A lynching yields a musical love story

Charged with raping and murdering 13-year-old Mary Phagan in 1913 Atlanta, Leo Frank, a Brooklyn-raised Jew, was convicted in a kangaroo trial that travestied due process. The case divided the nation and prompted the outgoing governor to commute Frank’s death sentence to life in prison, on the expectation that Frank would be released on subsequent appeal. Those hopes were dashed when Frank was lynched by an outraged mob, an atrocity that gave rise to the Anti-Defamation League, as well as the Ku Klux Klan.

Playwright Alfred Uhry, whose grandmother was friendly with Frank’s widow, Lucille, was subsequently inspired to write “Parade,” the 1998 musical that won well-deserved Tonys for Uhry’s book and Jason Robert Brown’s lush and intricate score.

It’s easy to see why “Parade” received mixed reviews when first produced. Many critics were likely put off by the piece’s grimness. It’s also easy to see why it has taken 10 years for it to receive its first extended professional production in the L.A. area. Material this exacting would challenge all but the most intrepid interpreters.

Fortunately, those who make the trek to the Neighborhood Playhouse, located in a gorgeous Italianate mansion on the shores of Palos Verdes, will be richly rewarded. Director Brady Schwind has mounted an ambitious and rewarding production, spearheaded by able Craig D’Amico and affecting Emily Olson as Leo and Lucille Frank.

Granted, the acoustically disastrous venue eats sound, and the musical intricacies sometimes outstrip the performers’ abilities, but the cast is, for the most part, solidly professional, and handsome design elements largely compensate for the space’s imperfections. Those prepared for a bleak evening will be surprised to find “Parade” is a love story, as well as a fitting tribute to a wronged man whose fate we cannot afford to forget.

-- F. Kathleen Foley

“Parade,” Neighborhood Playhouse, 415 Paseo Del Mar, Palos Verdes Estates. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays (additional performance July 20 at 7:30 p.m.). Ends July 27. $25-$35. (800) 595-4849. Running time: 3 hours.

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A new take

on ‘Betrayal’

Judging from the two professional revivals of Harold Pinter’s 30-year-old drama currently running on local stages, it seems that “Betrayal” never goes out of style.

What immediately distinguishes the Playground Theater Company’s version at the Matrix Theatre from the previously reviewed production by NoHo’s Andak Stage Company is the former’s nontraditional casting, which adds an interracial dimension to Pinter’s dissection of an adulterous affair between a literary agent and his best friend’s wife.

Loosely based on Pinter’s clandestine relationship with journalist Joan Bakewell, “Betrayal” is a sharply observed autopsy on spent friendship and exhausted passion involving the agent, Jerry (Rick D. Wasserman), publisher Robert (Henry Simmons) and Robert’s wife, Emma (Sophina Brown).

By telling their story in reverse chronology, starting with Jerry and Emma’s rueful reunion two years after their parting and tracing events back to their initial fateful choices, Pinter illuminates the corrosive effects of deceit.

That this Robert and Emma happen to be black adds subtextual distance and daring transgression to their respective relations with Jerry, but director Lee Eskey doesn’t belabor the point. Nor does he deviate from the play’s London setting, steeped in very British repression and hypocrisy.

All three performers deliver compelling performances. Wasserman’s cocky assurance crumbles in the wake of revelations that force him to confront his own cluelessness about the true state of his relations with both Robert and Emma. Simmons (familiar to viewers of “Shark” and “NYPD Blue”) reins in his imposing physical presence with an understated geniality, almost burying the underlying animosity that leaks out in controlled flashes.

Brown’s smart, sexy Emma makes a credible object of Jerry’s obsession. The chemistry between them is palpable, particularly in the final scene that launches their seven-year affair. A major misstep, however, is retaining way too much flirtation in their opening scene. It’s hard to recognize the tragic consequences of betrayal when it looks like they’re still ready to get a room any second.

-- Philip Brandes

“Betrayal,” Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 6 p.m. Sundays. Ends July 27. $20. (323) 960-5770. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.

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Musical twist on American dream

A revival of “Assassins” may seem like a tasteless choice during a presidential election year. This dark musical, written by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman, humanizes notorious president killers Lee Harvey Oswald, John Wilkes Booth and several others. It’s a psychotic masterpiece that’s also an exercise in empathy taken to an irrational extreme.

