Theater Reviews
Including this week's pick, Static and Highways Birthday Bash
FOODSEXWORKSLEEPGOD Writer-director Ron West’s satire of the myriad follies of modern society is a mélange eliciting both hearty laughs and considerable confusion. The eight-actor ensemble (Jamila Alina, Amelia Borella, Challen Cates, Chad Fifer, Bruce Green, Hepburn Jamieson, Aaron McPherson, Andrew Schlessinger) display commendable verve while blitzing through a flurry of scenes that, according to the press materials, is a “hybrid of one-act plays and improvisational devices.” Despite their energy and commitment, the actors aren’t in synch with one another, the tableaux meet each other in a sloppy dissonance, and some of the material is either flat or obtuse. Nonetheless, the group succeeds in putting the screws to such cultural icons as Brad Pitt, “from my cold, dead hand” Charlton Heston, and Jennifer Aniston fretting why she and Mr. Pitt didn’t have kids. There are also some funny parodies of group-therapy sessions, church support groups, health-food fanatics, racism, obscenely silly relationship snafus, and an Oleanna-inspired tête-à-tête between a college professor and his feisty student. The production, however, needs more biting, incisive writing and an overhaul of the staging. NEW OPEN FIST THEATER, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlwyd.; Fri-Sat., 8p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; thru Sept. 16. (Lovell Estell III)
GO JOANNA’S HUSBAND, DAVID’S WIFE The stage is set for yet another two-person play about marriage: A man and a woman, David and Joanna (Vaughn Armstrong and Lissa Layng), sit at “his” and “hers” desks, divided only by a large bed. Despite the standard-issue marriage set, however, this play is far from ordinary. It begins with David’s painful discovery that his wife, Joanna, has left him, and his subsequent decision to read her journal. Playwright Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey expertly weaves a series of flashbacks through David’s reading of the journal; because Norman Cohen’s staging of this revival production is as fluid as Forsythe Hailey’s dialogue, the jumps in time are never jarring. In the flashbacks, Layng plays a character half her age, yet she portrays young Joanna as heart-wrenchingly innocent and not at all cutesy. Armstrong, for his part, does an excellent job of navigating the tension between David’s stubborn pride and his desire to see his marriage through his wife’s eyes. Act 1 is a hard act to follow, literally, and Act 2 drags in places; still, Joanna’s Husband, David’s Wife is an original, soulful piece that stands out among the plethora of plays that explore the complexities of marriage. FREMONT CENTER THEATER, 1000 Fremont Avenue, S. Pasadena; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; thru Aug. 27. (866) 811-4111. (Stephanie Lysaght)
LITTLE ARMENIA It was savvy of the Fountain Theater to commission a trio of Armenian poet-playwrights to write an homage to the community that surrounds the theater. The result, under Armina LaManna’s direction, is a somewhat insightful, somewhat generic collage of minidramas about how the process of assimilation into America crashes into various generations of Armenian-Americans. The performances are quite appealing, but the writers (Lory Bedikian, Aram Kouyoumdjian and Shahé Mankerian) haven’t found enough cultural idiosyncrasies to defy our expectations of what goes on in Hollywood’s Armenian enclaves. However, audiences from that neighborhood, seeing themselves reflected from the stage, may have a more enthusiastic view. FOUNTAIN THEATER, 5060 Fountain Ave., Hlywd.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru Sept. 3. (323) 663-1525. (Steven Leigh Morris) See Stage feature next week.
GO MUCH ADOOBIE BROTHERS ABOUT NOTHING Epitomizing the Doobie Brothers’ dreamy declaration — “What the people need is a way to make ’em smile” — this raucous Troubadour Theater Company production interweaves the Doobies’ music with Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing. It’s 1970s Garden Grove, not “China Grove,”where the Bard’s antics abound and where avowed bachelor Benedick (Eric Anderson) may well have met his match in the belligerent yet beguiling Beatrice (Jen Seifert). While Benedick trades barbs with Beatrice (their back-and-forth exchanges of “you’re so stupid” is a scream), fellow courtier Claudio (Joseph Leo Bwarie), and Beatrice’s cousin, Hero (Lynette Rathnam), get the hots for each other, an affair being thwarted by the evil Don John (director Matt Walker) — the bastard brother of Benedick and Claudio’s lord, Don Pedro (Darren Herbert). Along the way we are treated to the local constabulary’s Keystone Kop–style slapstick, Don John and his ludicrous lackeys’ nefarious plotting and, of course, tongue-in-cheek reworkings of Doobies’ tunes accompanied by Nadine Ellis’ vibrant choreography. Aided by director Walker’s clever staging in a limited playing space are Sharon McGunigle’s 1970s-meets-1570s costumes, and the cast’s improvisational dexterity. It all adds up to another laugh-filled triumph for the Troubies. MILES MEMORIAL PLAYHOUSE, 1130 Lincoln Blvd., Santa Monica; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 4 p.m.; thru Sept. 10. (310) 979-7196. (Martín Hernández)WATERMELON — GIT IT WHILE IT’S HOT!!! Writer-performer Cece Antoinette grew up in an all-black housing development in Dallas in the ‘60s. Delivered with warmth and energy, her autobiographical show recalls coming of age under her mom’s vigilant eye. An opinionated matriarch, her mother was determined to transform her tomboy daughter into a lady and to preserve her “watermelon” for her future husband-to-be. From childhood, Antoinette imagined herself a goddess in development, a notion she transposes here into a tongue-in-cheek conceit which frames (not always neatly) her anecdotes and impersonations. Among these are portraits of the charm school mistress who imbibed gin from a bottle of mouthwash and a Jewish schoolmarm who desperately struggled to prove her cool to her all black group of students. Antoinette’s comedic talents are unmistakable; under Joyce Guy’s direction, however, her pell-mell narrative would benefit greatly from more judicious pacing and clearer transitions. The show’s amateurish lighting design (no designer is credited), with spotlights that sometimes miss their target, is also a distraction. THEATER DISTRICT, 804 N. El Centro Ave., Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 5 p.m.; thru Sept. 10. (323) 957-2343. (Deborah Klugman)
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