Theater Reviews: All in the Timing, Hair, Life Could Be a Dream

GO  LIFE COULD BE A DREAM This affectionate doo-wop juke-box musical by writer-director Roger Bean (The Marvelous Wonderettes), with clever choreography by Lee Martino, handsome set by Tom Buderwitz and spectacular lighting by Luke Moyer, is designed to incorporate hit songs of the 1960s, ranging from the goofy “Sh Boom” and “Rama Lama Ding Dong” to anthems like “Earth Angel,” “Unchained Melody,” “The Great Pretender” and “The Glory of Love.” In small-town Springfield, the local radio station is sponsoring a rock-&-roll contest, and go-getter Denny (Daniel Tatar) is convinced he can win and become a star. He enlists his klutzy, nerdish, endearing friend Eugene (Jim Holdridge) and church-choir singer Wally (Ryan Castellino) to join him. Needing a sponsor to provide the $50 entrance fee for the contest, they apply to the proprietor of the local auto chain. He sends his top mechanic, handsome, hunky Skip (Doug Carpenter), and his pretty daughter Lois (Jessica Keenan Wynn), to audition the guys, and by the end they’re incorporated in the new group, Denny and the Dreamers. This is pure fluff, and the terrific ensemble makes every note count in this rousing good-time musical. Hudson Mainstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; Thurs.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 3 & 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; indef. (323) 960-4412. (Neal Weaver)

GO  7DS Picking up the story where the old, Amicus horror omnibuses of the ’60s left off, creator-director Amanda Marquardt’s campy, late-night homage to the medieval morality play is the show for those who couldn’t afford to plunk down $80 for Cirque Berserk. Marquardt’s theme is the seven deadly sins; her subject, however, is the punishments these lurid personifications of Wrath (Aryiel Hartman), Gluttony (Dariean Henderson), Pride (the fine Celeste Creel), Lust (Claude Duhamel), Sloth (Josh Tolle), Envy (Mishelle Freire) and Greed (John Klopping) wield to those in the afterlife being treated to the tortures of the damned. (Presumably what awaited the likes of Joan Collins and Ian Hendry after being pushed into the void by crypt keeper Ralph Richardson.) For these sinners, perdition takes the form of a three-ring circus, presided over by ringmaster Satan (a muscular Lamont Webb), in which the miscreant souls must reenact their transgressions on each other at the prodding of an entire demonology of harlequinlike assistants. Thus you have the proud Creel as a narcissistic, albeit bulimic bathing beauty who is subsequently humiliated by a lustful Duhamel by being transformed into a hausfrau automaton. Duhamel and his partner in carnality, the angry Hartman, later get a steam pressing with hot, electric irons ... and so on. The nonverbal episodes are elegantly staged using mime, dumb show, tableau vivant, gibberish and a knockabout style of interpretive dance that should have Isadora Duncan rolling in her grave. ZJU Theater Group, 4850 Lankershim Blvd., N. Hlywd.; Sat., 10:30 p.m.; through Aug. 22. (818) 202-4120. (Bill Raden)