Musical froth in North County and riveting drama in Hillcrest marked the avid theatergoer’s Memorial Day weekend.
North Coast Repertory currently presents Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire’s pleasant, bland and funny musical, “Baby,” with book by Sybille Pearson. Truly it means well and hopes to plumb something profound about couples and how their relationships are changed by pregnancy, longed-for pregnancy and parenthood.
The book concerns three couples. Alan and Arlene (always enjoyable veteran performer Steve Gunderson and Susan Jordan) have sent the last kid off to college and contemplate downsizing to a condo. She conceives on a vacation occasioned by their 20-something anniversary. Neither is convinced another baby is what they want. The maturity of these singer/actors and the hard questions they ask are the heart of the piece, and neither fails to deliver.
Gunderson’s “Easier to Love” is particularly poignant. Gordon’s acting acumen and vocal control are truly admirable.
Ashley Linton and Jason Maddy portray an unmarried college-age couple. When she becomes pregnant, he wants to wed; she “” being the modern young woman ” does not. Real-life married couple Nick and Rebecca Spear portray Nick and Pam, who strive to conceive while dealing with the medical indignities and emotional heartache of trying so hard.
Paula Kalustian nimbly stages the little musical, which garnered Tony nominations on Broadway in 1983 and which had a recent, fairly successful revival. Written in a pops vein, Shire’s music is sadly generic and without variety, though Maltby manages some funny lyrics. Further laughs are provided by Alison Bretches’ costumes.
The show continues through June 24 at North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 D Lomas Santa Fe Drive in Solana Beach. For tickets and information, visit www.northcoastrep.org or call (858) 481-1055.
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Meanwhile, in Hillcrest
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6th@Penn Theatre’s Resilience of the Spirit: Human Rights Festival continues with two openings, Catherine Filloux’s history-based “Lemkin’s House” and the double bill of Marianne McDonald’s autobiographical “The Last Class” and Ira Bateman-Gold’s astonishing and gritty “A Hundred Birds.”
“Lemkin’s House” (continuing through June 17) is a surreal, sometimes poetic piece that opens with Raphael Lemkin’s death and hop-scotches willy-nilly through his life through characters he knew, notably his mother. Lemkin (1900-1959), who coined the term “genocide” in 1943 and devoted the remainder of his life to human rights, was the sole survivor of his family during the Nazi purge of Jews. The playwright admits constant interruptions by current genocide victims who clamor for Lemkin’s assistance. Walter Ritter is arresting as Lemkin and Connie DiGrazia, who portrays his mother and others, is a real find. Duane Weekly, Anthony Hamm and Monique Gaffney portray numerous roles. Henia Belalia directs.
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Extremely well-acted by Greg Wittman, Robert Borzych, Thomas Hall and Bud Coleman, Ira Bateman-Gold’s “A Hundred Birds” is the type of play that nails viewers to the wall with its intensity and relentless drive toward what one fears is a grisly and inevitable conclusion. Three Chicago men, longtime friends and losers likely in their late 20s, capture the man who sexually abused all of them when they were 12. With unusual insight the playwright proposes, through the actions of his young men, that not all such victims become serial killers imbued with violence.
Even though Terry’s (Hall) intent is to execute the blindfolded, drugged Nicky (Bud Coleman), the others are not so sure. The play is riveting in its psychological insight, relentless in the unfolding of events, as Dean (Borzych) and Mike (Wittman) reveal their neediness, fear and sensitivity.”‚This worthy play is a must-see, but not for the easily offended. It is rife with graphic sexual images and violence and “language.”
Jenni Prisk portrays the classics teacher in McDonald’s “The Last Class.” McDonald directed the deeply personal, valedictory piece, which tells of one woman’s life choices and her indomitable ability to muddle through.
Like many tell-don’t-show plays performed by protagonist only, empathy and tension are difficult to sustain even though many in the audience must have recognized their lives up there. Dare I say McDonald’s piece needs shaping, editing and a director whose life it is not?
The double bill of “The Last Class” and “A Hundred Birds” continues through June 18, in rotating repertory with “Lemkin’s House.” 6th@Penn Theatre is located at 3704 6th Ave. (at Pennsylvania) in Hillcrest. For a schedule, visit www.resilienceofthespirit or call (619) 688-9210.