Robert Brown gave a workshop there. He wrote the musical “The Last Five Years” and we saw an East West Players production of this musical at the David Henry Hwang theatre in May 2009. Our cousin was the musical director. In April or May 2009 we saw on the marquee an announcement for auditions for the Young Performers Institute (YPI). This is a workshop for kids, teens, and young adults to learn, practice, and put on a revue. I think the maximum age was 21. In later June or early July we saw an announcement for the revue, “Live the Music” and we decided to check it out. We had enjoyed the other revues we had seen such as “I Love a Piano” at the Carpenter (as in Karen) Performing Arts Center in Long Beach in 2006 and another one in which our cousin performed at the Madrid Theatre in Canoga Park in 2003. We bought tickets for the CCPA show “Live the Musuc” online to pick up through Will Call. They were sold through Verdini Tickets. We noticed that the show for Sunday evening, July 26, was sold out online. The show ran from Friday July 24 through Thursday, July 30. They scheduled it so it wouldn’t conflict with “Godspell” that was also playing at CCPA at the time. We got tickets for Monday, July 27 for $15 each plus a $3.50 handling charge. All seats, both regular and balcony, cost $15.
Monday was the next day and I went to work early so I could leave early. This gave us time to eat dinner and make it to CCPA before the 7 pm start time of the show. We drove south on Citrus Avenue, turned right on College Street, and another right into the downtown Covina parking structure. We drove up the narrow ramp to the second level where the parking spot lines were painted blue indicating three hour parking. We walked to the theatre and the Will Call window was the last one to the left of the entrance. They gave us our Verbini tickets and receipt. As we entered the lobby a young staffer scanned our tickets. He said we could get water and snacks at the table to the right. It’s a very nice lobby with red-colored carpet and tables along the walls with show schedules and fliers. There’s a stairwell to the left that I assume goes up to the balcony. It was just about 7 pm so we entered the main theatre and took our seats.
Our seats were B12 and B13, one row from the front and to the left facing the stage. Each row was elevated slightly above the one in front so it was near-stadium seating. The stage had new-looking wood trim around it. There was an open pit for the orchestra in front. About the stage on a high wall was a gold-colored shield with three stars on it. Surrounding it were gold leaves and branches and there was a relief carving of a knight’s helmet on top. Below the shield were the words “Le Camp Vault Miex que l’or”. We noticed a few young men in dark formal suits lurking around on stage and in the aisles. One of them who was wearing a black bowler had came up on stage and announced with an English accent that he was “John Briggs of Scotland Yard in Covina”. He said someone hadn’t paid for their tickets and identified the alleged perpetrator as the young man sitting at the end of row B near us. “Briggs” and the others surrounded him and “Briggs” asked, “What do you have to say for yourself?”
“Huh,” the young man answered.
“‘Huh’ he says,” answered “Briggs”.
“Yeah”
“‘Yeah’ he says.”
“Briggs” asked the man to show his receipt when a woman’s voice from the back yelled, “Boys, stop that!”
“We’re just kidding,” said “Briggs” and the three young men in formal suits went backstage.
At 7:05 pm the lights dimmed. The orchestra in the pit played the overture that sounded like “All that Jazz” from the musical “Chicago”. The music stopped and a spotlight shown on the right side of the stage. One of the female performers came out. She welcomed us and mentioned that many of the YPI performers were on scholarship. She talked a bit about the musical “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” from which the first two songs to be preformed were from. From the program we learned that there were two groups of performers: the larger “Red Group” of teens and possibly young adults and the “Blue Group” of 12 kids and pre-teens. It seemed like two members of the blue group were siblings since they had the same last name. One of the girls in the Red Group possibly had a celebrity-inspired first name: MegRyan. There were only 5 young men in the Red Group and 3-4 boys in the Blue Group. The first number was “Give ‘em what they Want” performed by the Red Group with two young men singing most of the lead. The next one was “What was a Woman to do” sung by five young women from the Red Group. The first, who wore a purple formal dress, sang well with a slightly low voice. The others joined in after the first verse and they sang in a round. I think one of them referred to “the man in seat B13”, possibly referred to me, though my wife was sitting in that seat.
