Currently Playing: July 24, 2008

Adam Baum and the Jew Movie. This amusing and probing 1999 comedy by Daniel Goldfarb (of Theatre 40’s recent Modern Orthodox) pits a would-be assimilated Jewish movie mogul (Richard Kind) in 1946 against a gentile, leftist screenwriter (Hamish Linklater through last weekend, Nicholas Brendan beginning this week), whom he has hired to write a movie about American anti-Semitism. The writer wants to make the film more Jewish; the mogul wants to sell tickets in Kansas. Their dispute coincides with the bar mitzvah of the mogul’s cosseted son (Gregory Mikurak). Kind masterfully reveals the man’s defensive insecurities behind his brusque exterior. Paul Mazursky directs. Hayworth Theatre, west of MacArthur Park, (323) 960-4442. Plays411.com/jewmovie. Closes August 3. (DS)

American Tales. Antaeus Company’s bill of two new one-act musicals offers radically different glimpses of 19th century America, adapted by Ken Stone. Mark Twain’s The Loves of Alonzo Fitz Clarence and Rosannah Ethelton is a far-fetched adventure story with comic sparkle, in which two long-distance lovers meet each other through crossed wires on the newly invented telephone. Herman Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener is an anti-adventure story, about trapped souls in a Wall Street law office, which erupts into chaos when one clerk suddenly starts declining assignments with the words “I would prefer not to.” The 19th-century-influenced score by Stone (lyrics) and Ken Powell (music) adds dramatic heft and witty verse to the originals. Kay Cole and Thor Steingraber directed. But it’s too bad the Melville has to use the more Twain-appropriate set. Deaf West Theatre, North Hollywood, (866) 811-4111. Antaeus.org. Closes August 17. (DS)

As You Like It. Ellen Geer’s alfresco staging is set in 19th century America – indicated primarily by songs and costumes. Touchstone looks and talks like a Shakespeare-quoting dandy from Mark Twain. Women play the traditionally male roles of Jaques and Adam, but Geer rejects any topical political gestures. The blithe mingling of blacks and whites in this Reconstruction-era forest is ignored as effortlessly as the plot’s many improbabilities. Instead, the era is used simply to point out the expansive universality of Shakespeare’s themes and language. As I sat in a dappled glen on a perfect Sunday afternoon, watching Willow Geer’s Rosalind and Mike Peebler’s Orlando, I was again reminded of just why this play is staged so often. Theatricum Botanicum, Topanga. Sunday afternoons only. (310) 455-3723. Theatricum.com. Closes Sept. 28. (DS)

Betrayal. Harold Pinter’s last widely respected play is being produced by two different companies in L.A. right now. I caught only John DeMita’s staging for Andak Stage Company. The hyper-intimate venue is ideal for this reverse-chronological account of a romantic triangle involving gallery owner Emma (Nike Doukas), her husband (Leo Marks) and his supposed best friend (Daniel Reichert). All of the performances are expert, but Marks’s fox-like demeanor is especially compelling. New Place Studio Theatre, North Hollywood, (866) 811-4111. Theatermania.com or andak.org. Closes August 3. (DS)

The Last Seder. A reunion of squabbling siblings and their mates at the home of their aging/dying parents is one of American drama’s most overused premises. Jennifer Maisel’s play is distinguishable from a dozen others primarily by the use of seder rituals to make dramatic points. Joseph Ruskin plays the dementia-stricken patriarch and Jenny O’Hara his indomitable wife. A few of the seder-related moments register strongly in Joseph Megel’s staging for Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA and Greenway Arts Alliance, but the play is afflicted by too many characters and too many short scenes in which two or three characters converse while everyone else freezes in place – a telltale sign of a would-be screenplay. Greenway Court Theatre, Fairfax district. (323) 655-7679. Greenwayarts.org. Closes July 27. (DS)

Looped. Valerie Harper is a hoot as the wit and diva Tallulah Bankhead trying to loop one line for a film at an L.A. studio in 1965. Chad Allen plays the frustrated hack whose blood slowly boils as he supervises the temperamental star. There’s nothing profound in Matthew Lombardo’s script, directed by Rob Ruggiero, but the conversation is spiked with refreshingly salty talk as well as therapeutic soul-searching. Pasadena Playhouse. (626) 356-7529. Pasadenaplayhouse.org. Closes August 3. (DS)

Macbeth. Theatricum Botanicum offers a vigorous, sprawling Shakespearean spectacle at its rustic outdoor venue, co-directed by Ellen Geer and Chad Jason Scheppner. I counted 10 witches, stirring up bubbles and troubles as night descends on Topanga. The Birnam Woods look right at home on the hillside, and the trees approach Dunsinane from all directions, including the rear of the house. Jim LeFave’s Macbeth is a blustery bantam cock, and his wife (Susan Angelo, alternating with Melora Marshall) a convincing shrew. Theatricum Botanicum, Topanga. (310) 455-3723. Theatricum.com. (DS)

My Antonia. Scott Schwartz adapted Willa Cather’s novel, about the friendship between an orphaned Virginia boy (Michael Redfield as a youth, Kevin Kilner as the middle-aged man who does most of the narrating) and a Bohemian immigrant girl (Shiva Rose) who move to the same small town in Nebraska in 1884. Stephen Schwartz’s incidental music, performed live on piano and violin, emphasizes the sweep and poignancy of an old-fashioned page-turner. The script erases the information that Antonia is older than Jim, intensifying the romance. One easily expendable chapter about other, Russian immigrants should be cut. It’s a co-production of Rubicon Theatre and Pacific Resident Theatre Ensemble at the latter company’s Venice venue. (310) 822-8392. PacificResidentTheatre. com. Closes August 3. (DS)

