Steven Leigh Morris
NEW REVIEW GO WAITING FOR LEFTY 
Photo by Thomas Mikusz
This dynamic 1935 one-act launched the career of playwright Clifford Odets, became an important social document, and solidified the reputation of the Group Theatre. Seeing it now, 75 years later, reminds us that there was once a blue-collar theatre audience, and the issues plaguing the country in the Depression era — corruption, deprivation, injustice, and wars between the haves and the have-nots — haven't gone away. Some ideas, like the idealization of Stalin's Russia, have been shattered by history, but in other areas, the problems haven't changed, and the audience frequently responded with rueful laughter of recognition. Director Charlie Mount has assembled 16 wonderfully able actors who provide the kind of gritty passion and vitality that must have marked the original legendary production. The play's action is set in the meeting hall of a taxi-driver's union, where union leaders are company apparatchiks, fighting to prevent a strike, while the rank and file are determined to field their own leader, activist Lefty. Along the way we're introduced to a rich cross-section of Depression Era society, until the meeting erupts in violence. Jeff Rack's bleak union-hall set and the authentic-seeming, uncredited costumes evoke the 1930s in a way that has little to do with nostalgia. Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Boulevard West (near Universal Studios), Los Angeles; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; thru October 10. (323) 851-7977 or theatrewest.org (Neal Weaver)
For all NEW THEATER REVIEWS seen over the weekend, press the More tab directly below.
NEW THEATER REVIEWS Scheduled for publication September 9, 2010
NEW REVIEW BAIL ME OUT Photo by Roger Kuhns
Auto shop proprietor Joe Bidone (playwright Renato Biribin
Jr.) views the world with a sense of bewildered grievance and
betrayal. Straight, married and a practicing Catholic, he's resentful
of gays, blacks and other minorities whose ongoing demands for equal
rights he finds personally intrusive and unwarranted. So he's
appalled — though not totally surprised — when his longtime buddy
Ray (Scott Alan Hislop) comes out, then pleads for Joe's help in
cementing a relationship with his newfound love, Shaun (Terrance
Jones), a married man. Launched from this awkward encounter, the
drama proceeds through a labyrinthine series of subplots involving
homophobia, racism, noxious “born-again” religion, suicide, murder and
abortion. There's no lack of misogyny either – so viciously spouted by
Joe' s employee, Troy (Gary Wolf), that Joe appears comparatively
enlightened. Biribin deserves credit for tackling social issues and for
striving for an in-depth portrait of a little guy in chaos.
Unfortunately the play's ambitions outrun its execution. Its main
problem is melodramatic overload, with just too many issues, too many
events and too many contrivances packed into under two hours. Directed
by Joshua Fardon, the production is constrained by limited space and
lighting. Carisa Engle as Joe's commonsense wife furnishes welcome
respite from the sturm und drang elsewhere. And Jones overcomes the
inconsistencies built into his character, persuasively depicting a
bisexual bar-hopping minister, unctuously proselytizing one minute
while fiercely brawling the next. Hudson Guild Theatre, 6539 Santa
Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; Thurs.- Sat., 8 pm, Sun. 7 pm; thru October 10.
