Theater Reviews: Red Scare on Sunset, Miracle in Rwanda

Also, Going to Meet the Man, The House of Blue Leaves and more

Comments (0) By L.A. Weekly Theater Critics Monday, Sep 15 2008

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INSIDE PRIVATE LIVESprovides a platform for audience members to interact with infamous or celebrated personages from the 20th century, as re-created by the ensemble in a series of monologues. The show’s efforts to dismantle the fourth wall yield tame results at best. One problem involves timeliness. The night I attended, the lineup (which varies from night to night) included Christine Jorgenson, Billy Carter, David Koresh, Julia Phillips, Elia Kazan and Marge Schott. None of these people is in the limelight today and — with the exception of Kazan — their public lives, once deemed provocative, no longer seem controversial or even relevant. (How much more volcanic the show might have been had we been able to challenge Karl Rove or Eliot Spitzer, or the current media queen bee, Sarah Palin.). Another drawback is having to rely on the audience for conflict: Even primed with preshow champagne, my fellow theatergoers’ questions, though earnestly exhorted, induced only scant dramatic dustup. And the monologues themselves, developed collaboratively by creator-producer Kristin Stone, director Michael Cohn and the individual performers, were uneven in quality. Three performances succeeded: Adam LeBow’s intense Kazan, Mary McDonald’s bitingly comic Schott, and Leonora Gershman, on-target as Hollywood bad girl, Julia Phillips. But Stone’s flirty Jorgenson, Bryan Safi’s sloppily inebriated Carter and David Shofner’s uncompelling Koresh all lacked persuasiveness, and some of the too-familiar liberties taken with audience members were just embarrassing. Fremont Center Theatre, 1000 Fremont Ave., South Pasadena; Sun., 7 p.m.; through Oct. 19. (866) 811-4111. (Deborah Klugman)

GO IT’S THE HOUSEWIVES! The Housewives, in this rock musical with book by Hope Juber and Ellen Guylas, are three moms who put together an act for the PTA talent night, and manage to parlay their performance of “domestic rock” (songs like “The Reynold’s Rap” and “It Sucks,” about vacuum cleaners) into a career that, with wild improbability, makes them bigger than the Beatles. The dramaturgy is slapdash and primitive, with narration alternating with flashbacks, as the three women — Lexie (Jayme Lake) the blond airhead; Lynn (Corinne Decker) the pushy egomaniac; and Becca (Jamey Hood) the rueful songwriter — slog their way through all the way stations of girl-group musicals: the sleazy manager (Anthony DeSantis), internecine rivalries, scandals and addiction (in this case, to TV soap operas). Fortunately, the 19 musical numbers, by Hope and Laurence Juber (with several collaborators) are lively, the choreography by Kay Cole is clever, and the Housewives are attractive, engaging and talented. Director Kelly Ann Ford paces the show nicely, and the handsome set by DC2 and the sometimes wacky costumes by Sharell Martin complement the satiric proceedings. The show is feather-light, but it’s slick, stylish and goes down easy. A packed house was lapping it up at the performance I attended. Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; through Oct. 12. (323) 960-5563 or www.itsthehousewives.com. (Neal Weaver)

Craig Schwartz

The House of Blue Leaves

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GO AN ITALIAN STRAW HAT: A VAUDEVILLE Lyricist John Strand and composer Dennis McCarthy’s new musical opens with the cast singing “God save your hat!” an ode to an outmoded accessory that here is central. The new comedy, set in 1906, takes place in Manhattan, where groom-to-be Fadley (Daniel Blinkoff) sees his wedding day derailed by a cheating bride (Michelle Duffy) and her soldier lover (Damon Kirsche), who refuse to leave Fadley’s honeymoon suite until he restores her propriety, i.e., her hat — a monstrosity laden with fake bananas and apples. The amusing and ensuing mayhem is almost a mockery of the form — the soft-shoe routines and modest rhymes (one ditty rhymes “chapeaux” with “sombrero”). The jokes are a mix of racy double entendres and self-reflexive gag in which Fadley bemoans his disastrous day as being like “one of those vaudeville farces.” Still, anchored by the winning Blinkoff’s commitment to his nervous bimbo-beaux, the strong-voiced and energetic ensemble capture the audience’s heart, bypassing any thought in the world. Standouts include Erika Whalen as the bride, Alan Blumenfeld as her irate father and Kasey Mahaffy — whose two supporting turns bring down the house by riffing off modern stoner flicks instead of old Broadway. Executed with precision by director Stefan Novinski and musical director Dennis Castellano, the event is as breezy and inconsequential as the roller skates worn by the crew when changing the set. South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa; Thurs.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2:30 & 8 p.m.; Sun., 2:30 & 7:30 p.m.; Tues.-Wed., 7:30 p.m.; through Oct. 5. (714) 708-5555. (Amy Nicholson)

GO MIRACLE IN RWANDA I can’t imagine viewing writer-performer Leslie Lewis Sword’s play about surviving the Rwandan genocide without a sense of horror, awe and grief. Co-created and directed by Edward Vilga, it dramatizes the experience of Immaculée Illibagiza, who escaped death by hiding in a 4 foot by 3 foot bathroom with up to seven other women for 91 days. (In 1994, nearly 1 million people, mostly Tutsis, were brutally murdered by their fellow countrymen over three months.) Sword plays all the participants in Illibagiza’s ordeal: among them her father, who, with terrible prescience, dispatched her into hiding; the courageous, elderly pastor who concealed her; her crazed pursuer; and the apparitions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, which comforted her during her tortuous days of confinement. Such is Sword’s skill that with a mere curve of the lip or shift of the eyes, she seems to transform from one character to another. Above all it is the translucent eloquence she imbues in her main character — heightened by Erick Keil’s artful lighting — that gives the piece its compelling strength. The play’s overarching theme is forgiveness, which Illibagiza eventually comes to realize through prayer. Though the piece’s religious overtones may not be to everyone’s taste, its depiction of the unimaginable — in tandem with Illibagiza’s spiritual triumph and enduring will to live — transcends any parochial view. The New LATC, 514 S. Spring St., dwntwn.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; through Sept. 28. (213) 489-0994, ext. 107. (Deborah Klugman)