Theater Reviews: Treefall, One Woman, Two Lives, The Miser

Also, A Hatful of Rain, Franz Schubert: His Letters and Music and more

Comments (0) By L.A. Weekly Theater Critics Wednesday, Aug 5 2009

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THEATER PICK THE MISER Director Ellen Geer delivers a hilarious and highly polished production of Molière’s comedy The Miser. It’s a faithful rendition despite the fact that she’s garnished it with several original songs (written with Peter Alsop), a dog and some creative anachronisms: Neither codpieces nor horn-rimmed glasses quite belong in 1668, but they prove capital laugh-getters. The production’s greatest asset is Alan Blumenfeld, who delivers a wonderfully demented, larger-than-life performance as the miser Harpagon, calling on the traditions of music-hall, vaudeville and burlesque to create a portrait of monstrous greed and vanity. He’s ably assisted by Mike Peebler as his rebellious, clotheshorse son Cleante; Melora Marshall as the flamboyant matchmaker/bawd Frosine; Ted Barton as a choleric cook/coachman; and Mark Lewis as Cleante’s sly, wily sidekick, La Fleche. As the young lovers, Peebler, Samara Frame, Chad Jason Scheppner and understudy Jennifer Schoch capture the requisite romance while lampooning the coincidences and shopworn theatrical conventions of the genre, and a large cast provides fine support. The lavish costumes, including Cleante’s outrageous suit-of-too-many-colors, with its gloriously obscene, giggle-inducing codpiece, are by Shon LeBlanc and Valentino’s Costumes. Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 North Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga; through September 27; in rep, call for schedule. (310) 455-3723. (Neal Weaver)

Miriam Geer

The Miser

Paul Rubenstein

Chairs

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GO NEW ORIGINAL WORKS FESTIVAL 2009 Program Two of REDCAT’s annual showcase of interdisciplinary performance works weighs in as an evening of paradoxes — both the exhilarating, boundary-breaking kind and the more superciliously bewildering, curatorial variety. The former is delivered via “N1” and its inspired partnering of live-feed video artist Carole Kim and L.A.-based butoh master Oguri, with musical support from avant-improvisationists Alex Cline and Dan Clucas. Ostensibly a choreographic reconception of the Narcissus myth as a solo dance journey, “N1” is more properly a duet in which the spiritual interiority and time-bending precision of Oguri’s butoh-derived physical vocabulary is captured by Kim’s high-tech video processing and then projected onto a cagelike set of layered scrims and variously sized screens. The resulting spectacle both preserves the intimacy and gestural tensions of the “live” dance even as it explodes the subjectivity of the dancer in a dazzling, multidimensional, cubist montage of varying scales, disorienting angles and points of view. The narrative reaches it’s violent climax in a tour de force sequence in which a bloodied and battered Oguri seems to descend into an underworld of menacing shadows only to dissolve in an eye-like pool of unblinking light. Chris Kuhl’s expressive, high-key lighting lends the proceedings an atmospheric, appropriately film noir flavor. If the technical complexity and visionary aesthetics of “N1” could be compared to a game of 3-D chess, then “Leop Year (No Jamming),” the seven-song set by art-school rocker Jennifer the Leopard is the evening’s game of checkers. Vocalist Stephanie Hutin and bandmates Lauren Fisher, Lana Kim and Marissa Mayer archly ironize ’80s Brit-pop and late-’70s No-Wave into a perniciously perky pop repertoire they perform to self-referential comedy videos and an onstage posse of prop-wielding friends. REDCAT, 631 W. Second St., L.A. The festival concludes with Program Three, Thurs-Sat., Aug. 6-8, 8:30 p.m. (213) 237-2800. (Bill Raden)

ONE WOMAN, TWO LIVES Samantha (Kellita Smith), the pivotal character in playwright Alretha Thomas’ soap operatic fantasy, is the envy of her neighbor Belinda (Sharon Munfus). Sam’s preacher husband (understudy Keith Bossier) is good-looking, ardent, and prosperous. Their three kids are dutiful and loving. A happy homemaker, Samantha loves cleaning and cooking for her family; as a pillar of the community she’s also on track to receive the coveted First Lady award from their church. Disaster looms, however, when a hoodlum named Melvin (Billy Mayo) shows up, threatening to expose the crack-sodden errors of her youth. Under Denise Dowse’s direction, Act 1’s simplistic plot lines turn uncomfortably florid in Act 2, as the knavish Melvin resorts to violence, aggressive sexual embraces (which she spurns) and loaded weapons. The story’s far-fetched elements are accentuated further by Smith’s coy and honeyed manner, and camera-ready poise, somehow at odds with the modest stay-at-home mom she’s supposed to represent. Some of her attire (from costume designer Mylette Nora) seems inappropriate: revealing necklines and high-heeled fuck-me footwear worn when at home with family and friends, and a clingy, come-hither dress purchased for the church award ceremony: It seems more suitable for a racy disco. The over-the-top Esther Scott milks the role of Samantha’s cantankerous mother-in-law for laugh — and gets them. Mayo is definitively intimidating while Munfus — playing a great girlfriend but a shrewish wife — is on target as both. Designer Marco De Leon has fashioned an attractive set. Imagined Life Theater, 5615 San Vicente Blvd., L.A.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; through August 23. (Deborah Klugman)

SAY GOODBYE TOTO Sometimes it just doesn’t pay to tinker with a literary classic. Such is the case with Amy Heidish’s reimagining of the Wizard of Oz. Heidish places Toto at the center of the narrative, and this dubious conceit wears thin early on. Joseph Porter does the honors as Dorothy’s panting, barking traveling companion, and after the pair is transported via tornado to Oz, the canine is inexplicably mistaken for a sorcerer. Accompanying Dorothy (the fine Renee Scott) on her way to the Emerald City is a mysterious cat (Tracy Ellott), plus of course the Scarecrow (Mike Fallon), the cowardly lion (Andreas Ramacho), and Tin Man (Grant Mahnken), who, in Heidish’s version, are all cursed brothers hoping that face time with the wizard can get them zapped back into human form. The most engaging moments come by way of the Wizard (Jake Elsas), whose magical manipulation of several hand puppets behind a screen is very funny. Alice Ensor does a dazzling job as the good witch, but this doesn’t redeem a script with a tension that dribbles away. And Jamie Virostko’s bland direction doesn’t help. The Hayworth Theatre, 2511 Wilshire Blvd.; L.A., Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun. 7 p.m.; through September 13. (323) 969-1707. An Ark Theatre Company production. (Lovell Estell III)