(323) 960-7745. plays411.com/bailmeout (Deborah Klugman)
NEW REVIEW
THE 19TH ANNUAL DENISE RAGAN WIESENMEYER ONE ACT FESTIVAL For part of
their 19th outing honoring former company founder Denise Ragan
Wiesenmeyer, the Attic theater has managed to nab two brief new
playlets by Broadway veterans Lee Blessing and Wendy MacLeod. Neither
of the two plays is particularly substantial, but the works' unexpected
flashes of moral ambiguity and psychological nuance make their world
premiere here worthy of note. In MacLeod's witty monologue
“Undescended”, a middle aged coffeehouse Barista and new mother
(Jennifer Skinner) gets good news and bad news about her baby: The
infant suffers from an unusual testicle ailment, and is also the Second
Coming of the Messiah. Director Brian Shnipper's production, both
intimate and ironic, possesses great coming timing – and Skinner's hard
boiled, crusty turn as the Barista turned Virgin Mother is richly
multi-dimensional. Blessing's dark, character-driven comedy “Into You”
posits three disturbed female roommates, all of whom loathe men to
various striking degrees, debating the propriety of one of them (Sandra
Smith) injecting her one night stand with her possibly HIV-tainted
blood. Other than as a misogynist portrait of nightmare women, the
actual point and purpose of Blessing's piece is elusive, and the plot
is both contrived and wafer thin. Director James Carey's sluggish
staging is marred by some listless, under-projected performances. The
quartet- bill is filled out by Allison M. Volk's “The Last Two People
On The Platform,” a charming, if familiarly Pirandello-esque comedy
about a man (Jacques Freydont) and a woman (Amber Flamminio), who
mysteriously discover themselves atop a floating platform and come to
realize that they are characters in a play; and by Frank Anthony
Polito's workman-like “Blue Tuesday,” which clumsily links a Yuppie
couple's marital woes, the activities of an angelic homeless man, and
the 9/11 disaster, in an awkward way that trivializes all three
elements. Attic Theatre and Film Center, 5429 W. Washington Blvd, Los
Angeles; Fri,-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; thru Sept. 19. (323)
525-0661. (Paul Birchall)
NEW REVIEW
PHENOMENON OF DECLINE The force that drives a dramatic narrative can,
in some respects, be described as a good mystery. When a solution is
intentionally withheld, as in Peter Weir's groundbreaking, 1975 mystery
film, Picnic at Hanging Rock, it can be to devastating effect. So
playwright Joe Tracz's surreal, 2005 student script, about a man who
has been driven mad by the mysterious disappearance of his twin 15
years earlier, is nothing if not pregnant with possibility.
Unfortunately, Tracz uses his non-solution as a mere pry to open the
can of psychological worms at the heart of what is, in fact, a
conventional, dysfunctional sibling drama. After spending the
intervening years holed up in a remote swamp cabin, 30-year-old
Randolph (the brooding Stephan Madar), finds himself visited by his
three surviving, albeit spectral sisters, who futilely cajole him into
ending his guilt-ridden exile. These are eldest Olivia (Kiera Zoubek),
an over-controlling psychotherapist; Lenora (Meredith Wheeler), a
vampiric, lesbian party girl; and the angelic Misty (Alia Wilson), who
seems equally haunted by the disappearance though she was an infant at
the time. Director Caitlin S. Hart seizes on the text's Gothic elements
in a staging worthy of The Old Dark House (augmented by Adam
Lillibridge's ratty cabin set, Morgan Edwards' spooky lighting and
Brian Wood's eerie sound). But the earnest efforts of a talented cast
and crew are not enough to redeem Tracz's squandered conceit or to
breathe life into his play's profusion of halfhearted literary
embroidery. Son of Semele, 3301 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles; Fri.-Sun.,
8 p.m.; through September 12. (800) 838-3306 or
brownpapertickets.com/event/122973 An AthroughZ Production. (Bill Raden)
NEW REVIEW
THE SECRET OF FIFTY, FATHERHOOD, AND FACEBOOK
In his solo performance,
writer and star Vince Cefalu wants to tell you his story. Decades ago,
after years of buttoning up and curling lips into a smile, Americans'
cheeks started aching. In additional to a swath of personal confessions
in pop lit and on TV talk shows, a new sub-genre of theater sprung up
at the same time: personal war stories, “My Turn” essays and “It
Happened to Me” segments. But as the market became overly saturated
with such, only the most spectacular train wrecks, like James Frey's
heavily decorated 2003 addiction memoir, “A Million Little Pieces,”
caused us to press our faces against the windows as we drove past. That
being said, we do love an I'm-still-standing story, no matter how
humble. The story doesn't have to be gasp-worthy to have traction, but
it does need to be more than a personal catharsis and big-picture
advice, such as, “loving unconditionally is the secret.” Certainly,
Cefalu is sincere, and he, like many, has had more than his share of
struggles. Ultimately, though, arranging this handful of monologues
into a single piece, as director Lori Tubert has done, makes for a
patchwork quilt of a show, in which a couple of swatches just don't
mesh: There's a porn bit that's seat-squirmingly awkward, and a
Facebook rant that begins with the Jerry Seinfeld-patented “What's the
deal with Facebook?” One key is to carve personal reflections into a
work that will have resonance beyond closest friends and family, and
that's a missing key in Cefalu's project. The Whitefire Theatre, 13500
Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks; Fri.-Sat., 8:00 p.m.; through October 9.
