BACKSTAGE: After period of mourning, Grams reform with new member

By PAM KRAGEN - Staff Writer | Tuesday, November 25, 2008 10:57 AM PST ∞

When Craig Yerkes, the 40-year-old lead guitarist for the San Diego-based Americana band The Grams, died in a Bonsall car accident last June, his bandmates couldn't go on with the show.

Singer/guitarist Chuck Schiele said in an e-mail last week that he, violinist Sweet Elise Ohki, bassist Tony Sandoval and drummer Bill Coomes didn't have the heart to perform again as The Grams without Yerkes, even though the two-time San Diego Music Award-winning group had just released its sophomore CD when Yerkes was killed in a single-car accident, when his Nissan ran off the road on a curve at Camino Del Rey and Via de la Reina and struck a tree. He died at the scene, leaving behind a wife and two children.

But five months after the accident, Schiele said he and his former Grams bandmates were asked to perform a gig at last weekend's San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival. Schiele said they took the job as a way of regrouping without making a big public splash.

"We liked it that we could hide out, sorta, since we wouldn't know anyone at the gig while we're getting our 'chops' back on ---- much like a baseball team does in spring training," Schiele said.

Two days before the festival, the bandmates asked San Diego country/rock balladeer Clay Colton to sit in with them and the results were magic. By the end of the third set, the group felt they'd found a new vibe and the will to go on again as The Grams.

"While we all know that some things are irreplaceable, and that change is inevitable, the change is here. The point is the joy, and we're having fun," Schiele said.

The newly reformed Grams had its first formal concert Tuesday at Humphrey's Backstage Lounge and more gigs are being planned. For more, visit thegrams.net.

---

To help attract some new volunteers for its theater programs, PowPAC, Poway's Community Theater, will host a Christmas tree decorating party from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday at its theater space at 13250 Poway Road.

Hot apple cider and Christmas cookies will be served and everyone is invited to help trim the theater's tree. For details, call Claudette Heffner at (858) 486-7569.

---

Christian Hoff, the La Jolla-raised, Tony-winning star of "Jersey Boys" who owns a ranch in Valley Center, has pulled out of the title role of "Pal Joey," a Broadway musical revival that was scheduled to open on Broadway Dec. 11.

Hoff, who spent more than two years playing mobster-turned-Four Seasons harmony singer Tommy DeVito in "Jersey Boys" on Broadway, was the subject of a lengthy profile in The New York Times last week. The article mentioned how the original production of "Pal Joey" turned hoofer Gene Kelly into a star and could do the same for Hoff.

But after "Pal Joey" opened in previews Nov. 14, the blogosphere was rife with negative reviews for Hoff's singing, acting and dancing skills. Then last weekend, Hoff took time off to nurse a foot injury that occurred during a performance on Nov. 21.

On Monday, producers announced that Hoff will not continue on in the part and his understudy, Matthew Risch, will take over. The opening has been pushed back a week.

---

The San Diego Chorus of Sweet Adelines, a women's 100-voice, a cappella harmony choir based in San Diego, placed seventh in the world earlier this month at an international competition in Honolulu.

The San Diego choir was one of 33 choruses to qualify for the world competition, where groups were judged not only on their singing but also their showmanship (which includes choreography and costumes).

The 58-year-old choir has been under the directorship of Kim Hulbert for 23 years and has won seven regional championships as well as numerous silver and bronze medals.

The choir will present a free performance at 8:40 p.m. at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion as part of the annual December Nights program in Balboa Park. For details, visit sdchorus.org.

---

To honor his longtime commitment to arts education and programming, UC San Diego on Friday named a 99-seat on-campus theater in honor of Arthur Wagner, retired founder and emeritus faculty member of the university's Department of Theatre and Dance.

Wagner, who with his wife, Molli, has given more than $500,000 for graduate fellowships over the years, was the guest of honor at last weekend's rededication. The new Arthur Wagner Theatre is one of the theater school's busiest spaces, serving as home for the university's annual Baldwin New Play Festival as well as being used every week for classes, rehearsals and performances.

Wagner trained as an actor before earning a Ph.D. in dramna from Stanford University. After founding actor training programs at two Midwestern universities, he came to UC San Diego in 1972 to serve as the founder and first chair of the theater and dance department. One of Wagner's first hires was former Poway resident Floyd Gaffney, who was one of the county's longtime leaders in multicultural theater and dance programming. Gaffney died last year at the age of 77.

Today, UCSD's theater and dance department is considered one of the top three graduate theater programs in the country (along with those at Yale and NYU).

Since his retirement in 1991, Wagner and his wife have continued to devote time and resources to the department, including the construction of a dance building and the underwriting for an acting professorship.

Pam Kragen is the arts editor of the North County Times.