A young woman from the Red Group introduced the next song as from the “underappreciated” musical “Pippin”. It was “Corner of the Sky” performed by the younger Blue Group with some of their Red Group “buddies” joining them. Some stood while others sat and they just wore regular clothes rather than costumes. One young boy wore a Lakers jersey. A performer introduced the next number by translating the “wah wah wah” adult voice like that from a Peanuts cartoon. The song was “Book Report” from “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” and it was performed by a young woman and three young men from the Red Group. They all had these big ¾ inch thick pencils and children’s books as props and each did their own take on writing a book report. They were very entertaining. The next number was introduced by the performer who played “John Briggs” before the show started. He spoke in a low, scary, but still humorous voice. The entire Red Group then performed “Façade” from “Jekyll and Hyde” all dressed in 19th century Victorian costumes and walked around in coordinated groups. They sang well.
I don’t remember the intro to the next song but it featured just one girl from the Blue Group in a red hooded cap as “Little Red Riding Hood” singing “I Know Things Now” from “Into the Woods”. I though she did a pretty good job. My wife felt it was a difficult song for a kid. Some girls in 50’s school outfits with telephones introduced the next song, “Telephone Hour” form “Bye Bye Birdy.” Some of the female performers wore poodle skirts. The young man introducing the next song was interrupted by a boy who told him to “look up there”. The boy then stole the young man’s watch. He introduced the song “Be Back Soon” from “Oliver!” and then realized his watch was stolen and left to chase down the thief. The song featured members of the Blue Group as the child pickpockets and a young man from the Red Group as Fagin. A young girl played the part of the artful Dodger. The kids did a great job singing and followed the choreography well. They all wore Victorian outfits of the poor except for Fagin in a black suit. The next number had all the performers in black. Ten members of the Red Group performed “All that Jazz” from “Chicago”. The young woman who sung lead had a low sultry voice. The last number of Act I had both the Red and Blue Groups combined wearing bright colors for the song “Sunday” from “Sunday in the Park with George”.
During the 15-20 minute intermission I walked around the lobby and side hallway. There’s a long hallway on the right side of the theatre leading to where the restrooms are. It also has red-colored carpet and on the walls are framed vintage covers of Theater magazine from the early 20th century. The restrooms are large and they still looked brand new. At 8 pm we heard a couple of keyboard notes played, perhaps indicating that the second act would start soon. The lights dimmed at 8:05 pm. The first song was from the Blue Group: “It’s a Hard Knock Life” from “Annie”. The kids did various chores as they sang: scrubbing and mopping floors and folding sheets. The next song was another from “Into the Woods”: the soulful “Giants in the Sky” sung by the young man from the Red Group who earlier was “John Briggs”. There was a large beanstalk cutout in the middle of the stage.
When introducing the next song the young woman described how the story of the Scarlet Pimpernel inspired the creation of comic book superheroes such as Superman and Batman. The song was the inspirational “Into the Fire” from “The Scarlet Pimpernel”. It was song by young men and boys from the Red and Blue Groups with one of the Red singing lead. He sang well in a high tenor voice. As the song got even more triumphant they brought out a ship’s wheel and telescope as if they were on an epic sea voyage. The next song was “If Mama was Married” from the biographical musical “Gypsy” performed by two girls from the Blue Group.
The next song was a sad one from the musical “Titanic” called “The Proposal” and performed by two guys from the Red Group. One played a passenger or possibly a ship crewmember having a radio message proposal sent to his beloved on land. The other played the radio operator who sang about how he got interested in his profession and repeated the line “dit-da-dit”. The first singer gave his message to the radio operator and then waited anxiously until the operator said, “message received.” The next song was “What is this Feeling?” from the musical “Wicked” and is sung when Glinda and Elphaba find out they will be roommates at school. An African-American young woman sang the part of Elphaba and they shined a green light on her when she stood on either side of the shade. They shined a white light on the young woman playing Glinda. Others in the Red Group played their classmates who Elphaba startled by saying, “Boo!” For the next song six young girls from the Blue Group sat on the left edge of the stage very close to where we sat. They sang “Castle on a Cloud” from “Les Miserables”. One of them sang solo for the line “Cosette, I love you very much.”
