THE ALL NIGHT STRUT! Steeped in nostalgia, this mild evening of musical entertainment ushers us through the Great Depression, World War II and the postwar boom with its crowd-pleasing selection of popular tunes. Conceived by Fran Charnas, with musical direction from Dean Mora, the show features a trio of musicians and a quartet of singer-dancers who warble their way through a daisy chain of timeless songs from the 1930s and ’40s. Dolled up in cute retro fashions (costumes by Sharon McGunigle), the four singers (Michael Dotson, Jayme Lake, Scotch Ellis Loring and Jennifer Shelton) embark with “Chattanooga Choo Choo” and glide their way through classic songs of those decades, concluding Act 1 with a medley of World War II hits. Competently backing them up, alongside Mora on piano, are Jim Garafalo on double bass and Ray Frisby on drums. The four-part harmonies are stronger than the solos, though the women do better in the lower register. It’s too bad “Minnie the Moocher” is the second song of the night, as it might have supported some audience participation (call-and-response) if placed later in the evening once the crowd was warmed up. Nevertheless, the cast swings with a relaxed ease from one toe-tapping song to the next during this snappy, feel-good show. Colony Theatre, 555 N. Third St., Burbank; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sat., 3 p.m., Sun., 2 p.m., thru May 1. (818) 558-7000, colonytheatre.org. (Pauline Adamek)
Photo by Daniel G. Lam
I Never Sang for My Father
Photo by Jerry Katell
Maxwell Street
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GO I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER If the aim of naturalism in theater is the pitch-perfect rendering of reality, then Cameron Watson’s urbane staging of Robert Anderson’s 1968 drama scores. It revolves around aging, ailing and cantankerous egotist Tom (Philip Baker Hall) and his beleaguered son, Gene (John Sloan). A widowed college professor, the soft-spoken Gene has always sought his father’s love but never received it. With Tom now battling dementia, Gene struggles between a mix of duty and a desperate need to bond, and his equally strong desire to establish a new life for himself in California, 3,000 miles away. Constructed as a memory play, Anderson’s highly personal work sometimes teeters on the edge of melodrama but ultimately transcends its suburban WASP milieu and mid–20th century perspective with its themes involving fathers and sons, family and self. Hall, a performer whose intense dynamic can barely be contained within the production’s small venue, dominates the stage, barking at those around him; his Tom has become a fierce and wounded human animal. Sloan performs impeccably in the less flashy role of the tongue-biting adult Gene is laboring to be; so does Anne Gee Byrd as Tom’s gracious, long-suffering wife. As sister Alice, banished from the family for marrying a Jew, the terrific Dee Ann Newkirk metamorphoses from a tight-lipped secondary character into the plot’s fiery catalyst. The various shifts in time and place are effectively accommodated by designer John Iacovelli’s spare set, with its transparent scrim elaborated on by projection designer Christopher M. Allison’s color-imbued drawings. New American Theatre at the McCadden Theatre, 1157 N. McCadden Place, Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun., 3 p.m., thru May 22. (310) 701-0788, newamerican
theatre.com. (Deborah Klugman)
LUST ‘N RUST These days, stories of plant closures as a result of corporate downsizing or outsourcing have become all too common in the news. Frank Haney, Carol Kimball and Dave Stratton choose to explore this economic phenomenon musically. In their piece, New Jersey executive Steve (Sal Cecere) is posted to southern Illinois to manage a plant for Agribig. Believing the move to be temporary, Steve rents a trailer in the Redbud Mobile Estates, where he falls for Connie (Joyanna Crouse), who has just split up with husband Duane (Derek Long). Also populating the trailer park are the comic duo of Buzz (Josh Evans) and Junior (Scott Dean); Buzz’s lascivious wife, Tanya (Terra Taylor); social chair and gossip hub Red (Ward Edmondson); sassy beautician Latisha (Becky Birdsong); and general oddball Janette (Leann Donovan). Though the show’s premise accurately reflects the zeitgeist, it suffers from one-dimensional characters, painfully presentational dialogue and contrived turns of events that sap the story of genuine drama. The music is pleasant with some nice harmonies, but the lyrics often are undercut by off-kilter rhyme schemes and too many syllables per beat. Director Thomas Colby lines up his actors to face the audience whenever a song is about to start, turning musical theater into country cabaret. Set designer Allan Jensen’s “wood and hinges” motif plays well on a sign-festooned set that’s both versatile and authentically detailed, but overall the show is too broadly drawn to take seriously as drama and too obvious to be consistently entertaining as comedy. Lyric Theater, 520 N. La Brea Ave., Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun., 7 p.m., thru April 30. (626) 695-8383, brownpapertickets.com/event/147967. (Mayank Keshaviah)
MAXWELL STREET By virtue of its setting — Chicago’s South Side during the postwar blues boom — Willard Manus’ new play should brim with second-to-none music. Instead, the entire show plays out like a giant missed opportunity, a sloppily penned love letter to an erstwhile blues scene that included Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Memphis Minnie. Everything from the simplistic script to botched lighting cues to under-rehearsed, unsure actors lacking strong singing skills makes the production feel painfully amateurish. Snooks Lawson (Tony Davis) is an aging bluesman who decides to give the business one last shot. Teaming up with a young white harmonica player, Irwin Weisfeld (Greg Guardino), Snooks forms a band in which he is the only black member. Keeping his eye on the evil Lance Lennox (Jerry Katell), an A&R man who has burned Snooks in the past, Snooks makes great music but is accused of being a sellout to the white crowd. The predictable plot involves battles with drug addiction and alcohol abuse, race wars and misunderstandings that threaten to break up the band. Though there is a host of one-note performances (Davis plays a full-on caricature throughout, cackling and bemoaning life’s cruelties without a genuine human emotion in sight), the show’s most frustrating aspect stems from what remains unseen and unheard: great music. In its stead are clichéd lines about overcoming obstacles, compounded by the missed emotional connections between the characters. Immediately following the band’s offstage appearance at the Newport Folk Festival, Lennox congratulates them for blowing Bob Dylan out of the water. From the small bits of singing sans instruments we see onstage, this praise seems preposterous. Cake Theatre at Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center, 4305 Degnan Blvd., Ste. 101, L.A.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun., noon, thru May 1. (310) 330-0178. (Amy Lyons)
