Rockin' till it's scarlet in the face

Puritans breaking into power ballads makes heady sense in Mark Governor's rock musical "shAme," adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter." And not just because opposites -- in this case, repression and rock music -- attract. The story of Hester Prynne's adultery and condemnation by shrilly pious Bostonians in 1642 has the fevered delirium of a classic rock album. The uneven but vivid inaugural production of the Los Angeles Rock Opera Company, "shAme" now pumps up the volume of this classic pageant on Wednesdays at King King in Hollywood.

By Charlotte Stoudt

June 6, 2008