Blake... da Musical Reviews

An unfettered crew led by the jaw-dropping Rick Batalla and Molly Benson shoots across this shameless tabloid tuner about Bonnie and Blake at Vitello's, and Fred the Cockatoo too. See it with someone you hate to love. — David C. Nichols Calendar Live - LA Times 6/15/06

LA Times

August 12, 2005
THEATER BEAT
The tabloid news that really sings

"Go three miles down the highway of youth / And make a left at 1974," belt out dyslexic Robert Blake and opportunistic Bonny Lee Bakley from corresponding restrooms at Vitello's, May 4, 2001. "Hang a right at rock 'n' roll / And bear left at 'for rich or for poorer.' "

Other of its brazen lyrics would more directly convey the whacked attack of "Blake ... da Musical!" but this is a family newspaper. Such salacious cheer makes Rick Batalla and Henry Phillips' twisted tabloid tuner that much more shamelessly enjoyable.

Former Troubadour Theatre Company member Batalla brings similar frenzy to "Blake," revised since its 2003 New York Fringe Festival premiere. Set against Don Vitello's Studio City eatery (dryly realized by designer Leonard Ogden), "Blake" dishes out musical theater pastiche and the free-fall irreverence of "South Park" on a cracked "Access Hollywood" platter.

Barring uneven dances, Batalla and co-director Kevin Cochran take full advantage of Batalla's proudly outrageous book in their antic staging. Phillips' rocking combo catapults his and Batalla's blithely trash-talking songs, and the unfettered cast shoots across the itty-bitty venue like a button popped off packed designer jeans.

Batalla won the Fringe's best actor award as Blake; his jaw-dropping turn explains why. Molly Benson matches him beat for demented beat, her Bonny pitched between Bernadette Peters and Pacoima. Travis Clark's testy restaurateur, Bob Simpson's indestructible waiter and Kate Danley's unprintable fairy godmother are beyond hysterical. Vince Cefalú defies comprehension as Fred the Cockatoo.

Though anything but a great, let alone integrated, musical, as tacky Tinseltown travesties go, "Blake ... da Musical!" is da bomb. See it with someone you hate to love.

--David C. Nichols

"Blake ... da Musical!," GTC Burbank, 1111-B W. Olive Ave., Burbank. 8 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Ends Aug. 28. Adult audiences. $20. (818) 288-3855 or www.gtc.org. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.

LA Weekly

August 18, 2005

RECOMMENDED - Although it’s risky to create a rock musical about a tabloid story that’s likely to become as dated as an old episode of Baretta, writer-director Rick Batalla’s often surreal riff on the tale of Robert Blake’s ill-fated romance with Bonnie Lee Bakley is so fresh and scabrously funny, it rises high above its squalid subject matter. At Vitello’s restaurant, the waiters tremble with terror over the arrival of nightmare dinner guests Robert Blake (Batalla) and Bonnie Lee Bakley (Molly Benson), who tear the place apart with their histrionic squabbling and gunfights. Between bouts of yelling at his wife, Blake hears voices — including that of his old friend, Fred, the Cockatoo (Vince Cefalu, resplendent in a huge boa and creepy clawlike rubber gloves) — urging him to murder Bakley. Meanwhile, Bakley seeks romantic advice from her beloved White Trash Fairy Godmother (Kate Danley), who arrives on the scene in a glittering trailer home to warn her of troubles to come. Batalla’s sardonic lyrics match nicely with his and Henry Phillips’ stylishly trashy, ’70s-style musical production numbers. The show’s comic timing is so tight you could time a murder to it, with lusciously campy acting turns from Batalla’s lizardlike Blake, Benson’s Valley girl Bakley, and Danley’s tongue-waggling hag of a guardian angel. CTG Burbank, 1111-B Olive Ave.; Sat.-Sun., 8 p.m.; thru Aug. 28. (818) 288-3855. Written 08/18/2005 (Paul Birchall)

Roar of the Crowd - Los Angeles
Goldstar Events

August 24, 2005

By Jim McCarthy

I'll admit with some hesitation that I found the OJ trial interesting. It was a slow news decade, and OJ was a mega-star in football, movies (mostly Police Squad-type movies, but still) and competitive Airport Racing. Not yet knowing him for the less-than-lovable jerk he seems to be, I was shocked.

On the other hand, I had a somewhat different reaction to the news that murder charges had been filed against Robert Blake. "Who?" is how I put it, if I recall correctly. After finding out the basic facts, I, like Dave Chappelle, revised my opinion to "Oh, Beretta did it." Never hire me for your lawyer.

