Theater Reviews: The Color Purple, High School Musical, Bob's Holiday Office Party

   BOB’S HOLIDAY OFFICE PARTY Now in its 12th season, Joe Keyes and Rob Elk’s holiday sitcom spins out some gloriously funny lines and cameos from the premise of a drunken Christmas party in the ramshackle office of a ramshackle insurance agent, Bob Finhead (Elk), somewhere in a small Midwest town. Bob’s the product of three generations of insurance salesmen, and he’s now torn between staying with his deranged community and heading for new, creative opportunities as an inventor in Des Moines — city of light, city of magic. People come, people go, including pudgy, now-bald Elwin Beewee (Kyle Colerider-Krugh), returning as a success after being hogtied to a wall in high school, mocked for his acne and explosive-bowel syndrome and referred to as“stinky.” No longer a stutterer and seemingly jocular, Elwin is more diabolical than he appears, with a clandestine plan to exact his revenge. His threat to the town provides a theme-and-variation on The Cherry Orchard, as filtered through an episode of The Office. It’s one thing when Sheriff Joe Walker (Joe Keyes) sits on a toilet with a broken door, showing his knees while chattering about the Bible, but a more somber horror emerges when one of the aging Johnson triplets (Linda Miller, Melissa Denton and Maile Flanagan) sputters mockingly at Elwin’s belief in global warming— “Bet you believe in the tooth fairy as well . . . and evolution,” she smirks — followed by screams of laughter all round. Ann Randolph turns in a pair of insane cartoons as folksinger Carol — recently released from the asylum — and town whore Brandy, looking for any crotch to rest her head on. And Mark Fite, a cross between Owen Wilson and a young Bill Pullman, makes for a perfect pothead as Marty, who keeps crashing his truck — sometimes without even starting it. Why Bob would want to escape these people is evident; why he would be conflicted by that decision is less so. Justin Tanner directs this spitfire ensemble with timing so fine you don’t even know it’s been tuned. THE LOUNGE THEATRE, 6201 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; thru Dec. 22. (323) 960-7714. (Steven Leigh Morris)

(Photo by Michelle Pedersen)

(Photo by Paul Kolnik)

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More About

• Joe Keyes
• Lester Oronofsky
• Steven Leigh Morris
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Theater

(Photo by Michelle Pedersen)
(Click to enlarge)

(Photo by Paul Kolnik)
(Click to enlarge)

(Click to enlarge)

PICKTHE COLOR PURPLEAlice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel went Broadway two years ago and, in an adaptation market besotted with fleecy sentimentality and formulaic musicals, received a surprisingly faithful and melodic compression from book writer Marsha Norman and composer-lyricists Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray. This touring show transforms Walker’s epistolary narrative into a reductive but irresistible story about Celie (Jeannette Bayardelle), a Southern black woman beaten down almost from birth but whose resilience allows her to survive and triumph in an America slowly changing over her lifetime. Set in rural Georgia between 1909 and 1949, Purple traces Celie’s brutal adolescence as she goes from being the sexual plaything of her stepfather (Quentin Earl Darrington) to the oppressed child bride of a man known only as “Mister” (Rufus Bonds Jr.). The tale fascinates not only because of its Dickensian tropes and insular African-American milieu, but also because Celie’s oppression by Mister occurs within the larger hell created by white society. In addition to the traditional Southern three strikes (black, poor and female), Celie is also a lesbian, and comes out during her early friendship with Shug Avery (Michelle Williams), a high-living singer who is also Mister’s sometime mistress. Although Act 2 suffers from an inevitable sugar rush stemming from empowerment, reform and reconciliation, Purple sustains much of its punch over its nearly two-and-a-half hours. Original production director Gary Griffin gets great efforts from a huge ensemble, but especially from Bayardelle as the long-suffering Celie, and Bonds as her delightfully evil husband. Center Theatre Group at the AHMANSON THEATRE, 135 N. Grand Ave., dwntwn.; Tues.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 6:30 p.m.; mats Sat., 2 p.m. & Sun., 1 p.m.; no perfs Dec. 25, Jan. 1 & March 5 or evenings Feb. 3 & March 9; added perfs Dec. 27, Jan. 31 & March 6, 2 p.m. & Dec. 31, 8 p.m.; perf March 4 is 7:30 p.m.; thru March 9. (213) 972-7231. (Steven Mikulan)

A DOLL HOUSE Blame Oprah that Henrik Ibsen’s melodrama about a sheltered wife who empowers herself by leaving her paternalistic husband has irrevocably lost its shock value. What remains is a fatalistic, long-winded and aging play about class and gender conflict that needs a fresh approach. Aramazd Stepanian’s production, updated to the 1950s, considers taking Ibsen in two vastly different directions: First, as Kanye West would agree, casting a black actor (Jonaton Wyne) as husband Torvald gives a sharp new edge to his quest to gain upward mobility with the perfect trophy wife, yet ultimately the choice feels incidental. Drawing the play into the world of an I Love Lucy episode, albeit with threats of suicide, Georgan George’s Nora is a dizzy schemer with flaming red hair and pearls, aiming to distract Torvald from discovering her terrible secret. This approach would be worth exploring more deeply, especially with judgmental friend Kristine (Fernanda Kelly) reborn as Ethel Mertz. Instead, this friendly but tepid revival simply can’t shake off the dust. LUNA PLAYHOUSE, 3706 San Fernando Road, Glendale; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m. (no perfs Dec. 28-29 & Jan. 4-5); thru Jan. 19. (818) 500-7200. (Amy Nicholson)