Theater Reviews

CHEKHOV MANIA: A RUSSIAN VAUDEVILLE Straight out of the late 19th century, the “Pan-Siberian Touring Co.” brings us three of Chekhov’s broadly comic one-act plays complete with vaudevillian interludes and even a dancing bear. The evening is emceed by Yakoff Chekhov (Mike Park), the supposed cousin of Anton, who bears a much stronger (and probably intentional) similarity to comedian Yakov Smirnoff. The first play, The Marriage Proposal, satirizes the practice of wealthy families seeking out other wealthy families for matrimony. John Szura plays the story’s father, Vesna Tolomanska his daughter and Douglas Meyers appears as the suitor. The Harmful Effects of Tobacco is a monologue by a man (Szura) who is supposed to be delivering a lecture on the dangers of tobacco at the behest of his wife, but the talk instead turns into a satire of the institution of marriage. Finally, The Bear (played here as The Boar) caricatures Russian landowners of the period through the relationship between a debt collector (Szura) and the widow (Jacqueline Axton) of the man who owed him money. Unfortunately, the humor in the plays is so contextual that it is lost on modern audiences, turning comic exchanges into tedious tirades. The vaudevillian interludes are amusing, but don’t go far enough to be truly zany. Director James Carey lacks his namesake’s comic sensibility and settles on delivering one loud, furious note. THE ATTIC THEATRE, 5429 W. Washington Blvd., L.A.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru Oct. 27. (323) 525-0600. (Mayank Keshaviah)

GO EVEL KNIEVEL, THE ROCK OPERA The titular subject of composer Jef Bek’s muscular musical is the motorcycle daredevil who was as iconic to 1970s America as leisure suits and shag carpeting. Knievel’s car-jumping stunts were spectacular and as meaningless as the Vietnam War, yet held the country in the grip of a growing fascination with speed and danger. Bek imagines Knievel (Chuck DiMaria) as both a white-trash Horatio Alger seeking to leave his small-town criminal roots for fame and fortune and a Faustian figure torn between a loving woman, Linda (Traci Dinwiddie), and a dark, Black Rider–type character (Kyle Nudo) bent on pulling Knievel’s ass down into the underworld. Bek’s score and libretto (Jay Dover provides additional music and lyrics) captures the period’s adrenalized vocals, typical of such rock operas as Tommy and Jesus Christ, Superstar, and throws in a slight dash of Rocky Horror Show camp. There is a detectable sameness about the numbers, though, with power ballads overwhelmingly favored over the few down-tempo numbers. Nevertheless, the evening is an appropriately supercharged 90 minutes directed with over-the-top gusto by Keythe Farley and brought to life by an energetic ensemble, not to mention Ann Closs-Farley’s shiny costumes. BOOTLEG THEATER, 2220 Beverly Blvd., L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 5 p.m.; thru Oct. 28. (213) 381-7118 or www.ekrockopera.com. See Stage feature next week. (Steven Mikulan)

THE GAS HOUSE The central figure (he’s hardly a hero) in William Donnelly’s play is a third-rate radio shock jock named Don Berlin (Marc Jablon). At the top of the show we learn that he’s been bounced from his program because of a violent and obscene on-air freak-out. Since then he has become a hard-drinking gambler and layabout who works half-heartedly on a supposedly original screenplay (to star himself, of course), which even he knows is derivative and awful. Don’s visited by his poet wife, Adria (Supatra Hanna), from whom he is, he insists, “separated, not divorced.” She’s concerned with helping him “get past this,” even though he’s consistently ignored, neglected and verbally abused her — not to mention thrown things at her. We’re left to wonder why this beautiful, smart, sensitive woman should stick by such an annoying loser. (Eventually we get an explanation, but it’s hardly satisfying. Think of the movie The Brown Bunny without the graphic sex.) It’s a tribute to the charm, talent and passion of Jablon and Hanna, and the skill of director Suzanne Karpinsky, who also provides effective sound design, that eventually we do care about these people. But it’s hard to grasp why the writer felt this man was worth his trouble — or ours. SACRED FOOLS THEATER COMPANY, 660 N. Heliotrope Dr., L.A.; Tues.-Wed., 8 p.m.; thru Oct. 31. www.sacredfools.org. (Neal Weaver)

HARVEY FINKLESTEIN’S SOCK PUPPET SHOWGIRLS “Rim job! Rusty Trombone! Donkey Punch!” barks a green bunny. “Leave your inhibitions at the door!” Although its tinsel-and-posterboard aesthetic looks sweet, Harvey Finklestein and Jimmy McDermott’s all-puppet salute to Joe Eszterhas’ camp classic film, Showgirls, has enough aggressive sex and double D’s sprouting out of wrists to frighten Lambchop, Elmo and Big Bird (all of whom make cameos) back to kids’ programming. In the movie, Elizabeth Berkley’s Nomi, a do-anything naif worthy of a Terry Southern novel, pranced, screeched and tossed her hair like an untamed mare. The original was already so gonzo that here directors John and Stephanie Shaterian can only send it up by squeezing in Saved by the Bell jokes and throwing French fries at the audience when Nomi melts down at a fast food joint. There are plenty of giggles watching a sock puppet wind itself around a dance pole or get seductive before a backdrop of neon palm trees. Oddly, however, there are diminishing returns in trying to satirize the movie’s outré sincerity, and each time one sock calls the other a whore, the joke gets less funny. The exuberantly naughty puppeteers are Lowe Taylor, Dorien Davies, Steve Sabellico, Eddie Beasley and Jonathan Caplan. Harvey Finklestein Productions at THEATRE ASYLUM, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; Fri., 11 p.m.; thru Nov. 2. (323)962-0046. (Amy Nicholson)