Though the late Shel Silverstein is best remembered as an author of wryly subversive children's poetry, his 40-year career spanned a dizzying array of artistic media: songwriter-musician, cartoonist, screenwriter and playwright. His work in that latter capacity, aimed at adult audiences, forms the bulk of the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble's "Shel Silverstein Uncensored!"
Assembled by director Dan Bonnell, this evening of satirical comedy peppered with oddball songs offers some first-rate interpretive performances of material with admittedly specialized appeal.
In his whimsical kids' fables, Silverstein's embrace of inappropriate behavior was a refreshing antidote to prevailing sanitized visions of childhood. Fans will appreciate that same irreverence transposed into a grown-up key. At its best, Silverstein's writing inspires some delightfully loopy performances. A smooth-talking auctioneer (James MacDonald) offers up a woman (Martha Gehman) for sale as if she were livestock. A sadistic father (Tony Pasqualini) torments his daughter (Colleen Kane) with increasingly horrific hints about the birthday present awaiting her. The fears of a concerned husband (Daniel Zacapa) that his wife (Sarah Brooke) is turning into a bag lady prove justified as he plumbs the contents of her purse. MacDonald and Zacapa also nail the existential bickering between a blind street musician and his talking dog.
Nevertheless, Silverstein was more of a sprinter in his stage writing, and his two-character duets tend to stretch one-note concepts past their expiration date. Viewers not attuned to his quirky wavelength will likely find more belly laughs at a traditional sketch comedy show. -- Philip Brandes
"Shel Silverstein Uncensored!" Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Call for exceptions. Ends Aug. 10. $25 to $30. (310) 477-2055. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.
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'Thumping Claw' is sharp in spots
"The Thumping Claw," a festival of one-acts by Asian American playwrights, returns to Actor's Playpen in Hollywood for its second season. It's a mixed bill, but its merits outweigh its disadvantages.
In the opening playlet, Carla Ching's "Dissipating Heat," the director is listed as "Anonymous," but considering the slipshod staging, one suspects the omission of the director's name was not due to modesty. The play, about three store clerks in various states of crisis, feels oddly fragmented, as if Ching had shuffled three individual monologues into one loosely linked whole. The evening goes from a whimper to a Bang, quite literally, with Michael Golamco's "Please Stand By," which stars Vivian Bang as Wendy, a young autistic woman who has been institutionalized by her sister, Audrey (Monica Hong). "Stand" provides Bang with tour-de-force opportunities in Heidi Helen Davis' solid staging, which also features Bernadette Bonfiglio as Wendy's therapist.
Short and sweetly rendered, Julia Cho's "Post It" features Tess Lina as a depressed young woman who takes a phone call from her meddling father (Paul Nakauchi), who bolsters his daughter's sagging self-confidence by relating a sweet memory of her childhood -- a tiny incident that draws his daughter back from the brink of despair. Sharply directed by Leslie Ishii, "Post It" is a miniaturist gem.
Lloyd Suh's "Happy Birthday, William Abernathy," directed by David J. Lee, concerns centenarian William Abernathy (Weston Blakesley), the white forebear of a now almost entirely Asian clan. Greg Watanabe plays Albert, William's great-grandson, who dismisses William's Archie Bunker-esque racism -- until William confides a shocking past transgression that has blighted his entire life. Exposing the hidden human cost behind the title character's "humorous" racism, the play closes "Thumping Claw" with a fitting punch.
-- F. Kathleen Foley
"Thumping Claw 2008," Actor's Playpen, 1514 N. Gardner St., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. Ends June 21. $22. www.BrownPaper Tickets.com Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.
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There's a point here somewhere
It's a dilemma all too familiar in Hollywood: Two rival movie productions dealing with similar subjects must duke it out over which will get made first. Think of recent showdowns, like the Alexander the Great projects or the two Truman Capote biopics.
Daniel Goldfarb's "Adam Baum and the Jew Movie," at the Hayworth Theatre, imagines a Tinseltown race to the finish between two prestige pictures about anti-Semitism. "Soil in Utopia" is the pet project of uber-producer Samuel Baum (Richard Kind), a Russian Jewish emigre and studio despot who has hired a Gentile screenwriter (Hamish Linklater) to pen the script. Their movie is up against the real-life picture "Gentleman's Agreement," starring Gregory Peck.
