Stage Raw: Violators Will Be Violated

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS
NEW THEATER REVIEWS
STAGE FEATURE on Bill Cain's Equivocation and Burglars of Hamm's Land of the Tigers

NEW REVIEW GO VIOLATORS WILL BE VIOLATED

​Photo courtesy of Circle X Theatre Company

Casey Smith's solo mime-show (he does scream a lot, but there are almost no decipherable words) consists of 17 brief sketches accompanied by a swath of musical selections in which the silver-haired actor reveals a meticulously crafted and demented insanity. Each character, from a decathlon athlete to a female stripper, is an unwaveringly merciless portrait of self-destruction, which is the evening's theme. It's unabashedly puerile, scatological, nihilistic and as funny as hell. Son of Semele Theater, 3301 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles; Fri.-Sat., 11 p.m.; thru Dec. 19. https://circlextheatre.org (Steven Leigh Morris) See Theater feature on Wednesday night.

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NEW THEATER REVIEWS (scheduled for publication Dec. 3, 2009)

NEW REVIEW GO BLACK LEATHER

​Photo by Chris Covics

Photographer Robert Krapplethorpe — an unmistakable twist on Mapplethorpe – is a brazen narcissist. Manic when he's coked up, marginally less so when he isn't, he's an outsized provocateur who revels in outraging others with abrasive remarks and abusive behavior. As portrayed by playwright Michael Sargent, the sexually promiscuous Robert interacts with the world- “finguratively” speaking – with a permanently erect and extended middle finger.  In this raucous satire, directed and designed by Chris Covics, the people at the receiving end of Robert's umbrage include his well-heeled lover and patron Sam (Jan Munroe), a gallery owner named Jilly, with lots of money to lose if Robert should screw up (Kathy Bell Denton), his African-American S&M partner Milton (Kevin Daniels), his assistant Ed (Dustin David) and his gal pal and former sweetheart, ostensibly modeled after Patti Smith, Ratty Spit (Liz Davies). Only with Ratty does Robert evince the barest trace of genuine love and caring.  Not for the prim or classical-minded, the production – aptly billed as a “comedy of desperation” — features lots of bare ass and graphic simulation of rough homoerotic sex. Between and  sometimes during scenes, cacophonous music throbs. The ensemble is solid, although the frenetic pace, reverberating noise and the main character's grating persona create a distraction from appreciating the  fragile humanity beneath the clatter. Unknown Theater, 1110 N. Seward St., Hollywoodl Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 6 p.m.; thru Dec. 19. (323) 466-7781. (Deborah Klugman)

NEW REVIEW CHATSWORTH Matt Robertson's study of living in the margins of the megalopolis – a commune of actors, models and assorted showbiz wannabes who have gravitated to the San Fernando Valley  — might be defined as weirdly Chekhovian, with its tangle of unrequited loves and the often farcical romantic-erotic escapades of it its characters on their road to nowhere. Chekhov's inebriating snuff here gets translated into coke – the function is the same. Or maybe this is closer to Gorky's The Lower Depths. Director Roger Mathey plays the central role, Matthew (same name as the playwright, huh) — a corpulent fellow and one-hit-wonder screenwriter who's as  spiritually bankrupt as his so-called career  – an insight he's trying to keep to himself. Skinny new kid in town (Ry Higdon) gets hooked on an amateur photographer (Dana Wing Lau) who toys and then steps on the callow guy. Mathey's staging is kind of clumsy – the actors have to fling open curtains on the side of the stage to reveal their hidden bedrooms, or wherever. And sometimes that's just for a peek at some gratuitous nudity, including a moment of urophilia in case you were drifting off. The guy who yearns to be peed on is the cad playing several women at once – which is a nice insight. If only the actor weren't so transparently a player. The theme of breaking or broken dreams doesn't resonate because, well, in Chatsworth, what else would one expect? It's just all a little too obvious, and a touch too leering, to rise above the pedestrian. Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks; Wed., 8 p.m; through Dec. 16. https://plays411.com/chatsworth (Steven Leigh Morris)