(310) 622-4482 (Rebecca Haithcoat)
NEW REVIEW
GO SOMETHING TO CROW ABOUT The Bob Baker Marionette Theatre is
currently celebrating its 50th anniversary as a puppet theater for
“children of all ages.” This 50-year-old production presents a day on
the farm, in the shape of a musical revue. In addition to the farmers,
Mama and Papa Goat, it features 100 farm critters, including singing
water-melons, dancing frogs, a flirtatious fox, and Dodo the flapper
crow, complete with rolled stockings, and a voice provided, via
recordings, by Betty Boop. Other “guest” voices include Eve Arden, and
Pearl Bailey, providing the voice for Heloise Horse in her rendition of
“It Takes Two to Tango.” Also featured is the novelty song “I'm a
Lonely Little Petunia in an Onion Patch,” sung by Petunia and danced by
a chorus of Onions. Baker's stage is a cabaret-style in-the- round,
allowing audience interaction, with the black-clad puppeteers plainly
visible. The show is lavish, but tailored to fit the taste of its young
audiences, who are served ice-cream after the show. The puppets are
handsome and clever, and there are plenty of the lame jokes dear to
young children, but there's also wit to appeal to adults. Birthday
parties are welcomed on weekends, with presents for the birthday child.
Bob Baker Marionette Theatre, 1345 West First Street, Los Angeles;
Tues.-Fri., 10:30 a.m.; Sat.-Sun., 2:30 p.m.; thru Sept. 26. (213)
250-9995 or BobBakerMarionettes.com (Neal Weaver)
NEW REVIEW
WAITING FOR GODOT Photo by David Meistrich
Sir Peter Hall, Britain's acknowledged master stager
of Samuel Beckett's towering foundational text of the modern theater,
has been quoted as saying that “all actors should have played Hamlet
and been in Godot.” By “all,” of course, Hall didn't mean “any,” but
rather only the most seasoned and accomplished of players. Regrettably,
it's an attitude not shared by director Timothy McNeil, whose
excruciatingly tone-deaf, pasteboard production mostly obliterates
Beckett's delicate musicality, rhythms and underlying tenderness though
miscasting, mugging and unfathomable directing choices. McNeil's
laughs-at-any-cost approach violently distorts the play's central,
comic duet between tramps Vladimir (Andy Wagner) and Estragon (Alain
Villeneuve) — a comedy based in the pair's desperation to combat the
boredom and fill the awful silence of their titular wait — into crude,
knockabout shtick. Rather than suggesting the antagonistic
synchronicity of lifelong, road-weary sidekicks, Wagner and Villeneuve
rarely seem on the same stage, never mind the same page. In Wagner's
hands, the sensitive, intellectual Didi is reduced to an antic village
idiot, virtually robbing Villeneuve's otherwise well-grounded Gogo of
his pretension-deflating bite. The evening's coup de grace, however, is
delivered by Charles Pacello, whose wild-eyed, off-the-leash Pozzo
plays less like Beckett's “big, brutal bully” than a horror-movie Billy
Zane on meth. By comparison, Pozzo's inexplicably Tourettes-afflicted
slave, Lucky (a far-too-green Deshik Vansadia) seems a masterwork of
dramatic subtlety. Studio C Theater at Stella Adler, 6773 Hollywood
Blvd., Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; through Oct. 3.
(323) 960-7770 or plays411.com/waitingforgodot (Bill Raden)
GO WAITING FOR LEFTY Photo by Tom Mikusz
This dynamic 1935 one-act launched the career of
playwright Clifford Odets, became an important social document, and
solidified the reputation of the Group Theatre. Seeing it now, 75 years
later, reminds us that there was once a blue-collar theatre audience,
and the issues plaguing the country in the Depression era — corruption,
deprivation, injustice, and wars between the haves and the have-nots —
haven't gone away. Some ideas, like the idealization of Stalin's
Russia, have been shattered by history, but in other areas, the
problems haven't changed, and the audience frequently responded with
rueful laughter of recognition. Director Charlie Mount has assembled 16
wonderfully able actors who provide the kind of gritty passion and
vitality that must have marked the original legendary production. The
play's action is set in the meeting hall of a taxi-driver's union,
where union leaders are company apparatchiks, fighting to prevent a
strike, while the rank and file are determined to field their own
leader, activist Lefty. Along the way we're introduced to a rich
cross-section of Depression Era society, until the meeting erupts in
violence. Jeff Rack's bleak union-hall set and the authentic-seeming,
uncredited costumes evoke the 1930s in a way that has little to do with
nostalgia. Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Boulevard West (near Universal
Studios), Los Angeles; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; thru October
10. (323) 851-7977 or theatrewest.org (Neal Weaver)
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