The important thing though is that someone has finally found a way to make fun of the whole situation, and on 1175 reviews, it's this week's winner:

Blake...Da Musical, playing at the Grove Theatre Center in Burbank. I think it goes without saying that this comedy rock and roll musical re-telling of the "true" story of the Blake episode is shamelessly untasteful. Mary Effle says "leave your sensitivity at the door and have fun." Tantris Hernandez calls it "screamin' funny." Tammy Turk says the show is "very high energy, cleverly written, wonderfully performed." Finally, Glenda Shaw, wiseacre that she seems to be, says that the play is a "must see for anyone wanting to know who 'the real Killer' is." By the way, don't bring the kids. Hopefully that goeswithout saying, too! Goldstar Events members give Blake...Da Musical 3.6 out of 4.

I'm sure most of you are refined and sophisticated enough not to find things like this funny and would prefer world-class classical music under the stars among the elite. This week, the Roar says at least both options are available to you!

Jim McCarthy, CEO of Goldstar Events, read 1175 comments about 203 shows this week submitted by Goldstar members.

Glendale News Press

August 17, 2005

THEATER REVIEW
Romeo and Juliet for the Valley
By James Petrillo, News-Press and Leader

If there's a silver lining in the disturbingly endless parade of celebrities finding themselves in the court room, it has to be that it's open season on them in the court of public theater. In Grove Theater Center Burbank's latest production, Robert Blake's in the limelight.

Thoroughly hilarious from start to finish, "Blake ... da Musical" revisits that fateful night Blake's wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, was shot to death behind Vitello's in Studio City. The fact that the musical version of those events is taking place less than 5 miles away in the secluded confines of George Izay Park adds a delicious layer of irreverence to the proceedings.

Described in the program as a "rock 'n' roll white trash fairy tale," it's a profane masterpiece that energizes you with its bawdy humor before hitting you hard in the most unlikely of places -- your heart. What starts as a nonstop laugh riot filled with knowing details, like how bad a restaurant Vitello's actually is, eventually transforms into almost a graceful rumination on the destructive aspects of celebrity worship.

But such layers are just the cherry on top of a dazzlingly filthy parade that revisits Blake's life over the course of his last supper with Bakley. In a bizarre turn, there's even a role for Fred the Cockatoo, the bird from Blake's hit TV show "Baretta." Played with twisted relish by Vince Cefalu as best friend and confidant to the troubled actor, the bird ends up being more important in the scheme of things than you would ever believe.

With catchy songs like "Mail Order Porn," "Lady Dyslexia," and "White Trash Destiny," it's clear that nothing is too sacred a target for parody. But unlike several politically incorrect shows that have graced Valley stages lately, this one earns its offensiveness, if only because the jokes are so funny and the actors are so spectacular.

Rick Batalla is the spitting image of a middle-aged Blake, and the way he goes from rage to romance to violence is as believable as it is hysterical. Molly Benson is shameless in her portrayal of Bakley as a ruthless "star-blanker" whose head whips around every time someone says, "Hey, there's Ben Affleck!"

Leonard Ogden's set of the dining room at Vitello's is versatile and practical in the way it allows the actors to bounce around the set with little interference and maximum impact. And musical director Henry Phillips arranges his great songs in ways that are reminiscent of melodramatic nuggets from the 1970s along the lines of Meatloaf, Bruce Springsteen and even Styx.

The scene where Bakley and Blake perform a duet from their respective restrooms and a urinal turns into a motorcycle is the perfect distillation of everything the show provides. Even if you're life is in the toilet, your dreams can still come true right around the corner.

Just ask Robert Blake.

WHAT: "Blake ... da Musical!" by Rick Batalla and Henry Phillips
WHERE: GTC Burbank, 1111-b, W. Olive Ave., Burbank
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Aug. 28
TICKETS: $20 by phone and at the door, $18 online, $15 students, seniors and Burbank residents
CONTACT: (818) 288-3855
WEBSITE: www.gtc.org
* JAMES PETRILLO is an actor and screenwriter from Glendale.

OC Weekly

July 22, 2005

Warped Brilliance
Blake scandalously funny
by JOEL BEERS

Blake . . . da Musical! is a sketchy, ragged, meandering mess of a play about actor Robert Blake and his torturous relationship with Bonnie Lee Bakley, the woman a jury of his peers decided he didn’t kill, or order killed, four years ago.

