Theater Reviews: Our Town, The Crucible, Big

GO  THE FANTASTICKS Fifty years of encroaching cynicism have not diminished the whimsical charm of this diminutive musical fable by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt. Callow youth Matt (Lucas Grabeel) and dreamy girl Luisa (Alison Woods) romantically believe they are star-crossed lovers — not knowing their parents (Harry Groaner and Eileen T’Kaye) have created the illusion through a feigned feud. They hire the mystical bandit El Gallo (Eric McCormack) to unite the couple, but he must first give them a taste of the world. Darryl Archibald has beautifully rendered the delicate score, and his small orchestra and the cast sing the familiar tunes (including “Try to Remember”) with the purity of midcentury musical comedy. Director Jason Alexander treats the piece with respect, allowing its gentle, often joyous essence to prevail. He does add an extraneous theme of old-fashioned vaudeville magic tricks, but this gambit works, adding just a bit of visual flair without overshadowing the story. The magic also provides moments for Lee Martino’s fine choreography. Bradley Kaye’s nifty set design limits the actors to a small, oval stage with a severe downward slope, which brings the play’s intimacy to the fore. Kate Bergh’s costumes underscore the timelessness of the piece, with a lovely balance of pieces from myriad periods. UCLA Freud Playhouse, Macgowan Hall, Wstwd.; Tues.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun., 2 & 7 p.m., through May 17. (310) 825-2101. A Reprise Theater Company production. (Tom Provenzano)

GO  THE IDEA MAN Kevin King’s comedy-drama about class conflict in a small manufacturing firm. Elephant Theatre Company, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m., through June 6. (323) 960-4410. See Theater Feature.

Craig Schwartz

Crowns

Ty Donaldson

Big

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• Jean-Francois Millet
• Steve Cell
• Laura Schellhardt
• Theatrical Plays
• Theater

GO  IS HE DEAD? Mark Twain’s farce, here adapted by David Ives, follows the imagined plight of painter Jean-François Millet (Perry Ojeda) — whose works loom over Stephen Gifford’s stylish and utilitarian set design. (“The Gleaners” is probably Millet’s most famous painting, capturing the rustic humanity of French peasants working in the fields.) A young artist named Agamemnon Buckner (Brian Stanton) helps fathom the plot to help generate income for a garrett of young starving artists in a province outside Paris in 1846. If they can spread the news that Millet is near death, the value of his paintings could go through the roof — as opposed to lying in their current marsh while the painter is known to be alive. So Millet fakes his own illness and death, returning into society in drag as his own grieving sister. Millet leaves behind an equally grieving sweetheart, Marie Leroux (Suzanne Petrela), whose failure to recognize her beau-in-a-dress adds to the farce. Stir in a villain plucked from melodrama — an art dealer, naturally — named Bastien Andre (Steve Marvel), who tries to usurp the “dead” painter’s works in exchange for the exorbitant interest he’s owed on a loan he made to Millet. Joe Fria is marvelously, physically odd in an array of roles, prancing with his rear end extended backward and out of joint, in roles ranging from Englishmen to the King of France. By Act 2, Gifford’s set has melted into a series of doors lining the back of the stage — all there to be slammed. During one entrance, poor Agamemnon got stuck when he slammed a door upon entering, leaving his coattails jammed in the now shut door. It just took a second of him groping helplessly for forward motion before he realized his plight, reopened the door behind him and set himself free, while the audience dissolved in paroxysms of laughter. Even the planned humor, under Shashin Desai’s gorgeous staging, was a bouquet of completely stupid wit, based on mistaken identities, a coffin filled with bricks and pungent lindberger cheese, in order to fool the authorities. Millet, pretending to be his own sister, meets his oblivious sweetheart and plants on her a lingering kiss. Goodness, Marie exclaims, after this seeming display of lesbian lust, “You must stop smoking.” International City Theatre at Long Beach Performing Arts Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun., 2 p.m., through May 24. (562) 436-4610. (Steven Leigh Morris)

A NUMBERA widower (John Heard) discovers that a hospital has bred clones of his bachelor son (the aptly named Steve Cell), making him a father to an unknown number of identical young men. The son, Bernard, is confused, but open to meeting his brothers; the dad immediately cries “lawsuit!” — allowing playwright Caryl Churchill to plunge straight away into her themes about the boundaries, rights and values of an identity. (And when Bernard suspects he’s not the original, is that even worse?) Churchill argues that personality is separate from genetics and introduces us to three Bernards as distinct as Goldilocks’ bears: one bitter, one sweet, and one conflicted. Cell plays all three, and it’s hard not to interpret director Bart DeLorenzo’s decision to signify the role-switching by having Cell button, unbutton or strip off his overshirt as a lack of trust in either the performer or the audience. Their father is clearly hiding a secret, and Heard captures him as a man defeated before the play even begins — he resolves every confrontation by telling the Bernards what they want to hear. If there is one truth under his lies, it’d be the play’s only singularity: While the clones share a disgust for him, it springs from different reasons. “You don’t look at me the same way,” the widower says of how he tells them apart. But unlike him, we never see the clones or their father as people, only players in a fable that’s constrained by the very dichotomies it wants to explore. Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., W.L.A.; Wed.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun., 2 p.m., through June 21. (310) 477-2055. (Amy Nicholson)