NEW REVIEW GO EXTINCTION

​Photo by Kurt Boetcher

Gabe McKinley's play starts out as a fast, funny, hip buddy comedy, but grows steadily darker. Fast-talking hedonist and prosperous businessman Max (Michael Weston) regards women as disposable and interchangeable, and has no use for marriage, monogamy or fidelity. His real connection is to his male buddies–including grad student Finn (James Roday). Max is fixated on their college days spent boozing, snorting, gambling and chasing girls, so he arranges a spectacular weekend with Finn in Atlantic City. Finn, however, has outgrown Max's kind of self-indulgence. When he reveals that he's married and expecting a child, Max sees it as a betrayal, and a dangerous threat to his own self-image. He cajoles, threatens, manipulates and bribes Finn into joining his revels, and brings in a couple of working girls (Amanda Detmer and Stefanie E. Frame) to spice things up. But enforced fun proves to be a kind of hell, leading to disillusion brutality and several kinds of extinction. Weston and Roday give finely etched and contrasting performances, and Wayne Kasserman directs with a skillful but unobtrusive hand this merciless evisceration of whatever it means to have character. Kurt Boetcher provides the clever, beautiful, black-and-white set. Elephant Space, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd.; Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; thru Dec. 13. (323) 960-7784 or  https://www.plays411.com/Extinction. Produced by Red Dog Squadron.     (Neal Weaver)

NEW REVIEW GRACE KIM & THE SPIDERS FROM MARS

​Photo by Nic Cha Kim

Directed by Jeff Liu, Phillip W. Chung's pedestrian romantic comedy centers on the rivalry between two estranged sisters for one man's affections.  It's Christmas: Maysie (Elaine Kao) returns home from L.A. to suburban New Jersey, with her fiancé Wayne (Hanson Tse), an up- and-coming Beverly Hills surgeon, in tow.   Along with the rest of her family, Wayne gets introduced to Maysie's maverick sister Grace (Elizabeth Ho), a medical school dropout and a restless spirit since their mom's death 10 years prior. Inexplicably (like any number of other random incidents), Wayne chooses this occasion to announce that he's decided to pull up stakes from L.A. and move to a rural village in China, in order to start a pediatric AIDS clinic. This upsets the astounded Maysie, who's been cherishing the idea of a cozier more conventional future. Later that night, Wayne and Grace find themselves drawn to each other.  One of the biggest recurring jokes is how all the various women periodically gather teary-eyed round the TV soap opera  and weep quietly – as, secretly, does lovable buffoon Dad (Kelvin Han Yee). At junctures, some popular ballad is piped in and the characters sing, though not well. In need of wit, surprise and character development, the script hobbles to its reconciliatory bittersweet conclusion. Some of the dreariness is abated by the charismatic Ho, who performs with a stylish authenticity that allows you to momentarily ignore the material. GTC Burbank, 1111-B W. Olive Ave., Burbank; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; thru Dec. 20. (323) 993-7245. A Lodestone Theatre Ensemble Production (Deborah Klugman)

NEW REVIEW GO HAMLET SHUT UP!

​Photo by Diane Meyer

Writer-director Jonas Oppenheim's whimsical re-imagining of Shakespeare's play as a silent movie (music composed and performed by Josh Senick) comes packed with theatrical imagination and a robust sense of humor. It also opens the question of what body language can express, and in so doing just grazes the surface of Shakespeare's multi-textured play. Sacred Fools Theatre Company 660 N. Heliotrope Dr., Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m. (added perf Thursday, Dec. 17, 8 p.m.); thru Dec. 19. (310) 281-8337. (Steven Leigh Morris) See Theater feature on Wednesday night.

NEW REVIEW GO HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS! THE MUSICAL

