STAGE REVIEW : ‘GENTLEMEN’S CLUB’: APOLITICAL CHARACTERS LOST IN SITCOM LAND

Avila Beach, the setting of David Michael Wieger’s comedy-drama of friendship, “The Gentlemen’s Club,” is adjacent to Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant on the Central California coast. That this fact is never uttered in this very talky play says a great deal.

Wieger’s male friends--the club of the title--and Lauren (Karyl Lynn Burns), girlfriend of Stan (Dean Coleman), dean of the club, are so wrapped up in each other and their private conflicts that the outside world has no chance of getting its foot in the door. Whether it is poet Whitney’s (John Robert Dixon) inner sexual confusion or animal lover Maynard’s (Matthew Mark Morgan) obsession to escape to Brazil, this is not just a portrait of apolitical, inward-looking young Americans. It is a loving portrait, one we’re meant to identify with. There’s a living drama at Avila Beach, and this is so far from it that it’s scary.

Wieger pads this story of Stan wanting both his pals and his woman, so only length, not real content, distinguishes his play. Perhaps because the characters remain in sitcom land, and because Karen E. Kuhlow took over the director’s helm from James O’Neil in mid-rehearsal, the cast is generally lifeless and flagging by the end. Even Stogie Harrison’s rowdy Vince runs out of comedic gas.

Performances at Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 7 p.m., (213) 382-6367; ends Sept. 7.