So does that mean you shouldn’t see the show this weekend in Garden Grove? Hell, no. Because it’s also scandalously funny, jaw-droppingly irreverent, and an opportunity to watch what might turn out to be a cult theater classic.

Human-sized, gun-wielding cockatoos; guys in mullets; waiters who just won’t die; a set that falls apart when someone hiccups; crude, lewd insults; and songs about everything from dyslexia and child abuse to trailer park trash and the cult of celebrity are enough to keep you entertained and engaged even in those longish stretches when no one seems to know what the hell they’re supposed to be doing onstage.

This musical is the creation of Henry Phillips, whom we don’t know, and Rick Batalla, whom we do. Batalla is a ferociously talented Los Angeles-based actor local audiences know best as the Latin-looking dude in Troubadour Theater Company spoofs like A Midsummer Saturday Night’s Fever Dream and 12th Dog Night. He plays Blake, filled with the kind of relentless comic energy and scene-stealing mugging that only really charismatic performers have any chance of getting away with.

But where Batalla as actor, singer and songwriter rocks, his book (that is, his story) needs to be bitch-slapped. The entire white trash star-fucking fairy godmother subplot is terribly, terribly unfortunate, and why write and star in a play about Robert Blake that so woefully undercooks its own climactic moment: the shooting of his wife?

The play’s theme—and I’m being generous in calling it that—seems to be that when fucked-up people meet, screw, fall in love and then start hating each other, bad things happen. Sometimes they wind up taking a bullet in the side of the head. Whatever the case, we don’t need the story of Robert Blake and his disastrous life to tell us that; what we do need are the complex dynamics of the particular madness this bizarre couple cooked up together, and Batalla’s story doesn’t come close to that.

It’s clear Batalla is drawn to this story, and it’s a rich one, filled with neurosis, passion, lies and hatred. It also centers on two wretchedly fascinating pools of pond scum: Bakley, a gold-digging star fucker who was married at least nine times before Blake; and Blake, who celebrated his acquittal in March by holding a profanity-laden press conference. I remember seeing Blake on a late-night TV talk show years ago. He was one of the most pained, intensely troubled and scarily shrewd people I’ve ever seen or heard. Maybe it had something to do with being the guy who replaced Porky in Our Gang, or maybe he’s just one fucked-up hombre, but it was a remarkably chilling performance made even more haunting by the fact that he wasn’t acting. What this play needs is more of that Blake, a little less Fred the Cockatoo (although the guy playing him, Vince Cefalú, is hilarious) and a whole lot less white trash star-fucking fairy godmother (although the actress playing her, Kate Danley, is talented). With some serious rewrites, Batalla and Phillips could elevate Blake . . . da Musical! from what it is now—a majorly flawed if funny and provocative play, one gifted with a great comic lead—to something closer to warped brilliance.

BLAKE . . . DA MUSICAL! AT GROVE THEATER CENTER, GEN THEATER, 12852 MAIN ST., GARDEN GROVE, (714) 741-9555. SAT.-SUN., 8 P.M. $20; ALSO AT GTC BURBANK, 1111-B W. OLIVE AVE., BURBANK, (818) 288-3855. OPENS AUG. 6. SAT.-SUN., 8 P.M. THROUGH AUG. 28. $15

OC Register

Sunday, September 4, 2005

Celebrity justice inspires a hit for Grove

PAUL HODGINS
Theater critic

It's been a tough few years for Garden Grove's Grove Theater Center. The enterprising little company, which has produced plays since 1994 at two city-owned venues, found it increasingly hard to connect with audiences. This year, GTC co-founders Kevin Cochran and Charles Johanson didn't even attempt to mount a real season.

But good things come to those who persevere. GTC finally has an honest-to-goodness hit on its hand.

Hmmm, perhaps the word "goodness" shouldn't be used to describe "Blake ... da Musical!" Subtitled "a rock & roll white trash fairy tale," it's a wicked sendup of celebrity trials and the frenzy of media coverage and opportunism they generate.

In this case the celebrity, of course, is Robert Blake, who was charged with murdering his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, in 2001, and found not guilty in March. Rick Batalla, who wrote the guilty-pleasure script and co-wrote the songs with Henry Phillips, plays Blake, and his imitation is so good it's spooky at times.

The show opened at GTC's Garden Grove space in July, then traveled up to its Burbank venue, also a city-owned theater that the company manages. It was there that the adulation began.

"It just kind of built through word of mouth," Johanson said. "We had no idea it would strike a nerve."