The tone changed from the next song from the musical “The Full Monty”. It was “Life with Harold” sung by the wife of one of the male characters. During the intro the performers mentioned a recession. Harold’s wife doesn’t yet know he is laid off and is celebrating their luxurious lifestyle. Four guys from the Red Group joined the young woman singing lead. At one point they offer her jewelry. They made use of the colorful lighting along the frame of the stage to reflect the celebratory mood. The next song was also fast-paced and somewhat celebratory. It was “Steam Heat” from “The Pajama Game” performed by most of the Red Group. They wore black shirts, black pants, and black bowler hats. The performance included much dancing, waving of the hats, and rhythmic verbal sound effects. Behind them steam was released onto the stage.
The penultimate song was “Everybody’s got the Right” form Steven Sondheim’s musical “Assassins” that we hadn’t heard of. It was a triumphant song that the entire company sang. They lined up down the left aisle, across the stage and up the right aisle. They wore regular cloths. A girl wore a Smiths T-shirt and a guy (“John Briggs”) wore a T-shirt with the phrase “I got a black belt in crazy!” They ended the song to loud applause and they all bowed. Then, to end the show, they sang the short, blunt song “Goodbye!” from “The Producers”. With that, they cheerfully left and so did we soon afterward.
I thought they all did a great job especially being so young. They performed many songs from more recent musicals that I hadn’t heard before. I think the only ones I heard before were “Corner of the Sky”, “All that Jazz”, and “Castle on a Cloud”. They also did a good job matching the performers to the songs. Who knows? Maybe some of these young performers will be world-famous someday.
Years later we moved to southeast Azusa that’s very close to Covina. At the time that we moved, the CCPA was closed for renovation. My wife had to remind me that we had been there before. In late 2007, the CCPA opened newly renovated. It now has an impressive new marquee that shows the names, dates, and times of the shows scrolling across it. We always wanted to see a show there and we finally got around to it on Monday, July 27, 2009.
They’ve produced musicals, revues, and plays at the CCPA such as “Smokey Joe’s Café” back when it first reopened in 2007 to a recent production of “Godspell” in 2009. In early 2009, Jason Robert Brown gave a workshop there. He wrote the musical “The Last Five Years” and we saw an East West Players production of this musical at the David Henry Hwang theatre in May 2009. Our cousin was the musical director. In April or May 2009 we saw on the marquee an announcement for auditions for the Young Performers Institute (YPI). This is a workshop for kids, teens, and young adults to learn, practice, and put on a revue. I think the maximum age was 21. In later June or early July we saw an announcement for the revue, “Live the Music” and we decided to check it out. We had enjoyed the other revues we had seen such as “I Love a Piano” at the Carpenter (as in Karen) Performing Arts Center in Long Beach in 2006 and another one in which our cousin performed at the Madrid Theatre in Canoga Park in 2003. We bought tickets for the CCPA show “Live the Musuc” online to pick up through Will Call. They were sold through Verdini Tickets. We noticed that the show for Sunday evening, July 26, was sold out online. The show ran from Friday July 24 through Thursday, July 30. They scheduled it so it wouldn’t conflict with “Godspell” that was also playing at CCPA at the time. We got tickets for Monday, July 27 for $15 each plus a $3.50 handling charge. All seats, both regular and balcony, cost $15.
Monday was the next day and I went to work early so I could leave early. This gave us time to eat dinner and make it to CCPA before the 7 pm start time of the show. We drove south on Citrus Avenue, turned right on College Street, and another right into the downtown Covina parking structure. We drove up the narrow ramp to the second level where the parking spot lines were painted blue indicating three hour parking. We walked to the theatre and the Will Call window was the last one to the left of the entrance. They gave us our Verbini tickets and receipt. As we entered the lobby a young staffer scanned our tickets. He said we could get water and snacks at the table to the right. It’s a very nice lobby with red-colored carpet and tables along the walls with show schedules and fliers. There’s a stairwell to the left that I assume goes up to the balcony. It was just about 7 pm so we entered the main theatre and took our seats.
