August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson" is a play in multiple keys, switching between family drama, ghost story and slice-of-life exploration of African American regionalism. Keeping up with its chromatic shifts isn't easy, but the Hayworth Theatre's passionate if somewhat hammy revival is up to the task. This full-throttle production conjures a vision of America so complex and rich with gothic portent that it feels positively Faulknerian.
In a ramshackle house just outside Pittsburgh, single mom Berniece (Vanessa Bell Calloway) wakes up in the middle of the night to find two intruders -- her estranged brother Boy Willie (Russell Andrews) and his friend Lymon (Roscoe C. Freeman). It turns out that Boy Willie wants to sell the family piano to buy land down South, but his sister quickly puts her foot down, insisting that the instrument should stay in the family.
As brother and sister cross swords, the play kicks into supernatural high gear. Someone sees the ghost of a long-dead family member lurking in the hallways, setting off a wave of paranoia. Later, the piano itself seems possessed, literally groaning every time Boy Willie lays a hand on it.
Of the ensemble cast, the standout is Calloway, who plays Berniece with steely conviction and blazing intelligence. The actress' no-nonsense performance grounds the second half of the play in tactile details -- just watching her cook pork chops or comb her daughter's hair is an enthralling experience.
Less successful are the male actors, who tend to amp up their delivery to a deafening fortissimo. It's amazing that any ghost could stand such a racket. "The Piano Lesson," which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990, turns into a full-blown occult thriller in its final moments. This production follows it fearlessly over the edge and into the deep end.
-- David Ng
"The Piano Lesson," Hayworth Theatre, 2509 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. 8 p.m., Thursdays through Saturdays. 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. $27-$32. (800) 838-3006 or www.thehayworth.com. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.
-- Anything goes in 'Point Break' spoof
Like, here's the thing: "Point Break Live!" totally shoots the tube. This uproarious interactive spoof of Kathryn Bigelow's 1991 blockbuster film approaches garage-theater Dada in its unfettered mix of mosh pit and wrap party.
Created by Jaime Keeling, "Point Break Live!" lets attendees drink and mingle around banquettes and a sunken stage where the show plays out virtually in our laps. Apart from following the outlandish screenplay -- Keanu Reeves' ex-football-star-turned-federal-agent becomes a surfer and sky diver to infiltrate Patrick Swayze's gang of presidential-masked bank robbers -- "Point" owes its hilarity to two elements.
One is the anything-goes approach maintained by directors Thomas Blake, George Spielvogel and Eve Hars and their cast. Tobias Jellinek brings a priceless deadpan to adrenaline junkie Bodhi Sativa (the Swayze character). Spielvogel lays waste to Gary Busey's turn as burned-out Angelo Pappas, and Blake goes for broke as the ill-fated Roach. David Simon adroitly carps as by-the-book Agent Harp; Jennifer Jean wryly skewers Lori Petty's surfer girl; and surfers/FBI goons Jan Milewicz and John Miller pull the film's homoerotic subtext into riotous bas-relief.
The other key factor is the audience, and not just because we endure live video, wind machines, squirt guns and more. (Rain ponchos are available and recommended). Each performance casts an unrehearsed volunteer in the Reeves role of Johnny Utah, as Lisa Renee's bluff Bigelow gives direction, Adam Douglas' stage manager wields props and Christie Waldon's lithe production assistant rifles through cue cards and stunt doubles. At the reviewed performance, a lawyer named Chip assayed the coveted part, kidney-threatening in his uninflected line readings. "Point Break Live!" shamelessly rides the gnarly breakers of travesty until viewers wipe out on the shoals of helpless laughter.
-- David C. Nichols
"Point Break Live!," Charlie O's in the Alexandria Hotel, 501 S. Spring St. in Gallery Row, L.A. 8 p.m. Fridays and Thursdays. Indefinitely. Adult audiences. $20. (866) 811-4111 or www.theatermania.com. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.
-- A luminous, all-male 'R&J'
After hours, four schoolboys escape their regimented existence by secretly enacting "Romeo and Juliet," awakening into new awareness as they go.
That scenario might put people in mind of "Dead Poets Society," but Joe Calarco, who devised this contextualized version of Shakespeare's play, writes in the published acting edition that his inspirations were "The Crucible" and "Lord of the Flies." He means "Shakespeare's R&J" to evoke a world where repression and a mob mentality weigh down on two young people sharing their first forbidden kiss.