Strike it did - and with the oddest people. Harlan Braun, Blake's original defense attorney, is a fan. So is the plaintiff's attorney in the pending civil trial against Blake, Eric Dubin. "He absolutely loved it," Johanson reports. Blake's bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, has also come around. Blake himself is rumored to be interested in seeing the show.

If so, he'd better steel himself. Batalla's Blake is a vainglorious little preener, but at least he's no worse than the manipulative, whiny Bakley. The real villain of the piece, though, is Fred, Blake's cockatoo ...

But I've revealed too much already. Better to see it for yourself. The Burbank run has been extended through Oct. 1, but Johanson promises "Blake" will return to Garden Grove for a brief appearance in November.

The show's post-O.C. future looks increasingly bright. Commercial producers from San Francisco and San Diego have expressed interest. So has an L.A. theater luminary, whose name I am not allowed to reveal, but I'll tease you with this: He's a successful producer-director and the son of theater royalty.

"I'd love to take it east to Chicago and New York," Johanson said. "I can imagine it playing in smaller places, too."

Maybe you can, Charles. But I'm having trouble imagining the folks in Des Moines singing along to the musical's most popular song - an expletive-filled journey through Bakley's sex life whose title cannot be revealed in a fine, upstanding media product such as the Register.

You'd think something with this big a dose of cheeky iconoclasm would appeal strictly to the black beret crowd (and those who know Blake and his inner circle). But Johanson said the show is a hit with unlikely constituencies.

"Ron Howard's father was here the other night," Johanson. "He laughed himself sick."

Review Plays.com

September 5, 2005

Pick of the Week

Ticket Holders
by
TRAVIS MICHAEL HOLDER

Orange County’s Grove Theatre Center begins a tenancy in Burbank with Blake… da Musical: A Rock & Roll White Trash Fairy Tale, which has instantly proven itself to be a delightful way to introduce the company to the Los Angeles theatrical community. Blake… da Musical is, of course, a wonderfully disrespectful, totally silly, and surely highly unauthorized send-up of the events and people surrounding the media-hyped murder of Bonnie Lee Bakley and her smarmy relationship with Robert Blake.

From the minute Bonnie and Bobby (Molly Benson and Rick Batalla, who won top honors for this performance last year at the New York City Fringe Festival) step onstage to wail the rocking “Tragedy of Bonnie and Blake,” it’s not difficult to see this is going to be fun.

The piece unfolds in flashbacks right from Bonnie and Bobby’s favorite table at Vitello’s, here cleverly recreated with suitable Italian restaurant-savvy by designer Leonard Ogden, festooned with red and white checkerboard tablecloths and framed 8 x 10s of famous TV dicks like Peter Falk, Telly Savalas, and Eric Estrada—even Ricardo Montalban and Herve Villichez thrown in for good measure, just to recreate the proper 80s-hasbeen ambience.

Blake… da Musical does not rehash the serialized and sensationalized real-life version of the case that we all heard whined about for months on end in leering reports from network news in general and Fox News in particular, but it’s definitely a closely paralleling spin on it.

Many events and characters will be familiar, including a pivotal appearance from Fred, Blake’s pet cockatoo from Baretta, who in this script is certainly a bird with an agenda of its own. As played by the hilariously deadpanned Vince Cefalu stuck in an outlandish feathered costume, Fred’s inclusion, especially to join the rest of the cast to blast Bakley in a lovely little number called “Star Fucker,” is a stroke of comedic genius.

Still, as good as every performance is (Travis Clark, Bob Simpson and Kate Danley are also exceptional and fully committed to their individual series of supporting characters and chorus lines), maybe the best part of all this is the irreverent and infectious music by Batalla and Henry Phillips, who also doubles as musical director and leads the well-tuned three-piece combo hiding behind the restaurant’s window.

The score features continuously hysterical lyrics, such as a passage in one song that lets the gloriously belting Benson as Bonnie compare her history of childhood trauma and abuse with that of her husband, singing that “All my mother’s boyfriends were gentle,” to which Batalla as Blake retorts: “For a while, my ass felt like a rental.” Great, isn’t it, the things that can be rhymed when someone sets his or her mind to it?

Best of all in Blake… da Musical, we at long last get to find out—in song—who really did in poor Bonnie Bakley. Yes, you heard that right: her killer is here revealed and the revelation could rival a case cracked by Sherlock Holmes—or maybe that honor might be better suited to The Cockatoo Whisperer. Whoops—better shut my mouth before the Bakleys file suit against Rudd Weatherwax.

