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STAGE REVIEW : Drama-Therapy Troupe Spotlights Sexual Abuse

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“Shadow and Song,” the Stop-Gap musical that premiered at South Coast Repertory’s Second Stage on Thursday, represents the next step in the Santa Ana-based “drama-therapy” troupe’s response to sexual abuse.

Originally entitled “When the Bough Breaks” when first produced by Stop-Gap in 1982, it focused entirely on the pain suffered by a handful of children who had been mistreated. Now, with a new name and a revamped book by Orange County playwright John Weston, “Shadow and Song” centers on how the ache continues in adulthood, leading to ruined self-esteem, busted marriages, breakdowns and, in the worst scenario, turning the abused into the abuser.

Pretty serious stuff for a musical. But “Shadow and Song” isn’t so much about entertainment as it is about education. This isn’t to say that Weston doesn’t try to hold us with his story of grown-up Elizabeth cleansing herself of the past, but the show’s primary goals are to provide insight for the public and a measure of catharsis for victims and their families.

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It all fits in well with Stop-Gap’s manifesto. This nonprofit group has, over the years, staged works probing a spectrum of issues and ills from alcoholism to date rape to AIDS. Even the less-accomplished productions could never be accused of apathy or heartlessness.

With that in mind, it’s easy to recommend “Shadow and Song.” While Ron Creager’s songs aren’t really memorable, and the pivotal dramatic moments--especially the confrontational resolution--often jar with abrupt, pregnant importance, we still stay tuned. It has a message that everybody wants to hear: There is hope for victims.

The show is really more of a drama sprinkled with several songs (many retained from “When the Bough Breaks,” though they are not listed in the program) than what we generally think of as a musical. Exposition and dialogue aren’t the threads that hold the tunes together, but the other way around. Here, what’s significant are the facts we learn about Elizabeth (played as an adult by Sharon Murray and as a teen-ager by Karen Angela).

Most of those are revealed through her interaction with the other characters, especially her dad (Douglas Rowe), a weak man who was physically abused by his own father. He dotes on Elizabeth and seems to be devoted. He also visits her bedroom for sex--more than 40 times, we later learn (she’s made a mark on the bedpost for each encounter).

When she gets a little older, Elizabeth runs away and meets up with a street sleaze who preys on girls at the bus station. He crawls over and tries to get her involved in pornography. These brief scenes are the play’s least convincing, bearing that inauthentic or cliched feel that so often taints made-for-TV movies on the same subject. But perhaps this is just how things develop for many victims; Stop-Gap should know.

Elizabeth eventually becomes a successful songwriter and singer, but her last performance ends in an on-stage collapse. The feelings associated with the abuse overwhelm her. As she prepares to make a comeback with the help of a supportive manager (a spirited and natural performance by Catherine Rowe), Elizabeth has to deal with all that’s been paralyzing her.

Director Don R. Laffoon gets able performances from his cast. Karen Angela imbues the adolescent Elizabeth with buried turmoil, equal parts confusion and anger. Those feelings evolve in Sharon Murray’s adult Elizabeth into a desperately impenetrable veneer erected to hide her vulnerability.

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Angela and Murray sing all the songs, with Angela, a young actress, performing competently enough, and Murray, a singer with a rich voice, shining through the score.

Rowe is unsettling as the father. It’s creepy when he gives advice--a little too earnestly--on how “daddy’s little girl” should dress more attractively, all the while caressing her shoulders, a little too affectionately. But you also feel a degree of sympathy for him when, at the conclusion, he reminds us that he too was a victim.

In the end, Elizabeth, having faced her father and condemned him for what he did, emerges triumphant. Now more confident, she belts out the last number. It’s a contrived, even hokey, finale, but it does put Stop-Gap’s banner of optimism under a bright light.

‘SHADOW AND SONG’

A Stop-Gap production of the musical with book by John Weston and music and lyrics by Ron Creager. Directed by Don R. Laffoon. With Sharon Murray, Karen Angela, Douglas Rowe, Catherine Rowe and Mark Danisovszky. Musical direction by Ron Creager. Set and costumes by Victoria Bryan. Lighting by Patrick Brien. Plays Wednesday through Saturday at 8:30 p.m. through July 29 at South Coast Repertory’s Second Stage, 650 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tickets: $15. (714) 648-0135.

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