Theater Reviews: Sexy Laundry, Stupid Kids

GO  JOAN RIVERS: A WORK IN PROGRESS BY A LIFE IN PROGRESS Writer-performer Joan Rivers' confessional play shows the comic legend as both an unapologetically shticky standup preoccupied with female anatomy and the effects of plastic surgery, and as an existential show-business survivor who's still going strong at 74 in an industry ruled by men and obsessed with youth. These two conflicting impulses create a tense balancing act that Rivers, under Bart DeLorenzo's soft-touch direction, navigates with ease and intimacy. The show (co-written by Rivers with Douglas Bernstein and Denis Markell) imagines Rivers stuck in a B-list dressing room shortly before she is to begin interviewing Oscar-night arrivals with daughter Melissa. Joining her are Kenny (Adam Kulbersh), an inept neophyte producer, and Svetlana (Emily Kosloski), an equally clueless emigre makeup artist. Rivers' references to Svetlana as "Anastasia," "Rasputin" and "Sputnik" — her shtick impulses — are too archaically old-school to be offensive. Instead, she hits her stride when recalling a rough-and-tumble life as a struggling comedian and talk-show host who endured both the betrayal of friend Johnny Carson and the wrath of Barry Diller. After the suicide of her husband Edgar, she reinvents herself as the queen of the Academy Awards' red carpet, which brings us back to the show's setting. The 110-minute, intermissionless evening, however, feels overly long, which could've been avoided if Work in Progress had been developed strictly as a one-woman show. Gay Kenny, innocent Svetlana and icy blond TV exec Evan (Tara Joyce) are mildly funny stereotypes, but they remain two-dimensional shadows infringing on a real-life memoir. 10886 Le Conte Ave., Wstwd.; Tues.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 4 & 8:30 p.m.; Sun., 2 & 7 p.m. (no perfs Wed.-Sun., Feb. 27-March 2); thru March 30. (310) 208-5454. (Steven Mikulan)

Will Gordh

Joan Rivers

Will Gordh

Robots vs. Fake Robots

Related Content

• Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Sherlock's Last Case
  January 3, 2013
• Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Solo Show About Pioneering Actress Hattie McDaniel
  January 10, 2013
• Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Jacobean Incest Melodrama
  May 16, 2013
• Joan Rivers Targeted By Fashion Police Writers Who Say They Were Cheated
  April 10, 2013
• Theater to See in L.A. This Week
  April 18, 2013

More About

• Steven Leigh Morris
• Joan Rivers
• Richard Nelson
• James Joyce
• Theater

(Click to enlarge)

Robots vs. Fake Robots

Eric Curtis

(Click to enlarge)

Sexy Laundry

Kurt Boetcher

(Click to enlarge)

Stupid Kids

GO  THE MONKEY JAR At a close-knit charter elementary school, a struggling fourth-grader (Josh Ogner) brandishes a gun at his teacher, Mr. Dori (Henry Hayashi). The district's rule book is clear: expulsion. Muddying the waters, however, the gun is a nonfunctioning relic, and the teacher has a well-known animosity toward the boy, whose learning disability he thinks is simply learned helplessness. Only months into his governance as the school's first black principal, Mr. Rees (Mark Berry) must satisfy everyone with his resolution — the kid's bewildered parents (Sally Saffioti and Richard Horvitz), a meddlesome PTA doyenne (Addie Daddio), an empathetic district psychologist (Amy Tolsky) and the enraged teacher — before he goes public and ruins everyone's reputation. Playwright Richard Martin Hirsch has set up a credible and inextricable trap that teeters into issue overload. Though Warren Davis' production is engrossing, the parents' scenes are discordantly screwball; Act 2 rehashes the problem in ever louder voices before homing in on what feels like the least-satisfying solution. But among the script's strong achievements is the tightly wound Mr. Dori, an undeniably good — if authoritarian — teacher who's proud that his kids score in the state's top 5 percent, and bristles at the insinuation that spurring them to achieve doesn't prove that he cares. Theatre 40 on the Beverly Hills High School campus, 241 Moreno Dr., Beverly Hills; Sat.-Sun., 2 p.m.; in rep, call for schedule; thru March 9. (310) 364-0535. (Amy Nicholson)

GO  POOR BEAST IN THE RAIN It sometimes seems that Irish writers are the only ones who can still write a traditional, realistic genre drama with conviction, and without deconstructing, satirizing or saturating it in irony. Billy Roche's play is set in a betting shop in the town of Wexford, during the All-Ireland Hurling Finals. Ten years ago, local bad boy Danger Doyle (Andrew Connolly) ran off to England with the wife of ineffectual Steven (Michael O'Hagan), who runs the betting shop with the assistance of his pretty daughter, Eileen (Kate Steele). In his absence, Danger has been mythologized by young Georgie (Christopher Carley) and Joe (Kevin Kearns). When Danger unexpectedly returns as a diminished figure, but still strong and undeluded, his arrival is the catalyst for disillusion among the others, including his bitter former lover, Molly (Joanne Whalley). He tells her, "Whatever it is you think I took from you, I haven't got it." It's a skillfully written piece, beautifully acted and finely articulated by director Wilson Milam. The production's only serious defect is that the Irish dialect is occasionally almost impenetrable. Laura Fine Hawke provides the large, detailed and atmospheric set. MATRIX THEATRE, 7657 Melrose Ave., L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun., 3 p.m.; thru March 16. (323) 960-4420 or www.salemktheatreco.org. A Salem K Theatre Co. production. (Neal Weaver)

GO  ROBOTS VS. FAKE ROBOTS In playwright David Largman Murray's clever dark comedy set in the year 6000, it's still the cool kids against the dweebs, only this time, the cool kids are supersmart, superbeautiful robots, while the dweebs are, well, us. In a postapocalyptic world, a physically perfect, godlike race of robots frolics in its own underground city, while its human creators live in squalor on the surface. Dressed in immaculate white suits and looking like living Vogue ads, the robots spend their days re-enacting tableaux of human history while slaughtering errant humans who fall into their lair. Into this world comes Joe (Steven Connell), a ragged human, who dreams of becoming a robot himself. Dumping his doting human girlfriend (the beautifully warm Ida Dervish), Joe sneaks inside the robot city, and, with the Machiavellian assistance of the robot king (Greg Crooks, nicely jaundiced), he becomes the perfect New Model. With its unexpectedly nuanced undercurrents of melancholy and sharp irony, director Emily Weisberg's production possesses a snap that draws us in from its first, dazzlingly choreographed moments. Murray's deft and penetrating dialogue, which boasts both comic timing and perceptive emotional awareness, elegantly focuses the play's theme on the tragedy of unrequited desire. The ensemble, particularly the cast of often unbearably cruel robot beauties, is enthralling — it powerfully depicts the contrast between the glamorous, selfish immortal robots and human despair. Powerhouse Theatre, 3116 Second St., Santa Monica; Thurs.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 8 & 10:30 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; thru March 15. (310) 396-3680, Ext. 3. A Push to Talk Theater Company production. (Paul Birchall)