The West Coast Ensemble’s revival is a smart and finely acted production, though stylistically, it’s too vanilla to make much of an impact. On a mostly bare stage, a grinning MC (Shannon Stoeke) introduces us to the assassins who have assembled in some sort of abstract netherworld. They take turns recounting tales of loneliness and despair with incongruous good cheer, a twisted ode to the American dream.

Essentially plotless and nonlinear, “Assassins” nevertheless builds to an impressive climax as the stories get darker and crazier. Samuel Byck (an excellent John O’Brien) delivers a disturbing monologue as he plots to kill Richard Nixon. John Hinckley (David Nadeau) sings a paean to Jodie Foster and uses portraits of Ronald Reagan for target practice.

In its all-consuming bleakness, “Assassins” makes most recent musicals look like silly theme-park rides by comparison. Yet, it’s far from a depressing experience. This complex necrology of the soul transcends its morbid subject matter toward something spiritual and improbably moving. Richard Israel’s direction is efficient and functional, making the most of a tiny stage. Still, one can’t help wondering what a visionary like John Doyle would do with this rich material.

-- David Ng

“Assassins,” El Centro Theatre, 804 N. El Centro Ave., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends Aug. 31. $30-$34. (323) 460-4443. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

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A faith-based presentation

A husband and wife face each other across a terrible chasm: the grave into which their gay 24-year-old son, dead by his own hand, has just been lowered. Might they or their religion somehow have factored into the tragedy?

These are the protagonists of “Facing East,” the second production of Stillspeaking Theatre, which believes that God is still speaking “through the works of poets and playwrights.” As ministry, Carol Lynn Pearson’s play introduces valuable discussion topics; as theater, it leaves much to be desired.

The father (Neil Miller), a radio personality known for his James Dobson/Focus on the Family-like commentary, questions whether he provided his son enough love and support, especially with regard to the son’s sexuality, which ran afoul of Mormon teaching. The mother (Toni Trenton) tries, resiliently, to ride the swells, anchored in her faith.

Deep into the crisis, a third mourner (Jonathan Edward Brown) arrives -- his presence a complication but, perhaps, also the answer to a prayer.

Translucent panels lend a timeless, abstract context for the story’s rewinds into memory while radiating warmth, stained-glass-like, in the elegiac, pastel light (both designs by Tiffany Lynn Williams).

Pearson is admired for her 1986 memoir “Goodbye, I Love You,” about two abiding affections: for her Mormon faith and for her gay ex-husband. Here, however, she delivers ideas as if shouting, all-capitalized sentences, and her story arc, which begins in a heightened emotional state, has nowhere to grow but bigger. Director Donald B. Shenk, the theater’s artistic director, and his cast only partially personalize all this.

-- Daryl H. Miller

“Facing East,” Stillspeaking Theatre, San Marino Congregational Church, 2560 Huntington Drive, San Marino. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends Aug. 3. $20. (626) 292-2081. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.

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Breezy Bard

at the beach

You know summer’s in high gear when even a serious-minded troupe like the Open Fist Theatre Company succumbs to its breezy charms with a playful, angst-free rendering of Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors.”

Giving the play’s coastal shenanigans a local spin, director Ron West envisions mythical Ephesus as Venice Beach circa 1964. Sunbathers frolic while bicycle police glide across the stage, enforcing a communal mind-set of such insular complacency that visitors from neighboring Syracuse face death unless they can cough up the hefty fine for crossing the border. This rather drastic immigration policy is comically strained to the breaking point when locally raised Antipholus (Dylan Fergus) and his clown-servant Dromio (Jordana Berliner) encounter their undocumented, long-lost identical twin Syracusan siblings (Matthew Brenher and Jamie Weiss, filling in for Claire Mills).

Rather than trying to force-feed depth into one of Shakespeare’s earliest -- and slightest -- efforts, West and his energetic cast revel in their romp.

At times, they’ve met the play’s challenges. The interminable exposition that sets up the story is wittily brought to life via silhouette projections and sound effects. When the visiting Antipholus becomes enamored of the sister (Stephanie Terronez) of his supposed wife, the spurned spouse (Kim Swennen) responds to the trauma by stuffing herself with ice cream, impressively maintaining the meter even with her mouth full. Sarah Buster invests the scheming local courtesan with scarily hilarious Arianna Huffington accent and hauteur.

There’s only so much you can do to compensate for the play’s limitations, but the production mercifully prunes the text to manageable length while preserving plot points.

-- Philip Brandes

“The Comedy of Errors,” Open Fist Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Runs in repertory with “deLEARious”; call for dates and times. Ends Aug. 30. $20. (323) 882-6912. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.