Of Equal Measure. Tanya Barfield (Blue Door) tries hard – too hard – to overlay a critique of the Bush Administration on her demonstration of the tenuous position of a black woman (Michole Briana White) who’s working as an assistant to a top-level segregationist lech (Michael T. Weiss) in the Wilson (Lawrence Pressman) White House. It’s such a full plate that there are frequent spills, making quite a dramaturgical mess in Leigh Silverman’s staging. The play’s realistic texture, coupled with the lack of documentation about specific characters in the program, leads me to wonder how much of it is vaguely factual and how much is overheated fantasy. Center Theatre Group’s Kirk Douglas Theatre. Culver City. (213) 628-2772. CenterTheatreGroup.org. Closes July 27. (DS)

Rubicon International Theatre Festival. The idea of a festival of theater events from other countries in the mild summers of seaside Ventura sounds promising. Officially set to open next year, the Linda Purl-run festival is offering a two-weekend “preview” this year. None of the events are playing both weekends, so I can’t vouch for the current productions. But the one show I saw last weekend was worth a trip: the U.S. and English-language premiere of Eye of the Cyclone, a play from Ivory Coast written by the Spanish-raised Luis Marques, about what happens to a former child soldier who’s now a prisoner in a West African country. The “preview” is at several venues in Ventura. (800) 667-2900. Ritf.org. Closes July 27. (DS)

Shipwrecked! The Victorian fabulist Louis de Rougemont made England believe that he had been shipwrecked and had lived for years among aborigines. Donald Margulies’s cheerful but hardly gullible take on this colorful character returns to the area after its premiere last year at South Coast Repertory, with an improved ending. Bart DeLorenzo again directs, with the original cast. Gregory Itzin is slyly ingratiating as Louis, and Melody Butiu and Michael Daniel Cassady are amazingly chameleonic in the other roles. Geffen Playhouse, Westwood. (310) 208-5454. GeffenPlayhouse.com. Closes July 27. (DS)

Spring’s Awakening. Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble presents its own adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play about sexual truth and consequences among teenagers in repressed Germany. Unfortunately, no teenagers appear to be in Evan Drane’s cast, which is drawn from the ranks of the ensemble. The text sounds more natural than did the recent Production Company version, but both of these are mere preludes to the main event – the prize-winning musical version due at the Ahmanson in the fall. Powerhouse Theatre, Ocean Park. (310) 396-3680 x3. Latensemble.org. Closes July 26. (DS)

The Taming of the Shrew. Director Ben Donenberg sets Shakespeare Festival/LA’s annual production in a contemporary L.A. dominated by wheels – but not the expected cars. Instead, the characters zip around on bikes, scooters, skates, even a golf cart. This doesn’t have much to do with Shakespeare’s play, but it adds extra zing to a winningly zesty production, also featuring an exuberant Petruchio (Geoffrey Lower), a charismatic Kate (Sabra Williams), terrific tomfoolery from the clowns and cool projections by Andrew Wilder. Of course Kate’s concession speech sounds especially unlikely and unconvincing in 21st-century L.A. South Coast Botanic Garden, Palos Verdes. (213) 975-9891. ShakespeareFestivalLA.org. Closes July 27. (DS)

This Contract Limits Our Liability: Read It! A young couple (Jonas Dickson, Kelsey Weeden), trying to spice up their sorry marriage by advertising for spouse-swappers, end up with a pair (Bill Robens, Julia Prud’homme) who plan to commit joint suicide instead of adultery. The plot twists of Joshua Fardon’s dark comedy are original but seldom convincing; the shock value feels force-fed. Kiff Scholl directed an able cast, including Andrea Ruth as a couples counselor, but blocked sight lines of the action that’s close to the floor are problematic. Weds-Thurs, Theatre of NOTE, Hollywood, (323) 856-8611. Theatreofnote.com. Closes August 7. (DS)

Twelfth Night. The oft-produced comedy is a nice fit for a moonlit sky and the open air of Independent Shakespeare Company’s annual alfresco repertory. This is the one about female and male siblings, separated at sea, who wind up in Illyria, where the woman assumes male garb in order to work as a romantic messenger for the count, who’s wooing a grieving countess, who … oh, just Google “Twelfth Night synopsis” and see what comes up. Melissa Chalsma’s cast is winningly funny – and mostly audible, despite competition from the Hollywood helicopter fleet. The whimsical costumes, eccentrically 20th century, are a cut above the other design elements. And it’s free – although donations are requested and deserved after the show. Barnsdall Park, east Hollywood, (323) 836-0288. Independentshakespeare.com. Closes August 23. (DS)

The Voice of the Prairie. John Olive's 1986 play glowingly evokes the early days of radio and the power of oral storytelling. In 1923, a Nebraska farmer (Tom Dugan) is recruited by a pioneer broadcaster (Michael Matthys) to bring his tales of his youthful adventures roaming the country with a blind runaway (Ashley Bell) to the airwaves. As we see in flashbacks to 1895, in which Matthys plays the future farmer, the pair of wayfarers lost touch, but the radio programs eventually reunite the two. The narrative verges on tall tale-telling, but David Rose's staging encourages the willing suspension of disbelief. Colony Theatre, 555 N. 3rd St., Burbank, (818) 558-7000. Colonytheatre.org. Closes July 27. (DS)