The real Robert Blake recently took out ads to say he needs a job—any job—and as much as I loved Batalla’s performance as the controversial actor, the next step for Blake… da Musical seems obvious to me. As soon as the current civil trial ends and the vampirish family of Bakley has drained every cent out of her demise that they can squeeze, Blake should simply take over the leading role here and tour playing himself in this heretofore unauthorized version of his own story. What a perfect ending that would be to this whole affair, a living 21stcentury-defining step up from Kenneth Anger’s infamous Hollywood Babylon.

Blake… da Musical plays through Oct. 1 at the GTC Burbank, located at 1111-B W. Olive in the George Izay Park. For reservations, call (818) 288-3855.

Backstage West
Southern CA
September 22, 2005

Blake...Da Musical: A Rock & Roll White Trash Fairy Tale

Reviewed By Travis Michael Holder

"Blake...Da Musical: A Rock & Roll White Trash Fairy Tale"

Presented by Grove Theater Center at GTC Burbank, 1111B W. Olive Ave., Burbank. Sat.-Sun. 8 p.m. Aug. 6-Oct. 1. $15-20. (818) 288-3855.

From the minute the rockin' cast steps onstage in this wonderfully disrespectful, totally silly send-up of this year's most sensational real-life Hollywood murder case to wail "The Tragedy of Bonnie and Blake," we realize this is going to be fun. The tale unfolds in flashbacks right from Bonnie Lee Bakley and Robert Blake's favorite table at Vitello's, but it doesn't just rehash the case we've all heard serialized for months on the nightly news. Many events and characters will be familiar, but there's also a pivotal appearance from Fred, Blake's pet cockatoo from Baretta, who in this script is certainly a jealous little birdie with an agenda of its own. As played by the hilariously deadpanned Vince Cefalu stuck in an outlandish feathered costume, Fred's inclusion, especially to join the rest of the cast to blast Bakley in a lovely little number called "Star F***er," is a stroke of comedic genius.

Molly Benson and the on-the-money Rick Batalla (who also wrote the book and co-wrote the music) give deliciously raucous yet deadly serious performances as the poor doomed Blakes. But as good as Travis Clark, Bob Simpson, and Kate Danley are as multiple characters in the story, the best part of all is the irreverent and infectious music by Batalla and Henry Phillips, who also doubles as music director and leads the well-tuned three-piece combo hiding behind the restaurant's window. The score features continuously side-splitting lyrics, such as a passage in one song that lets the belting Benson compare Bonnie's history of childhood trauma and abuse with that of her husband's, singing that "All my mother's boyfriends were gentle," to which Batalla retorts, "For a while, my ass felt like a rental." Great, isn't it, the things that can be rhymed when someone sets his or her mind to it?

Best of all, we at long last get to find out-in song, no less-who did in poor Bonnie. Yes, you read that right: Her killer is revealed here, and the revelation could rival a case cracked by Sherlock Holmes-but that honor might be better suited to The Cockatoo Whisperer.

Tuesday, December 6, 2005

Killer show
By PAUL HODGINS

The Orange County Register

‘Blake ... da Musical!’

Where Gem Theater, 12852 Main St., Garden Grove
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Continues 8 p.m. Saturday
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How much $30
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Availability Good
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Length 90 minutes (no intermission)
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Suitability Adult themes and language
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Tickets (714) 741-9555 or www.gtc.org

I'm a member of the club that believes it's important to throw good taste to the four winds every once in a while. I think it's not only healthy but psychologically crucial to plunk your better intentions and your political correctness in a lock box, go out, and have a big ol' laugh over something with absolutely no redeeming value.

Something like "Blake ... da Musical!," the naughty, nasty little runaway hit that began its life at Garden Grove's Grove Theater Center, then found fame (and attracted the interest of an off-Broadway producer) when it ran in Burbank. It has returned to its birthplace, the Gem Theater in Garden Grove, where it ends its brief run this weekend.

If you believe in the healing power of laughter - rip-snorting, guilty-pleasure, I-can't-believe-they-said-that laughter - then you owe it to your health to get up to Garden Grove and see this dang thing before it lands in New York and those snotty East Village theater hipsters pretend they discovered it.

"Blake" is about Robert Blake, the has-been Hollywood actor, and his turbulent relationship with his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, for whose murder he was tried and acquitted. It's the brainchild of Rick Batalla, who wrote the book, co-wrote the songs with Henry Phillips, co-directed with Kevin Cochran and stars as the titular little ball of hate.

