Stage Reviews : ‘Shadow and Song’ Explores Sexual Abuse

“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 titled “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.

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.

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. Catherine Rowe gives a spirited and natural performance as Elizabeth’s supportive manager.

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.

Douglas 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.

Plays Wednesday through Saturday at 8:30 p.m. at South Coast Repertory’s Second Stage, 650 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tickets: $15. (714)648-0135.