Bringing life, humanity to ‘freaks;’
Oscar-winner Dave Elsey explains complex effects of Playhouse’s ‘Side Show’
Matthew Patrick Davis plays the Geek in La Jolla Playhouse’s “Side Show,” with assistance from special makeup effects and prosthetics by Dave and Lou Elsey.
By Jim Hebert
November 22, 2013
Hollywood is not exactly foreign territory for La Jolla Playhouse: The theater was co-founded by no less a movie luminary than Gregory Peck. But it’s safe to say the current production of “Side Show” is the first time two Oscar-winners have worked on the same Playhouse musical. One of those artists is the show’s director, Bill Condon, who won an Academy Award in 1999 for scripting “Gods and Monsters” (and was nominated in 2003 for the screenplay to “Chicago”).