Those who remember Batalla from his years with Troubadour Theater Company probably have an inkling of his talents - he was always the most watchable member of that manic ensemble. In "Blake," Batalla's gifts are fully uncorked, and he's nothing short of amazing. He explodes with the frenzied-yet-focused energy of Jim Carrey or Rowan Atkinson, and he shares their ability to deliver cartoonish emotional extremes without losing his bead on the character or his story.

Not that we're supposed to take this world very seriously. "Blake" resides in the shrill, ironic musical-theater universe shared by "Urinetown" and "Bat Boy." Batalla isn't particularly interested in the dark, subterranean labyrinths of Blake's psyche; the actor's tough childhood and roller-coaster career are fair game for "Blake's" comic slings and arrows.

In a song titled "Who's More," Robert and Bonny cheerily compare their sad, sordid pasts, each one trying to top the other with increasingly hair-raising tales from hellish childhoods. It's like some perverted parallel-universe doppelganger of "Anything You Can Do" from "Annie Get Your Gun."

"Who's More" is typical of the crotch-grabbing humor and breezy profanity that define "Blake's" score. The titles (the ones that can be printed here, anyway) give you an idea of what's in store: "Mail Order Porn," "White Trash Destiny," "Lady Dyslexia." If there's a message in this mayhem, it's that screwed-up people seem to gravitate to one another, and the consequences are never pretty.

That truism is captured brilliantly in a scene at Vitello's restaurant, the San Fernando Valley diner where Blake and Bakley shared their last meal together. The couple yo-yo back and forth between panting desire and murderous hatred, and pity anybody who gets caught in the crossfire (a waiter does, with hilariously tragic results).

Everybody in the smallish cast has loads of fun, but it's a generous ensemble - nobody goes overboard, and the pacing remains zippy throughout. Molly Benson steals her share of scenes as the garrulous and resolutely unlovable Bonny, as does Vince Cefalú as Fred the Cockatoo (remember "Baretta"? Sure you do), who holds the keys to the plot in his sneaky talons.

Kate Danley provides a crucial cameo as a very special kind of Fairy Godmother; Travis Clark and Bob Simpson show great comic range in a number of supporting roles.

Phillips leads a burning-hot rock trio on guitar. The songs defy the ludicrousness of their titles, thanks to Phillips's sizzling solos and the band's on-the-nose tightness.

If "Blake" suffers from a shortcoming, it's the ending. It feels a little abrupt and unfinished - a marked contrast to the rest of the evening. But if this show takes off (and the level of interest from producers in other cities seems to indicate that it will), there'll be plenty of opportunities for Batalla and company to tweak and polish it. "Blake" has the potential to be a cult classic, and the concept of celebrity-crime musical begs for an encore. To that end, I have two words for Batalla: Michael Jackson.

Blake and Love

How playwright Rick Batalla put two things together that might not ordinarily fit

by JOEL BEERS

OC Weekly - Vol. 11 No. 13 December 2 - 8, 2005

It’s a good thing Rick Batalla was watching a rerun of Baretta during a phone conversation two years ago, rather than, say, a tampon commercial. Otherwise, it’s possible that instead of a musical skewering of the Robert Blake debacle, we’d have a show called Aunt Flo . . . the Musical.

Instead, there is Blake . . . da Musical, which began as a lark, resulted in an award-winning cultish musical birthed in Garden Grove, and is on the verge of the first off-Broadway production in the 11-year history of the Grove Theater Center. And it all started as a dare, albeit one that Batalla gave to himself.

Orange County audiences know Batalla best as the mega-talented Latin guy who graced the stage in some of the Troubadour Theater Company’s earliest offerings. But after several Troubadour stints, Batalla began wondering “what I could do on my own.” So when Troubadour big kahuna Matt Walker asked him in 2003 to participate in the next Troubadour skewering, Batalla told him he was working on something new. One problem: he wasn’t. But while talking to Walker, Blake happened to glance at an old telecast of Baretta starring, of course, Blake, who was on trial at the time.

“He asked me what I was working on,” Batalla said. “I said, ‘Well, I’m kind of working on this thing about Robert Blake.’ He said, ‘Great.’” He’d pulled the idea “out of my ass,” but Batalla knew the instant he got off the phone he had to do it. “Once I say I’m going to do something, I do it. That’s just the way I am,” Batalla said in a phone interview.

The hook he found after researching Blake’s life surprised nearly everyone—even members of Blake’s original defense team, who saw the show in its Garden Grove workshop earlier this year and in its triumphant Burbank run that netted it a 2005 Ovation Award for best world premiere musical.

