There's so much that's right with "It Came From Beyond!," the world-premiere musical spoof of 1950s sci-fi movies, that it seems curmudgeonly to point out the production's shortcomings. After all, the show features Cornell Christianson's lighthearted book, Stephen M. Schwartz and Norman Thalheimer's mostly engaging music and lyrics, and a terrific cast. Add to that Coy Middlebrook's spirited direction, Heather Marie Marsden's aerobic choreography and Tom Buderwitz's truly remarkable set, and you have a very attractive package.
Yet a combination of factors keeps this entertaining but rough-edged production from reaching its potential, at least for now.
Set in a high school science lab in the 1950s, the action centers around Harold (Kevin Earley), a geeky high school student who escapes into a wild, comic-book-inspired fantasy life. Harold adores perky Becky (Marsden), daughter of high school science teacher Mr. Fielding (Stephen Breithaupt), but Becky's involved with unworthy but sexy school bully Steve (Todd Fournier). Meanwhile, home ec teacher Miss Benson (Ali Spuck) simmers with unrequited longing for her widowed colleague, Mr. Fielding. Of course, all the ordinary characters in Harold's high school milieu assume extraordinary alter egos, both heroic and villainous, in his fantasy world.
The simple yet utilitarian conceit results in some richly comic situations -- and a few missed opportunities. Aside from sound system glitches on opening night, more serious problems include the inclusion of several soft-rock musical numbers that seem anachronistic -- and insipid. Also, although Brian Banks and Anthony Marinelli are credited as music producer-arrangers, the absence of a musical director is keenly felt when cast members strain for notes far out of their ranges.
Still, the actors all have opportunities to shine, especially the winning Earley, whose rendition of "Find a Hero" is a showstopper. Now, if they want this show to reach its boffo potential, it's up to the creators to go back to the high school science lab to find the right chemistry for this charming yet incomplete experiment.
-- F. Kathleen Foley
"It Came From Beyond!" Write-Act Theatre, 6128 Yucca St., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Fridays, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays. Ends Feb. 25. $30. (310) 827-5232. www.plays411.com. Running time: 2 hours.
A 'Triptych'
of haunted lives
The intersecting lives of a philandering writer's mistress, wife and teenage daughter chart deep cross-currents of the feminine psyche in "Triptych," a one-act by Edna O'Brien at the Matrix Theatre.
Nomad Theatre Company's production double-casts two of the play's three characters, so interpretive variation is inevitable. Veteran Susan Clark solidly anchors each performance as the tenacious, long-suffering Pauline, a sharp-tongued Irish survivor of marital combat. Appearing like an ominous stalker in the dressing room of her husband's latest conquest, a repressed English stage actress named Clarissa (Kaye Kittrell, Linda Slade), Pauline stakes her territorial claim in a series of encounters ("women throw themselves at him, and I am always there in the ring for the last round").
Still, the weight of her man's long history of compulsive betrayals has taken its toll, and Pauline is starting to lose it -- drunkenly sniping at her rebellious daughter (Samantha Sloyan, Rosemary Morgan) and at one point disrupting one of her rival's performances with the kind of tirade better-behaved captive theater audiences have only dreamed about.
The writer never appears, but his imprint is writ large across these women -- so large that their inability to define their lives except in relation to him becomes the tragic focus of the piece.
Stage medium notwithstanding, O'Brien is a novelist first and foremost. Instead of naturalism charged with subtext, "Triptych's" dialogue sparkles with fluid, meticulous prose that articulates the characters' innermost longings, fears and impulses. In fact, there is no subtext here -- everything is dredged up to the surface.
Nevertheless, Robin Gammell's atmospheric staging infuses the words and action with mystery, effectively employing first-rate lighting (Jeffrey A. Burke), sound (David Beaudry), and a three-ring set to make the complex relations between these three haunted women -- well, haunting.
-- Philip Brandes
"Triptych," Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends Feb. 12. $25. (866) 966-6623 or www.nomadtheatrecompany.com. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.
Skeletons parade from the closet
Stylized fascination lurks within the convolutions of "Von Lutz" at the Lillian Theatre. Dennis Miles' cracked gothic saga about a psychosexual rich clan and the charismatic relative who upends them is unkempt yet effective on its own outre terms.
