Uneven Acting Weakens ‘Lulu’s’ Mystical Power

There’s a fine sense of light and shadow in Frederique Michel’s staging of Kathy Acker’s postmodernist reworking of “Lulu” at Waterfront Stage. There’s also mystery and mysticism and some ageless wisdom.

The Frank Wedekind play and the director are suited to one another. Michel sees within the work and illuminates it with her impeccable visual theatricality, including the use of a disarming Expressionist film using the same actors, accompanying the action, commenting on it, and delicate lighting by Kevin Graves and sound by Jeffrey S. Poole.

However, Michel hasn’t been able to gather together the actors to fulfill her artful realization of avant-garde playwright Acker’s design. Barbara Hooper does achieve some moments of textual clarity in her final monologue as Lulu, and Shaun Irons almost approaches the slick vulgarity of the theatrical director son of Lulu’s aged husband.

Laura McCann (as the stoic maid and as a witch) and Katherine Burke (as a young girl) add delicious moments of ambiguity, but the acting overall misses any of the nuances of what could be an exciting dramatic journey.

At 250 Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica; Fridays through Sundays, 8 p.m.; indefinitely. $12.50; (213) 393-6672.

Funny ‘Rim Shot’ Still a Sitcom

Nina Giovannitti’s “Rim Shot” at the Complex is about as adult as a sitcom can get, but that doesn’t keep it from being sitcom writing. Giovannitti knows her way around a situation and has a fine ear for comedy built on character, and she has Robert Schrock’s coiled spring direction to help her.

Stand-up comic Zoe has found a yuppie Mr. Right. Her problem--and the play’s--is that she’s suddenly so happy that she’s not funny anymore. She’s a Method comic; a pro would get up and give a good show regardless. As a result, one doesn’t really care much about Zoe, poor thing. She’d be better get out of the business.

As Zoe, Giovannitti is funny and touching, especially in scenes with the delightful Cynthia Steele as her best friend, who for some unknown reason puts up with her. Steve Greenstein is really funny, doing his own material as Zoe’s boss. Robert Firth, warm and sensitive as Zoe’s boyfriend, is also terrific in a dream sequence as a “yuppie comic”--with his own material--doing Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.

At 6474 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood; Fridays & Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m.; ends Oct. 28. $12; (213) 466-1767.

Evocative ‘Spinster’ Sags in the Middle

In a tight new translation by Carmen Zapata and Michael Dewell and under Margarita Galban’s mostly evocative direction, Federico Garcia Lorca’s “Dona Rosita the Spinster” receives a curiously mixed production at BFA’s Little Theatre.

Lorca, who could be considered the Tennessee Williams of Spain, once again deals with the tragedy of a woman against whom the winds of fate blow the debris of her situation. Dona Rosita promises to wait for a man who has no intention of waiting for her. Her whole life she waits. It is a heartbreaking story, which Lorca has been wise enough to lard with some humor.

In this Theatre/Teatro production, Act I is striking in its spareness and its poetry--though translating verse dialogue is always chancy--and Act III reverberates with the honest beat of broken hearts. Lorca’s ironic humor in the transitional Act II falls apart in this staging. What should be gentle high comedy to match what precedes and follows it is turned into low camp, probably following the lead of Liane Schirmer’s klutzy convolutions as the widowed mother of some of Rosita’s spinster friends.

Galban should never have allowed all this self-indulgence. Elsewhere her hand is sure and right. Elise Hernandez is memorable as Rosita, from her bubbly youth to a maturity anchored in stony bitterness. Margarita Stocker and Peppin Valera are strong as her aunt and uncle, and Margarita Cordova just escapes letting her staginess mask the high humor of her housekeeper.

At 421 N. Avenue 19, Lincoln Heights; runs alternate weeks in English and Spanish (dark Nov. 21-25; Spanish only Nov. 28-Dec. 9); Wednesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m.; ends Dec. 9. $12; (213) 225-4044.

Few Surprises in Hollow ‘Notes’

Even in a production that appreciated its values, the “American Notes” in Len Jenkin’s dark comedy at the Court Theater all come from different tunes. His “vignettes searching for roots in the American mainstream” are in the “anything goes” style of ‘60s and ‘70s playwriting, and have a hollow sound today.

Shannon Eubanks conducts the notes as if they were Wagner, heavily and ponderously. One short scene comes to life, the sad meeting of an oddball pimp and his hooker with a client in a motel bar. It’s the best writing in the piece, and Jim Donadio and Tancy Taylor are both frightening and touching.

Their work shines. The other actors aren’t taken by the director beyond the surface of the text, a necessary journey in this genre, though Terry Beaver has some good moments as Faber, a modern version of Cohan’s Vagabond from “The Tavern,” without his flights of imagination. John Iacovelli’s good motel set has surprises behind the walls, but there are no surprises in Eubanks’ direction.

At 722 N. La Cienega Blvd., Hollywood; Thursdays through Sundays, 8 p.m.; ends Nov. 4. $17; (213) 466-1767.