Our seats were B12 and B13, one row from the front and to the left facing the stage. Each row was elevated slightly above the one in front so it was near-stadium seating. The stage had new-looking wood trim around it. There was an open pit for the orchestra in front. About the stage on a high wall was a gold-colored shield with three stars on it. Surrounding it were gold leaves and branches and there was a relief carving of a knight’s helmet on top. Below the shield were the words “Le Camp Vault Miex que l’or”. We noticed a few young men in dark formal suits lurking around on stage and in the aisles. One of them who was wearing a black bowler had came up on stage and announced with an English accent that he was “John Briggs of Scotland Yard in Covina”. He said someone hadn’t paid for their tickets and identified the alleged perpetrator as the young man sitting at the end of row B near us. “Briggs” and the others surrounded him and “Briggs” asked, “What do you have to say for yourself?”
“Huh,” the young man answered.
“‘Huh’ he says,” answered “Briggs”.
“Yeah”
“‘Yeah’ he says.”
“Briggs” asked the man to show his receipt when a woman’s voice from the back yelled, “Boys, stop that!”
“We’re just kidding,” said “Briggs” and the three young men in formal suits went backstage.
At 7:05 pm the lights dimmed. The orchestra in the pit played the overture that sounded like “All that Jazz” from the musical “Chicago”. The music stopped and a spotlight shown on the right side of the stage. One of the female performers came out. She welcomed us and mentioned that many of the YPI performers were on scholarship. She talked a bit about the musical “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” from which the first two songs to be preformed were from. From the program we learned that there were two groups of performers: the larger “Red Group” of teens and possibly young adults and the “Blue Group” of 12 kids and pre-teens. It seemed like two members of the blue group were siblings since they had the same last name. One of the girls in the Red Group possibly had a celebrity-inspired first name: MegRyan. There were only 5 young men in the Red Group and 3-4 boys in the Blue Group. The first number was “Give ‘em what they Want” performed by the Red Group with two young men singing most of the lead. The next one was “What was a Woman to do” sung by five young women from the Red Group. The first, who wore a purple formal dress, sang well with a slightly low voice. The others joined in after the first verse and they sang in a round. I think one of them referred to “the man in seat B13”, possibly referred to me, though my wife was sitting in that seat.
A young woman from the Red Group introduced the next song as from the “underappreciated” musical “Pippin”. It was “Corner of the Sky” performed by the younger Blue Group with some of their Red Group “buddies” joining them. Some stood while others sat and they just wore regular clothes rather than costumes. One young boy wore a Lakers jersey. A performer introduced the next number by translating the “wah wah wah” adult voice like that from a Peanuts cartoon. The song was “Book Report” from “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” and it was performed by a young woman and three young men from the Red Group. They all had these big ¾ inch thick pencils and children’s books as props and each did their own take on writing a book report. They were very entertaining. The next number was introduced by the performer who played “John Briggs” before the show started. He spoke in a low, scary, but still humorous voice. The entire Red Group then performed “Façade” from “Jekyll and Hyde” all dressed in 19th century Victorian costumes and walked around in coordinated groups. They sang well.
I don’t remember the intro to the next song but it featured just one girl from the Blue Group in a red hooded cap as “Little Red Riding Hood” singing “I Know Things Now” from “Into the Woods”. I though she did a pretty good job. My wife felt it was a difficult song for a kid. Some girls in 50’s school outfits with telephones introduced the next song, “Telephone Hour” form “Bye Bye Birdy.” Some of the female performers wore poodle skirts. The young man introducing the next song was interrupted by a boy who told him to “look up there”. The boy then stole the young man’s watch. He introduced the song “Be Back Soon” from “Oliver!” and then realized his watch was stolen and left to chase down the thief. The song featured members of the Blue Group as the child pickpockets and a young man from the Red Group as Fagin. A young girl played the part of the artful Dodger. The kids did a great job singing and followed the choreography well. They all wore Victorian outfits of the poor except for Fagin in a black suit. The next number had all the performers in black. Ten members of the Red Group performed “All that Jazz” from “Chicago”. The young woman who sung lead had a low sultry voice. The last number of Act I had both the Red and Blue Groups combined wearing bright colors for the song “Sunday” from “Sunday in the Park with George”.
