They say the third story a writer writes is the best. One may question the truth of that statement on the way home from Charles Busch\u2019s “The Third Story,” which opened in its world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse Sept. 21. A noted author and drag performer, Busch wrote the long-running off-Broadway hit “Vampire Lesbians of Sodom,” as well as the Broadway hit “The Tale of the Allergist\u2019s Wife” and “Die Mommie Die” (he starred in the recent film). He wrote a couple of roles for himself in “The Third Story,” commissioned by the Playhouse. As the name implies, it\u2019s a madcap weaving together of three tales, one cut from the same colorful cloth as “Cinderella” and “The Firebird” a la Walt Disney; one a sci-fi \/mad scientist\/dying mother scenario; and the third, and least cohesive, about the mother from hell and the son that in her eyes at least is a failure. The underlying theme of all the stories may be codependency: parents\u2019 inability to let go of adult children, children\u2019s reluctance to let go of parents and, most outrageously, the scientist loath to release the experiment gone awry. Because Busch is Busch, there is also a melodramatic, hilarious resonance with film.\u00a0 Some patrons departed at the interval, perhaps confused by the pace of the stories\u2019 intermingling, perhaps finding it all a bit of stuff and nonsense. Others are still savoring the intricacies, motivations and deeper social meanings the morning after. The requisite acting style for such ridiculousness (Busch was influenced by Charles Ludlam\u2019s Theatre of the Ridiculous) is absolute sincerity and involvement, and director Carl Andress, in addition to being traffic cop, elicits the style with flair. He gets valuable assists from Lewis Flinn\u2019s original music, David Gallo\u2019s scenic design, Christopher Akerlind\u2019s lighting, Walter Trarbach\u2019s sound and Tom Watson\u2019s vital and hilarious hair and wig designs. Gregory Gale\u2019s costumes are a joy, especially the scientist\u2019s designer-label lab coat. If those production team credits sound like an ode to showbiz, so be it; but the actors are the thing. Foremost of course is Busch as Baba Yaga the Witch, who makes two princesses from one, and Queenie Bartlett, a desperate mother loath to depart this mortal coil without providing a clone for her incompetent, badly married son. Queenie\u2019s Sam Spade-like “boy” is played by Jonathan Walker, whose moll is played by Rebecca Lawrence, also the princess and another character. Walker also portrays a reformed screenwriter in the third story. This fellow\u2019s mother, who\u2019s been involved with the greats of Hollywood, reveals long-held secrets about his birth. She is portrayed by Mary Beth Peil, who dons glasses as she walks from her son\u2019s house outside Omaha, Neb., to become Dr. Constance Hudson\u2019s lab assistant. Jennifer Van Dyck plays the sex-deprived scientist (a sly reference to the defeminization of women who enter male-dominated professions). Dr. Hudson has discovered Baba Yaga\u2019s secret of human duplication, well, kinda. Her “medical experiment gone wrong” is Zygote, brilliantly played by Scott Parkinson. His makeup, lumps, hair and attire are wondrous. It\u2019s a whale of a tale (or three) to swallow. The aftertaste is magnificent. “The Third Story” continues at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 19 at the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive. For tickets and information, call (858) 550-1010 or visit www.lajollaplayhouse.org. n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
They say the third story a writer writes is the best. One may question the truth of that statement on the way home from Charles Busch\u2019s “The Third Story,” which opened in its world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse Sept. 21. A noted author and drag performer, Busch wrote the long-running off-Broadway hit “Vampire Lesbians […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":284729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Playhouse adds on a dizzying \u2018Third Story\u2019","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}