Theater Reviews

Satisfy Me, Rhinoceros, Jersey Boys and more

Comments (0) By L.A. Weekly Theater Critics Monday, Jun 4 2007

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JERSEY BOYS This megahit musical chronicle of the Age of Harmony, with a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, traces the rise, fall and Vegas afterlife of singer Frankie Valli and his group, the Four Seasons. The story is powered by the group’s most memorable songs (“Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” etc.), written by Bob Crewe (lyrics) and Bob Gaudio (music). As a pop fable, the show strikes a judicious balance between feel-good family fun and dysfunctional-family train wreck. Fittingly, the story unfolds in four seasons, beginning in the late 1950s, when two young Italian-American singers, Tommy DeVito (Deven May) and Nick Massi (Michael Ingersoll) invite a third teen from their Newark neighborhood, Frankie Valli (Christopher Kale Jones), to form a trio — which reaches critical mass with the addition of Gaudio (Erich Bergen). At first the show is narrated by Tommy, a minor hoodlum determined to keep the Four Seasons (who went by many names before their final incarnation) together at all costs. But his spendthrift lifestyle and underworld ties ultimately fracture the Four Seasons. This touring version of director Des McAnuff’s production hits all the right notes, although it remains a kind of Lion King version of American success when a little more darkness would have gone a long way. Jones turns in a fine performance as Valli, both as an actor and singer, right down to the crooner’s unforgettable falsetto. Center Theatre Group at the AHMANSON THEATRE, 135 N. Grand Ave., dwntwn.; schedule varies, call for info; thru Aug. 5. (213) 628-2772 or www.centertheatregroup.org. (Steven Mikulan)

RHINOCEROS The comedically regimented choreography in director Frederique Michel’s staging of Eugene Ionesco’s 1958 farce (translated by Derek Prouse) handily complements the Absurdist Romanian author’s portrayal of a town’s entire population transforming into the eponymous pachyderms. Even if Bo Roberts’ overly bombastic Jean — a living suit-and-tie blathering about rectitude and responsibility — overstates Ionesco’s dig at sanctimonious drones, at least the play is boldly interpreted. In manner and acting approach, Troy Dunn’s lead character, Berenger, is out on his own, a soft-spoken method actor in a world of stark puppets. He’s a stand-in for Ionesco — and us — as the townsfolk benignly capitulate to thick-skinned, dull-witted conformity. Ionesco wrote this after having observed the French embrace of the Nazis, and all of the lunatic rationalizations of that embrace passing for logic. Michel shrewdly keeps Nazis and other rabid defenders of homeland security at arm’s length in a production that’s simply about the cost of being different. Though much of Ionesco’s satire is now pedantic and overwritten, the core idea, like this production, contains a horror that borders on tragedy, like the arts, or what used to be called free thinking, slowly shutting down in the body politic, organ by organ. CITY GARAGE, 1340 ½ Fourth St. (West Alley), Santa Monica; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 5:30 p.m.; thru July 15. (310) 319-9939. (Steven Leigh Morris) See Stage feature next week.

Photo: Carol Petersen

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SATISFY ME Everybody cheats in Johnny Garcia’s new dramedy that has postcollegiate neuroses written all over it — in a good way. Garcia writes the way his characters would actually talk. Although fliers boast that Victor Williams (of TV’s The King of Queens) “stars,” there is no single star in this production. The play begins when Woody (Williams) visits his college friend, Jack (Garcia), to ask for advice, since Woody’s fiancée, Gwen (Kate Guyton), has informed Woody that if she marries him, she will need to cheat on him every few months. A clunky and poorly paced flashback to the conversation between Woody and Gwen gets the show off to a rocky start. Things soon pick up, however, and the ensuing love hexagon is so engrossing that it’s a shame to break for intermission. Also, Samantha Quan turns in a refreshingly nuanced performance as a sexy, young assistant. Director Andrew Borba treats the majority of the flashbacks and simultaneously occurring scenes with dexterity, and sound designer Barry Neely’s choice of music accentuates the mood and drives the piece forward. Aside from the perplexing, massive pair of breasts painted on one wall, set designer Stephen Gifford’s set is simple and functional. Satisfy Me is a sincere and edgy piece that dares to ask whether infidelity could actually benefit a relationship. Lillian Theater at ELEPHANT STAGEWORKS, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; thru June 17. (323) 960-7789. (Stephanie Lysaght)