During the 15-20 minute intermission I walked around the lobby and side hallway. There’s a long hallway on the right side of the theatre leading to where the restrooms are. It also has red-colored carpet and on the walls are framed vintage covers of Theater magazine from the early 20th century. The restrooms are large and they still looked brand new. At 8 pm we heard a couple of keyboard notes played, perhaps indicating that the second act would start soon. The lights dimmed at 8:05 pm. The first song was from the Blue Group: “It’s a Hard Knock Life” from “Annie”. The kids did various chores as they sang: scrubbing and mopping floors and folding sheets. The next song was another from “Into the Woods”: the soulful “Giants in the Sky” sung by the young man from the Red Group who earlier was “John Briggs”. There was a large beanstalk cutout in the middle of the stage.
When introducing the next song the young woman described how the story of the Scarlet Pimpernel inspired the creation of comic book superheroes such as Superman and Batman. The song was the inspirational “Into the Fire” from “The Scarlet Pimpernel”. It was song by young men and boys from the Red and Blue Groups with one of the Red singing lead. He sang well in a high tenor voice. As the song got even more triumphant they brought out a ship’s wheel and telescope as if they were on an epic sea voyage. The next song was “If Mama was Married” from the biographical musical “Gypsy” performed by two girls from the Blue Group.
The next song was a sad one from the musical “Titanic” called “The Proposal” and performed by two guys from the Red Group. One played a passenger or possibly a ship crewmember having a radio message proposal sent to his beloved on land. The other played the radio operator who sang about how he got interested in his profession and repeated the line “dit-da-dit”. The first singer gave his message to the radio operator and then waited anxiously until the operator said, “message received.” The next song was “What is this Feeling?” from the musical “Wicked” and is sung when Glinda and Elphaba find out they will be roommates at school. An African-American young woman sang the part of Elphaba and they shined a green light on her when she stood on either side of the shade. They shined a white light on the young woman playing Glinda. Others in the Red Group played their classmates who Elphaba startled by saying, “Boo!” For the next song six young girls from the Blue Group sat on the left edge of the stage very close to where we sat. They sang “Castle on a Cloud” from “Les Miserables”. One of them sang solo for the line “Cosette, I love you very much.”
The tone changed from the next song from the musical “The Full Monty”. It was “Life with Harold” sung by the wife of one of the male characters. During the intro the performers mentioned a recession. Harold’s wife doesn’t yet know he is laid off and is celebrating their luxurious lifestyle. Four guys from the Red Group joined the young woman singing lead. At one point they offer her jewelry. They made use of the colorful lighting along the frame of the stage to reflect the celebratory mood. The next song was also fast-paced and somewhat celebratory. It was “Steam Heat” from “The Pajama Game” performed by most of the Red Group. They wore black shirts, black pants, and black bowler hats. The performance included much dancing, waving of the hats, and rhythmic verbal sound effects. Behind them steam was released onto the stage.
The penultimate song was “Everybody’s got the Right” form Steven Sondheim’s musical “Assassins” that we hadn’t heard of. It was a triumphant song that the entire company sang. They lined up down the left aisle, across the stage and up the right aisle. They wore regular cloths. A girl wore a Smiths T-shirt and a guy (“John Briggs”) wore a T-shirt with the phrase “I got a black belt in crazy!” They ended the song to loud applause and they all bowed. Then, to end the show, they sang the short, blunt song “Goodbye!” from “The Producers”. With that, they cheerfully left and so did we soon afterward.
I thought they all did a great job especially being so young. They performed many songs from more recent musicals that I hadn’t heard before. I think the only ones I heard before were “Corner of the Sky”, “All that Jazz”, and “Castle on a Cloud”. They also did a good job matching the performers to the songs. Who knows? Maybe some of these young performers will be world-famous someday.
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