​Photo by Ed Krieger

The familiar yuletide tale from Dr. Seuss gets a musical facelift in a touring version of the Broadway production.  Narrator Old Max (John Larroquette), a wiser incarnation of the dog belonging to The Grinch (Stefan Karl), introduces the Whos of Whoville and their traditions, as well as the Grinch's desire to put an end to their good cheer.  In addition to Albert Hague's widely known “Welcome, Christmas” and “You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch,” a number of new songs cleverly incorporate traditional Christmas jingles but fail to achieve the iconic status of the aforementioned numbers (though “Santa For a Day,” featuring cute-as-a-button Kayley Stallings as Cindy-Lou Who, is sweet). What distinguishes this compact production (90-minutes without intermission) are John Lee Beatty's set pieces, which incorporate Seuss' original line drawings; Robert Morgan's costumes, including the pastel mint hues of the Whos, and the bilious green coat sported by the Grinch; Thomas Augustine's hair and wigs, featuring mounds of colorful curls and swirls; Angelina Avallone's wonderfully detailed makeup; and Gregory Meeh's clever special effects, like the flying sleigh and ubiquitous snowflakes.  Director Matt August deftly manages hundreds of moving parts and gets an appropriately over-the-top performance from Karl, whose Grinch surpasses that of Jim Carrey. Headliner Larroquette has a surprisingly smooth hot cocoa baritone, but his deadpan delivery is a bit too reminiscent of Dan Fielding. Like any facelift, this one retains some wrinkles, but makes for good family fare.  Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd.; Wed.-Thurs., 7:30 p.m.; Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2, 5 & 8 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m., 2 & 5 p.m.; additional performances Christmas week; thru December 27. (800) 982-2787.  https://www.ticketmaster.com/artist/1062083 A Nederlander and Running Subway Production.  (Mayank Keshaviah)

NEW REVIEW GO A LIE OF THE MIND As an inaugural staging, Studio Five Productions' revival of Sam Shepard's complex, 1985, fractured-memory fable proves an auspicious and appropriate debut. Director John Langs' vibrant production is not only handsomely mounted and caustically funny, but, for a play about self-deception and misremembering, it goes a long way towards finally wiping away the memory of the Taper's austere, 1988, Robert Woodruff-helmed L.A. premiere. Believing he's killed his wife Beth (Natalie Avital) in a jealous rage, Jake (Lance Kramer) flees to his Southern California, boyhood home to hide out with his overly doting, widowed mother, Lorraine (Casey Kramer), and black-sheep sister Sally (Maury Morgan). Unbeknownst to Jake, Beth has survived the assault and been whisked away by her overprotective brother, Mike (P.J. Marshall), to the rural Montana home of their bombastic father, Baylor (John Combs) and ditsy mother, Meg (Jennifer Toffel). While Jake and Beth recover from their respective traumas — his a self-lacerating guilt that has transformed him into a cowering wreck; hers a severe concussion that has left her both physically and mentally impaired — the story's one truth seeker, Jake's brother Frankie (Logan Fahey), is himself crippled when the befuddled Baylor literally shoots the messenger. And while a myriad of hidden truths will eventually out, it's not before Shepard lays bare the self-deluding, foundational myths of each family in blistering parodies of Greek tragedy and frontier lore. Along the way, Langs and his flawless ensemble nimbly navigate the difficult transition between brutal domestic violence and sly, screwball farce, aided by Dwayne Burgess' elegantly expressionistic set, Travis McHale's atmospheric lights and the dramatic punch of Tim Labor's sound. Studio/Stage, 520 N. Western Ave., L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; thru Dec. 20, www.studiofiveproductions.org. (888) 534-6001. Studio Five Productions. (Bill Raden)

NEW REVIEW GO MERCY WARREN'S TEA 

​Photo by Miriam Geer

The first truly American woman playwright, Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1815), is such an intrinsically fascinating historical figure, it's almost astonishing that she isn't far better known in the theatrical pantheon.  Almost immediately upon learning about this early “Republican mother,” we only wish we could see her satire, The Adulateur, in which she apparently skewered the corrupt British governor in Pre-Revolutionary Massachusetts. However, instead of such intriguing material, we get playwright Jovanka Bach's plodding historical treatment. In 1783, playwright-historian Mercy (Donna Luisa Guinan) holds a tea party for her pal Abigail Adams (a nicely starchy Mona Lee Wylde), whose husband John Adams is one of Mercy's major intellectual mentors.  Mercy is plotting to write the definitive history of the Revolution – and, for research, she has invited none other than Mrs. Benedict Arnold (Susan Ziegler), to join them, so she can tell her side of the story of her husband's betrayal of the American cause.  Mrs. Adams and Mrs. Arnold argue bitterly – which was pretty much what the observational journalist Mercy was hoping for when she brought the pair together, one suspects.  The basic situation of these daughters of the American Revolution meeting in one room is clever – but Bach's drama is not, with its stilted, over-researched dialogue that often feels as though it was ripped whole cloth from some history text. Worse, the script lets go of Mercy's story midway through to focus on the much less compelling interactions between Adams and Arnold.  Director John Stark's straightforward staging is functional, underscoring the pedantic tone. Ziegler's sultry, twisted Mrs. Arnold is engagingly multi-dimensional, considering the script's fustiness – and so is Wydle's tightly controlled Mrs. Adams.  Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd, West L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; thru Dec. 20.  (310) 477-2055.  (Paul Birchall)

