Theater Reviews: Altar Boyz, the Apple Tree, Chariot, Sprung: A Love Story

Also, Stop Kiss, Billie and Bogie, God Box and more.

Comments (0) By L.A. Weekly Theater Critics Wednesday, Jul 22 2009

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GOD BOX
Ana Guigui’s “musical dramedy” has moments of brilliance but suffers from a lack of coherence and an awkward format. The play is set in a local hotel lounge where she, Guigui — the daughter of Argentinian Jews — plays piano, recounts her life as the daughter of a peregrinating symphony conductor, life in New York, and a warm but often testy relationship with her parents and brother. Initially, the material is compelling and often humorous, so much so, that you want to hear more of it. But the play’s real focus is her frustrating search for romance and a soul mate, whose qualities are written down and kept in her “God box.” Accounts of a furtive childhood kiss, a first love and sexual outing, the pain of an abortion, and a romantic hookup with a salesman unfurl in a facile patchwork that is often difficult to follow and not particularly interesting. Guigui is delightful when channeling characters, with the singular exception of a black rapper she encountered, which hovers perilously close to crude caricature. But the woman can play the hell out of the piano, and sings like an angel, with a diverse repertoire that even includes a haunting rendition of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. Robert Barker Lyon directs. Actors Forum Theatre, 10655 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. (Aug. 2 perf at 1 p.m.); through August 16. (323) 960-5770. (Lovell Estell III)

OCTOMOM! THE MUSICAL
Chicago has gritty realism. New York has Broadway musicals. So what’s the L.A. aesthetic? I’ve heard complaints — I think they were sneers — that L.A. has no unifying theater style, just like it has no unifying geography. Not true: L.A. has camp. You see more parody of stupid movies, stupid TV shows and stupid people on the stages of L.A. than any other genre — even more than one-person showcases for TV. The latest example is this quite charming, clever-in-parts (the eight kids are sock puppets) and terribly overhyped (preview coverage on Fox TV and in People magazine) cabaret about thoughtless and relentless greed, which is probably to our era what religious hypocrisy was to Molière’s. Writer-director Chris Voltaire’s theatrical comic book, with witty, light music by Rachel Lawrence, interlinks the voracious appetites of Nadya Suleman (the excellent Molly McCook) and Bernie Madoff (John Combs, also fine). It suffers somewhat from the plight of trying to be on top of the news with topics that were in the news cycle a few months ago. But the underlying source of the satire Voltaire is gunning for certainly hasn’t gone anywhere. The insights are broad as a barn. Madoff meets that schemer Ponzi (Blake Hogue, with a keen expression of derangement that works for number of cameos) in a sweet soft-shoe number. It could be in the style of Tom Lehrer, but this is more obvious and less sly. The production’s strength lies in Dean McFlicker’s musical staging, and the actors’ terrific movement skills — particularly that of Dinora Walcott, the crooning emcee. Oh, but the thin voices bring it down. As though this stuff is easy, as though a musical can work without the triple threat of acting, dancing and singing. With the threadbare canned accompaniment, we’re missing about a third of the musical-comedy trinity in those wispy voices — sometimes out of key. Not so for McCook’s Octomom, beautifully peevish, whining and with a sense of entitlement as bloated as her belly. She carries the show, in tune and on step, like a latter-day Mother Courage. Fake Gallery, 4319 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles; Sat., 8 & 10 p.m.; indef. (323) 856-1168. (Steven Leigh Morris)

Michael Joseph

Altar Boyz

Courtesy of Cabaret Voltaire

Octomom The Musical

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PICK PERICLES REDUX
Scholars have long discussed whether Shakespeare wrote the entirety of Pericles, Prince of Tyreor collaborated with another writer. (Given the play’s convoluted elements, most commentators have concluded the latter.) Incorporating aspects of Grotowski’s Poor Theater, choreographer and director John Farmanesh-Bocca’s brilliant interpretation, Pericles Redux, employs music, dance and comic spectacle to layer the frequently undistinguished text with humor and depth. Farmanesh-Bocca plays Pericles in a production that begins with a mesmerizing dance prologue, suggesting Job battling the oppressive forces of fate. It then launches into the actual plot, which involves the prince’s flight from a wicked king; his winning of a beautiful princess; his losing her in a shipwreck; and his desolate wanderings under the false assumption that both his wife, Dionyza, and daughter Marina are dead. (Both roles are winningly played by Jennifer Landon, though in the denouement, gifted young dancer Rachel McGuinness takes over as Marina.) Among the show’s memorably funny sequences are the court tournament in which Pericles, armed only with a fork, duels in increasingly lopsided odds; and a brothel scene in which plucky adolescent Marina, equipped with both prayer and martial arts, outsmarts the lechers targeting her chastity. Played out on a large, bare proscenium, the piece expands its macrocosmic reach by virtue of designers Randy Brumbaugh’s lighting and Adam Phalen’s sound. The ensemble proves versatile and accomplished, with significant contributions to staging from fight captain Dash Pepin and co-choreographer and dance captain Vincent Cardinale. Kirk Douglas Theatre, 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City; Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 & 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 & 7 p.m. (213) 628-2772. A Not Man Apart Production. (Deborah Klugman)