“It’s a love story,” said Batalla. “I tried very hard to stay away from taking a side as to whether he killed [his wife], or had someone do it, or whether he was guilty, and just focused on the idea of whether these two people really could have loved each other.”

Batalla, who wrote the music for Blake with folk satirist Henry Phillips, admits there is little factual ground to suppose that Blake’s marriage was anything but manipulation and convenience. But in his re-imagining of pop culture, and his turning of a twisted tale of two very fucked-up people into a soiled love story, he’s succeeded not only in creating a wickedly funny show about the underbelly of Hollywood myth and celebrity; he’s also managed to turn a small slice of musical theater into authentic tragedy.

The retooled, full-length version of Blake . . . da Musical returns to Orange County twice this month, for what could be audiences’ last chance to see the show before its off-Broadway run next year. And if there’s any poetic justice, the principal figure will be kicking it in Garden Grove this weekend.

“We were told that, had his civil trial not been going on, Blake would have seen the show in Burbank,” said co-producer Charles Johanson. “But he has a standing invite to see the show whenever he wants to.”

BLAKE . . . DA MUSICAL, GROVE THEATER CENTER, 12852 MAIN ST., GARDEN GROVE, (714) 741-9555. SAT., 8 P.M. THROUGH DEC. 10. $23-$25.

Review: Attorney who sued Blake gives '...da Musical!' a thumbs up
Eric Dubin's verdict: Go see it and laugh.
By ERIC J. DUBIN Special to SqueezeOC.com

Yes, I am the attorney who just won the $30 million jury verdict against Robert Blake, sitting here on a Saturday night in the second row of the Grove Theater Center's Gem Theater in Garden Grove, watching the very dark comedy production "Blake...da Musical!"

The show is set entirely at Vittello’s, basically playing out every stereotype about Bonny and Blake with a rock soundtrack of extremely clever and biting lyrics.

First question: Is it even "politically correct" for me to be here?

Come on! Of course I was going to check out this off- Broadway-bound musical about my case, playing right here in the O.C. The production has been winning rave reviews across the board - would you not be curious if you were me?

Talk about surreal: the opening number "Shut Up" is about a press conference which I spoke at. The real question of the night turned out to be, "Was it cool for me to be laughing so hard?" There is no way around it, the show takes some pretty hard pokes at Bonny and even worse ones at Blake. But hey, funny is funny and there is no escaping that the play’s co-writer Rick Batalla absolutely nails the lead role as Blake. I also appreciated that Bonny was written with a quick and sharp wit, with actress Molly Benson bringing likeability to the character while holding her own during the verbal exchanges with Blake.

Yes, I did cringe numerous times while hiding my disapproving face in my hands - although the truth is, I was simultaneously grinning. I experienced an unsettling mixture of guilt and laughter during numbers like "Duck," which features an angelic Bonny (head wound intact) singing to Blake and his prison buddies, and "Lady Dyslexia" featuring Blake reading an upside-down restaurant menu.

Would Bonny have enjoyed this? Well, much like a caricature portrait, the play is defined by the unflattering characteristics it chooses to exaggerate. However, Bonny understood the absolute power of being able to laugh at yourself, and for the most part the play does avoid the mean spirit that much of the worldwide press tapped into.

Laughter is an amazing gift, and I have even personally thanked Jay Leno for all his late-night monologues during my trial, with great lines like "It rained so hard today in L.A. Robert Blake forgot his spear gun at Vittello’s." Howard Stern, David Letterman, "Saturday Night Live" - all have done really funny parodies about this case. Even Comedy Central showed up at my trial last month. This very funny rock musical by Rick Batalla, Henry Phillips, Kevin Cochran and Charles Johanson is in the same category, at least in my warped opinion.

Finally the big question: What would Robert Blake think about this outrageous stage production of his life? I know this much: I would not want to be the one to ask him.

LA stage has stars in plays and plays about stars - Washington Post February 23, 2006 (registration required)

By Sue Zeidler
Reuters
Thursday, February 23, 2006; 9:35 AM

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It may not be Broadway, but live theater in Los Angeles offers audiences plenty of entertainment, from seeing stars in stage classics to even a musical about their favorite local celebrity scandal.

In a city abuzz about movies ahead of the March 5 Oscars, Los Angeles audiences are packing theaters to see actors known for their film and television work in action. They can enjoy stage performances by past Oscar-nominated actress Annette Bening in Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" or Lynn Redgrave, another previous Oscar-nominee, in "The Importance of Being Earnest."