NEW REVIEW  MOLLY

​Photo by Tim Sullens

British playwright Simon Gray (Butley and Inadmissible Evidence) based this play loosely on the sensational 1930s murder trial of Alma Rattenbury. He focuses the drama on Molly (Giselle Wolf), a sort of junior grade Hedda Gabler, who's fighting off the approach of middle-age. She gets her way with everybody by ruthless flirtation, and her catch-phrase is, “Pretty please with sugar on it.” Seeking security, she has married a rich, elderly Canadian businessman Teddy (Don Moss), but he's a deaf semi-invalid, their marriage is sexless, and she has strong sexual needs. When she's attracted to Oliver (Max Roeg), a sullen, lower-class boy from the village, she hires him as her chauffeur, and proceeds to seduce him, despite the disapproval of their respectable spinster housekeeper Eve (Ann Gee Byrd). When she moves Oliver into their house to facilitate their nightly trysts, Molly becomes so reckless that even Teddy catches on. He fires and humiliates the unstable Oliver, precipitating disaster.  Yet Gray's play is more of a character study than thriller, almost saved from banality by his intriguing portrait of the volatile, neurotic and vulnerable title character. But it goes flat in the perfuctory, final scene. Director Jeffery Passero directs his fine cast with finesse on Elizabeth Hayden-Passero's impeccably tasteful set.  Victory Theatre Center, 3326 West Victory Boulevard, Burbank; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 4 p.m.; thru December 20. (818) 841-5421. (Neal Weaver)

NEW REVIEW POST

​Photo by Ravi Gahunia

There doubtless will be many fine plays written in the future about the Iraq war and its effect on the men and women who served there. This, however, is not one of them. In Donavan Thomas' superficial tale about the war's impact on two longtime friends, Michael(Thomas) returns from the war and moves into the shabby digs (nicely constructed by Erin Sellnow) of fellow veteran and friend Chuck (Nathanyael Grey). The atmosphere of bonhomie quickly starts to evaporate when Chuck's girlfriend Autumn(Jamie Renee Smith) suddenly and inexplicably starts a romance with Michael. It doesn't take a genius to see at this point that the plot is headed for a tragic love triangle; and a big part of the problem with this clunky script is that the predictable blood-soaked finale takes too long to arrive. Between drinking themselves silly and exchanging barbs, there is some mention of Chuck and Michael's past experiences as soldiers, but they hardly scratch the surface or explain how these two admittedly fucked up, guys got that way. Timothy Gagliardo's tepid direction doesn't help. The Flight at the Complex Theater, 6476 Santa Monica Blvd. Hlywd. Thur.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m., thru Dec. 20. (323) 960-7740. Loaded Dice Films (Lovell Estell III)

NEW REVIEW GO VIOLATORS WILL BE VIOLATED

​Photo courtesy of Circle X Theatre Company

Casey Smith's solo mime-show (he does scream a lot, but there are

almost no decipherable words) consists of 17 brief sketches accompanied

by a swath of musical selections in which the silver-haired actor

reveals a meticulously crafted and demented insanity. Each character,

from a decathlon athlete to a female stripper, is an unwaveringly

merciless portrait of self-destruction, which is the evening's theme.

It's unabashedly puerile, scatological, nihilistic and as funny as

hell. Son of Semele Theater, 3301 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles;

Fri.-Sat., 11 p.m.; thru Dec. 19. https://circlextheatre.org (Steven Leigh Morris) See Theater feature on Wednesday night. 

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