Review: ‘Heart Song’ beats stronger when flamenco takes the lead

Playwright Stephen Sachs delves into the fascinating world of flamenco in “Heart Song,” at the Fountain Theatre.

A natural offshoot of the Fountain’s long-running series “Forever Flamenco,” the play does double duty as a tutorial on all things flamenco and as a dramedy about one woman’s midlife crisis.

Shirley Jo Finney directs this world premiere and as usual, her work is top-notch. But the heart of this “Song” is Maria Bermudez, who choreographed the show and also plays Katarina, the sultry flamenco instructor whose class sets her students on a path of self-acceptance and spiritual renewal.

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Bermudez, a world-renowned flamenco performer, grips the audience from her swirling first entrance. Her character’s engrossing explanation of flamenco’s origins and various forms neatly skirts didacticism at every turn.

Not so Sachs’ plot, which starts off strongly but degenerates into a second-act muddle.

The play’s protagonist is the somewhat whiny Rochelle (Pamela Dunlap), a lonely and overweight Jewish woman overwhelmed by the upcoming yahrzeit observance for the year anniversary of her mother’s death. At the urging of her masseuse and friend, Tina (Tamlyn Tomita), Rochelle joins Katarina’s flamenco class, where she meets and befriends Daloris (emotionally affecting Juanita Jennings), a breast cancer survivor whose life has been transformed by flamenco.

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Jewish Rochelle, Japanese Tina and African American Daloris share a history of oppression with Katarina, who is of gypsy blood. Of course, the women are all sisters under the skin -- and Sachs emphasizes their commonalities with all the subtlety of an “It’s a Small World” exhibit.

Sachs’ hit show, “Bakersfield Mist,” also at the Fountain, was a deft two-hander that explored weighty philosophical issues with zingy humor. Here, Sachs shoehorns one-liners around laboriously obvious themes, while the eleventh-hour “reveal” about the source of Rochelle’s emotional upset is strangely uncompelling.

As long as the action is centered firmly in Katarina’s flamenco studio, “Heart Song” pulsates with percussive rhythm. It’s when Sachs ventures out of flamenco and into soap opera that his initially compelling new play stumbles badly.

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“Heart Song,” The Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends July 14. $34. (323) 663-1525. www.FountainTheatre.com. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

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