Oscar-winner Mary Steenburgen stars along with Rebecca Pigeon and Alicia Silverstone in David Mamet's "Boston Marriage," while sitcom star Annie Potts recently took bows in "Diva" a scathing behind-the-scenes look at TV production.

Emmy-winner Mariette Hartley, best known for Polaroid commercials, is currently starring through February 26 in "If You Get to Bethlehem, You've Gone Too Far," based on her 1990 memoir.

And not long ago, audiences were packing the house to see "Blake ... da Musical!," a runaway success about former television star Robert Blake, who was accused and acquitted in 2005 for the March 2001 murder of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley.

Blake was found liable in November 2005 for her slaying in a wrongful death civil suit brought by her children and was ordered to pay $30 million in damages.

Not only was "Blake...da Musical!" a hit, but the play, set at the restaurant where Blake and Bakley dined right before she was shot in a car nearby, won an Ovation Award -- Los Angeles' version of a Tony -- in 2005 and has already attracted interest from New York's theater community.

SMALL THEATERS

"It's very funny, but it's also got an incredibly touching underbelly," said Charles Johanson, who produced the show with Kevin Cochran, and plans to take it to Manhattan this year.

"Yes, its a musical about the murder of Robert Blake's wife, but it pokes fun at Los Angeles, which is why it will be incredibly successful in New York," he said.

Don Shirley, theater critic for LA CityBeat, credited the abundant theater offerings to the proliferation of theaters with 99 or fewer seats. "The theater scene here is enormous," he said.

These small theaters operate under unique Actors' Equity rules that enable companies to hire professional actors at little salary, enabling more shows to be produced.

Critics credit the Los Angeles 99 Seat Theater Plan with encouraging a wide variety of experimental, political and edgy shows, making the film capital of the United States into a theater showcase as well.

"There's a staggeringly large talent pool here and many of the people want to act on stage at any cost. Many see it as a way to advance their careers and to keep their artistic juices flowing," said Shirley.

The Actors' Equity Association, a New York based-guild, which represents more than 45,000 actors and stage managers in the United States, has about 7,500 members in Los Angeles.

Steven Mikulan, the theater critic of L.A. Weekly, has a less forgiving view of Los Angeles theater when it comes to comparing it to New York.

"If you go to New York, you probably won't see numerically the same amount of plays out there, but they're new," he said, adding that much of the theater in Los Angeles is simply as a vehicle for actors to be seen.

"A lot of the shows are very old plays and recent revivals. They're usually showcases to serve as an entree to get into television and movies," he said.

"I think the last few seasons are all blurring into one long gray line of undistinguished productions. They (theaters and production companies) tend to stick with very safe classics, especially in the big theaters," he said.

The Orange County Register

Saturday, June 17, 2006
That's his story
... and he's stickin' to it. An actor hopes his fib-inspired 'Blake' holds up in New York.

By PAUL HODGINS

Rick Batalla's twisted little tale could become Orange County's first homegrown Broadway musical blockbuster. And to think it all started with a lie.

"I had just come back from Australia, where I'd been doing a show," the journeyman actor recalls. "It wasn't a fun time." Batalla hadn't enjoyed the gig or the time apart from his wife and four kids.

When the same group contacted him offering more work, Batalla had to think fast.

"The guy called me and put me on the spot. I couldn't come up with anything, so I just said, 'No, I'm working on my own thing.' He said, 'What is it?' And just at that moment I was watching CNN and they were broadcasting something about the Robert Blake murder trial. I said, 'It's a musical. About Robert Blake.'"

Batalla hung up the phone and swore at himself. "I said, 'Great. Now I have to do it!'"

And so, "Blake ...da Musical!" was born. Has-been actor Robert Blake, his ill-fated wife Bonnie Lee Bakley and a motley crew of supporting players re-enact the events surrounding Bakley's murder through comedy, song and dance - and even suggest who the real culprit might be. Batalla plays the title character.

Batalla's strange creation went through countless drafts and wacky variations after he and four other performers started workshopping it.

"Originally I had a scene where (Blake) was in jail and a big talking O.J. head appeared and told him he'd get off. But after a while I realized, 'Whoa! This is too complicated.' It was a pretty bad show. But then, that special thing that I have with Charles and Kevin kicked in. They made it real."

Charles Johanson and Kevin Cochran have managed Garden Grove's Grove Theater Center since 1994. Their sometimes bumpy, always creative tenure with the small theater company has included some risky new work and, since 2004, a program called the New Play Initiative.