Theater Reviews: Shel Silverstein Uncensored, Songs From an Unmade Bed

SHAME Who’d have guessed that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter would be a ripe fruit for an adaptation into a rock opera? Yet Mark Governor’s creation for an ensemble of 10 uses the saga of Puritan guilt as a valid exploration of “The Interior of a Heart” (one of the song titles). The story’s righteous cruelty and persecution, often tethered to hypocrisy, are threads of the American psyche that extend from our Puritan heritage, and may partly explain contemporary gulfs of incomprehension between the United States and the rest of the world. Governor’s focus, however, is on intimate relations, pondering in song why people must hate, while the larger ramifications are mere spinoffs. Katrina Lenk plays outcast adulteress Hester Prynne, stuck in 1645 Boston, with dour elegance and a quavering soprano that sounds a bit like Joni Mitchell’s. The secret of her lover’s identity drives the plot, while her diabolical husband (Danny Shorago, in a performance that suggests a Hell’s Angel in 300 years to come) devotes his energies to making her life, and that of the man he suspects of having cuckolded him, a living hell. Condensed into a musical-theater frame, Hawthorne’s story emerges as overly melodramatic and sentimental, until Hester’s daughter (Laura Darrell) spurns her own mother, causing our lead characters to start to define morality in terms larger than their own persecution. Mark Luna’s gentle, self-tortured Rev. Dimmesdale holds his own vocally, under director-choreographer Janet Roston’s snappy staging, largely defined by Leah Piehl’s costumes, which transform the era’s work boots into tall, lacy, fetishy things you can find in your local galleria. Even the buttons and laces of the neck-high blouses get replaced by rubbery attire for some fleshy dances by some sprites in the woods. The production wavers between soulful insight and wearying cheesiness, and isn’t helped by the tinny sound of the synthesized accompaniments. This is all worth repairing. KING KING, 6555 Hollywood Blvd., Hlywd.; Wed., 8 p.m.; thru July 16. (323) 960-5775 or www.plays411.com/shame. A Los Angeles Rock Opera Company production. (Steven Leigh Morris)

Damian Dovarganes

The Impostor

David Elzer

Songs From an Unmade Bed

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More About

• Shel Silverstein
• Lloyd Schwartz
• Steven Leigh Morris
• RETURN -lyricist Sonia Levitin
• Nathaniel Hawthorne

David Elzer

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Songs From an Unmade Bed

Michael Lamont

(Click to enlarge)

Dog Sees God

Donna Kane

(Click to enlarge)

Stories From the Bible

GO  SHEL SILVERSTEIN UNCENSORED Adapted from An Adult Evening With Shel Silverstein, 11 sketches and songs by the late poet/folksinger and longtime cartoonist for Playboy, this is an insightful and pointed look at the darkness in the human psyche — though it’s also a throwback to the satire of decades past. Five appealing actors hit just the right notes of whimsy and farce, under Dan Bonnell’s direction. Daniel Zacapa has wonderfully piercing concern for his flighty wife (Sarah Brooke) and her growing proclivities toward kleptomania. Her latest escapade was to sit at an uncleaned restaurant table and deposit an unfinished bowl of oatmeal into her bag. Beneath their bickering over linguistic distinctions — whether or not she is a “bag lady” or is becoming one — is a sketch of a marriage that’s unraveling for reasons neither has a grip on. The fraying relationship is timeless, while the “bag lady” reference is older than the picture frame she grabbed from the garbage and also stuffed into her bag. “Best Daddy” is a Monty Python–like skit in which the cruelest father in the world (Tony Pasqualini) gives his daughter (squeaky voiced Colleen Kane) a pony for her birthday, or says he does. She sees the pony dead and covered by a sheet. He shot it after it bit him. Just kidding. It’s not really a pony, but what is it? And so the sketch probes into ever darker caves. Martha Gehman tortures her husband through a game of “Life Boat” — goading him to throw one of the family members overboard during an imagined typhoon. It’s a hideous exercise that reduces hubby James MacDonald to a beautifully performed quivering blob. Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 Sepulveda Blvd., W.L.A.; Wed.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m. Call for changes in schedule: (310) 477-2055. (Steven Leigh Morris)

SOMEDAY The problems faced by childless people who long for a family form the overarching theme of Cornerstone Theater’s community-workshop-based production. Written by Julie Marie Myatt and directed by Michael John Garcés, the piece highlights two stories: that of Sam (Shishir Kurup) and Anne (Bhani Turpin), a childless middle-aged couple who opt for surrogacy after their in-vitro efforts fail; and the tale of Ruth (Diana Elizabeth Jordan), a single disabled woman who, after rescuing a newborn in an alley, decides she wants a baby of her own. Their sagas are intercut with chronicles of other adopting couples and single moms, as well as prochoice testimonials from women who have decided on abortion because of rape, abuse, a disintegrating marriage or extreme youth, among other reasons. One of the piece’s stronger aspects is the light in which it portrays the medical establishment, as illustrated by Peter Howard’s colorful performance as a self-centered doctor who, despite his protestations to the contrary, appears to get off on playing God. There are poignant and amusing moments, especially from Kurup, in a layered performance as a wry and ultimately conflicted father-to-be. Turpin and Jordan also effectively depict their characters’ emotional dilemma. (The uneven ensemble is a mix of professional and nonprofessional performers, which is part of this company’s mission.) The piece, with its embrace of many issues, never quite disguises its educational purpose — not necessarily a bad thing, but here, it distracts from the potentially visceral drama. Bootleg Theater, 2220 Beverly Blvd., L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sat. & Sun., 3 p.m.; thru June 22. (213) 613-1700, Ext. 33, or www.cornerstonetheater.org. A Cornerstone Theater Company production. (Deborah Klugman)