Theater Reviews: Lions, Spring Awakening, A Man's A Man

Also, Gem of the Ocean, Mary's Wedding and more

Comments (0) By L.A. Weekly Theater Critics Tuesday, Nov 4 2008

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A MAN’S A MAN In an army brigade, three machine gunners are in immediate need of replacing their fourth, who was recently kidanpped. And so, in Bertolt Brecht’s furious early play, they lure a docile man named Galy Gay (Beth Hogan) with whiskey, cigars and women — and when he dares to refuse to adopt the missing soldier’s name and identity, they give him good reason to relent: by stringing up Galy on nonsensical criminal charges. Meanwhile, opportunistic barkeeper Widow Begbick (Diana Cignoni) — an early vestige of Mother Courage — and her troupe of traveling prostitutes scheme to undermine a despotic Sergeant (Will Kepper) while packing up their saloon to follow the army from India into Tibet. (Brecht has slyly populated his India with pagodas and Chinese hucksters in yellow face). Director Ron Sossi takes an inconsistent approach to Brecht’s stylistics, a flaw most visible in the miscast and misdirected Hogan, who starts off blank and guileless, only to blubber like the heroine of a five-hankie weepie during Galy’s tribunal. (Such aggressive emotional manipulation would have been parodied by Brecht.) Already smaller and more fragile than the rest of the pert and heartless ensemble, Hogan’s stunt casting works best when Galy, now calling himself Jip, ascends to control the destruction of Tibet like a pint-sized General Patton barking out orders. This Brecht piece is given the oversimplified interpretation of exploring how the trauma of war warps soldiers, but with Hogan so clearly at the reins in the battle scenes, what’s indicted here is a callow culture that exploits everyone. Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., W.L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; through Dec. 21. Call for added perfs; no perf Nov. 27. (310) 477-2055. (Amy Nicholson)

MARY’S WEDDING Canadian playwright Stephen Massicotte tries, in a two-actor play, to re-create a World War I battlefield, a horseback ride across the Canadian prairie, and a desperate cavalry charge. As if that weren’t challenge enough, he combines realism, fantasy, flashbacks, dreams and fractured chronology in an uneasy mix. Telling us the play is a dream doesn’t quite solve the problems. Somewhere in Canada, farmer’s son Charlie (Brett Ryback), along with his horse, meets émigré English girl Mary (Ashley Bell) in a barn, where both take shelter from a storm. They fall madly in love, but her snobbish mother disapproves of him as “a dirty farm boy,” and soon they’re parted by the Great War. He feels an obligation to join the Canadian Cavalry, and she bitterly resents his leaving. Bell also doubles nimbly as a tough, heroic (male) sergeant. The horse is an abstract sculpture, like a modern-day Isamu Noguchi, which also serves as a troop ship, and the trenches at Ypres. It’s not clear whether it’s part of David Potts’ handsome set or a clever prop by MacAndME. Director David Rose has mounted a sensitive, inventive production, with expert lighting by Jeremy Pivnick and sound by Cricket Myers. Colony Theatre Company, 555 N. Third St., Burbank; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun., 2 & 7 p.m., through Nov. 23. Call theater for added perfs. (818) 558-7000, Ext. 15, or www.colonytheatre.org. (Neal Weaver)

Enci

A Man’s a Man

Ed Krieger

Gem of the Ocean

Michael Lamont

Mary’s Wedding

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GO SPRING AWAKENING What’s a nice play like you doing in a barn like this? The spectacle here is bewitching and too large for Frank Wedekind’s turn-of-last-century story of teenage angst, from which Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s touring Broadway-hit musical has been crafted. I found myself more dazzled than moved, but dazzle can be a good thing, and the production is too ornate an accomplishment to be ignored. There’s never a dull moment in Michael Mayer’s staging, but rarely is there a soulful moment. The story is about social and sexual repression in puritanical Germany, and it arrives here as bloated in style as a rock concert. Lighting designer Kevin Adams provides exactly that ambiance with a plot that flips from washes of lurid red to purple with the stomp of 10 boots, and lighting instruments that float down along the back wall from the rafters, creating the effect of some cosmic galaxy. Bill T. Jones’ choreography looms just as large, with, in one song, the company stomping feet in unison, as though they were performing Butoh dance in order to arouse the spirits of the dead. Onstage, and in onstage bleachers, where members of the company are planted amidst the audience, heads gyrate to and fro, as if possessed by demons, which is exactly how the Teutonic society depicted here is trying to make them feel. The paradox is that the sneering Expressionism mingles with the mechanical robotics to such an extent — clearly to reach a house considerably larger than in New York — that the story’s underlying sensitivities are tempered, if not eviscerated. One powerful scene that gets short shrift here is that between teen Melchior (Kyle Riabko) and his peer/lover Wendla (Christy Altomare), out in the country. She goads him to beat her, even playfully, with a switch — because she’s sexually aroused by the brutal daily beatings inflicted on her friend, Martha (Sarah Hunt). The scene itself contains disturbing and deeply human revelations about suppressed sadism and masochism, which here are treated as broadly and swiftly as in a burlesque, depriving the scene of its core sensuality. Still, the creators and designers are accomplishing exactly what they want, as the cast is precision-perfect. Moreover, the overinflated scale and hyperactive style of this touring production can’t diminish the powerful beauty of Sheik’s music and Sater’s lyrics. There’s scant melody but ample musical motifs that float on intricate, poetical phrases and sophisticated orchestral support, as though from the Suzanne Vega era. Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown; Tues.-Sat., 8 p.m; Sat., 1 p.m.; Sun., 1 & 6:30 p.m. (no perf Wed., Nov. 5 or Thurs., Nov. 27; no eve perf Sun., Dec. 7; added perf Mon., Nov. 24, 8 p.m. and Thurs., Dec. 4, 2 p.m.); through Dec. 7. (213) 628-2772. (Steven Leigh Morris)