Theater Reviews

The Four Man Plan: A Romantic Science

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More About

• G.B. Shaw
• Ben Jurand Caesar
• Lawrence (New York)
• Romantic Science Cindy Lu
• Theater Reviews

BRIDAL TERRORISM/THE BALCONY SCENE These revivals of two one-act plays present a relationship-themed double feature. Bill Rosenfield’s flimsy comedy, directed by Lewis Hauser, is based on the idea that women over 35 have a better chance of being victims of a terrorist attack than they have of getting married. Taking this concept to heart, May (Genevieve Adell), a member of the Bridal Terrorism Party, plans her wedding and sets herself a deadline for finding a groom, whom she searches for in Central Park. She meets Lionel (Leo Belldaere) and, along with her family, spends the play trying to convince him to marry her. While we sympathize with May’s frustration of “being single and straight in New York,” the play offers little beyond a few laughs. Similarly, Wil Calhoun’s play about a budding balcony romance between Karen (Stephanie Carr), a perky advertising executive, and Alvin (Brian Greene), an agoraphobic writer, goes through the motions without saying much. After Karen befriends the misanthropic Alvin, there is a lot of talk, but very little action until the last 15 minutes or so, when Karen’s ex-boyfriend shows up. The promise of drama gets undercut by the sappy ending, which instead serves up simple, saccharine resolutions. Bryan Keith directs. Vagabond Players Theater Company at THE RAVEN PLAYHOUSE, 5233 Lankershim Blvd., N. Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru Sept. 2. (818) 206-4000. (Mayank Keshaviah)

CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA Stunning costumes by Shon LeBlanc, Jack Arky’s arresting sound design and a visually spectacular prologue and backdrop by production designer Joel Daavid cannot salvage this dull rendering of G.B. Shaw’s play about two famous ancient rulers. Rife with Shavian contradiction, Caesar (Henry Olek) is a smart, down-to-earth workaholic, more given to diplomacy than violence (oh, for such a man in today’s Middle East). Past 50 — and very cognizant of it — he’s less interested in bedding Cleopatra (Susan Priver) than in tutoring her in the principles of being a sound monarch. One of Shaw’s more irritating heroines, the 16-year-old Egyptian queen is by contrast childish, small-minded and manipulative — qualities that Shaw may have intended to be offset with adolescent charm but that here start to grate, given Priver’s maturity. Olek likewise misses the mark in exuding an overly genial persona that suggests little of the character’s ability to govern or command. A lot of the dialogue struck me as stilted, but Gregory Franklin as Plotinus, Cleopatra’s ruthlessly purposeful enemy, and Ben Jurand as Caesar’s straight-arrow companion overcome that. Carol Ries directs. LILLIAN THEATER, 1076 Lillian Way, Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; thru Sept. 24. (323) 297-4602. (Deborah Klugman)

DAMES AT SEA Countertenor R. Christofer Sands and Kelly Bozcek (as, respectively, a 1930s Broadway diva and a perky ingénue) can carry a tune with authority in this revival of George Haimsohn, Robin Miller and Jim Wise’s 1968 musical, but the authority pretty much ends there. The show-biz valentine concerns the yes-we-can ensemble of a musical within the musical, as bulldozers move in on opening night to level the debt-ridden theater. Director Beau Puckett saturates his production with crotch-grabbing tableaux and sexual puns, loading up phrases such as “We’re staying all night until we lick this thing” with a winking double-meaning that shatters all innocence. The vivacious ensemble pokes us in the ribs with its shtick, proving that enthusiasm and glee cannot compensate for lack of timing, pedestrian voices and remedial dancing, bludgeoned by tinny musical direction and flickering lights. Act 2, however, is an improvement on the shoddy standard established in Act 1. KNIGHTSBRIDGE THEATER, 1944 Riverside Dr., Silver Lake; Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; thru Oct. 1. (323) 667-0955. (Steven Leigh Morris)

GO DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS Norbert Leo Butz reprises his mind-bogglingly over-the-top 2006 Tony Award–winning performance as sad-sack con artist Freddy, in Jeffrey Lane and David Yazbek’s musical adaptation of the 1988 film that starred Steve Martin and Michael Caine. Tom Hewitt plays Lawrence, Freddy’s suave partner-in-crime — a seducer of women for their fortunes on the French Riviera — and the story centers on a bet they make to see who can first fleece a woman they presume to be a dumb cluck from Ohio (Laura Marie Duncan). The lavish production, born in San Diego’s Old Globe Theater and crisply staged by its artistic director, Jack O’Brien, is a nod to vaudeville — from Butz’s tour de force sketch in which he tries in vain to bite off a piece of beef jerky until he’s writhing in circles on the floor, to Freddy’s rescue of Lawrence from a marital commitment by inventing and then impersonating (for the horrified fiancée’s benefit) Lawrence’s idiot brother, a drooling sloth named Ruprecht who farts into jars and who must live near Lawrence or the marriage is off. To win his bet, Freddy tries to woo the female victim’s sympathies by rolling around in a wheelchair, pretending to have paralyzed legs — until Lawrence shows up straight from the borscht belt as Viennese Dr. Shüffhausen, a sadist eager to give his mortified patient a physical to see if any feeling in his legs might have returned. Yazbek’s light ballads and lyrics are filled with a pleasingly skewed romanticism (“I knew a guy who once ate his T-shirt on a dare/Nothing is too wonderful to be true”), Hewitt and Duncan’s voices are glorious, and the ensemble floats in unison to Jerry Mitchell’s choreography. Where Steve Martin’s Freddy was a clown with a sappy heart, Butz plays him as so merciless, even Lawrence is shocked — and that’s a telling improvement. Broadway/L.A. at the PANTAGES THEATER, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hlywd.; Tues.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 & 8 p.m.; Sun., 1 & 6:30 p.m.; thru Aug. 27. (213) 365-3500. Also at ORANGE COUNTY PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, 600 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa; opens Tues., Aug. 29, 7:30 p.m.; perfs Tues.-Fri., 7:30 p.m.; Sat., 2 & 7:30 p.m.; Sun., 1 & 6 p.m.; thru Sept. 10. (714) 556-2787. (Steven Leigh Morris)