Levin’s ‘Room’ Opens Door to Terror

Playwright-novelist Ira Levin knows an intriguing idea when it hits him--”Deathtrap” and “Rosemary’s Baby” are good examples--and his 1973 thriller “Veronica’s Room” is just as intriguing.

A young woman is drawn to a dark house near Boston to masquerade as her look-alike who died four decades earlier, and soon finds her hosts trying to convince her that she actually is Veronica, and the year is 1935, not 1973.

Only a couple of flaws tarnish this well-polished, darkly-shaded production at the Richard Basehart Playhouse in Woodland Hills. Cynthia Baer’s direction tempers the scenes to the double time element in the play with a sure hand, measuring the tempos of each era with perfection, but some of the moments as the net of terror begins to close in on the heroine could be tighter--her fright is not ours at those times.

The other flaw is the performance of Casey Van Patten as the woman’s new boyfriend, who guides her into the trap and then becomes something completely different. There is a difference between playing wooden and being wooden; Patten opts for the latter.

Kathleen McMartin is superior as the terrified victim, and the impeccable performances of Margaret Muse and Joe Conley as her chameleon captors create the sense of terrifying doom that dominates Levin’s script.

Ben Slack’s set and Dana Kilgore’s lighting couldn’t be more on target as a frame for the fright.

“Veronica’s Room,” Richard Basehart Playhouse, 21028-B Victory Blvd., Woodland Hills. Today-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends Sunday. $15; (818) 704-1845. Running time: 1 hour , 45 minutes.

‘Off the Wall’ Is on the Mark in Hollywood

In any improv situation, some material works, some doesn’t, according to the quality of audience suggestions. That a lot of the sketches bouncing “Off the Wall” at the Improv in Hollywood do work--in spite of some inane prompts from the audience--says something for the 15 years this group has been around.

Two of the founding members, Wendy Cutler and Andy Goldberg shine throughout; Cutler especially in improvised song, and Goldberg particularly for his tasty sense of humor and the indefatigable quickness of his mind. Goldberg also directs the group with the same sharpness and dispatch.

A total joy on the night seen was a company member subbing for a missing regular. Ron Gist, as large in talent as in girth, got as many laughs from his decisive characterizations and his reaction as he did from his razor-edged lines, notably as “Bubba,” a college football center enrolled in a class on “How to Flirt.” He is a wonder, and only one of the many reasons “Off the Wall” remains one of the best improv groups in town.

“Off the Wall,” Hollywood Improvisation, 8162 Melrose Ave., Hollywood; Mondays, 8:30 p.m. Indefinitely. Two drink minimum; (213) 651-2583. Running time: 2 hours , 30 minutes.

Revue Gives Its Regards to Broadway

“Broadway Sings Out,” at the West End Playhouse in Van Nuys, is a decade-spanning musical revue that tries to show how, down through the years, Broadway has also spoken out on social and political problems. As a revue it makes a jim-dandy candy-box of songs remembered and forgotten from Broadway shows in the past eight decades. Its message is slight, due to the sketchiness of its book and strained transitions (the show was “devised” by Ray Malvani).

Anytime you pull together this much material in one evening, the tendency is for the best songs to put special spotlights on their interpreters. That’s exactly what happens here. Danny Bolero’s “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?” and other tunes are memorable because he is as good an actor as he is a singer. The burnished copper tone of Debra Moreno’s strong voice makes standouts of several numbers. And Yvette Cason almost stops the show with her molten rendition of “Nobody.” The whole company is in grand voice throughout this musical-theater encyclopedia.

“Broadway Sings Out,” West End Playhouse, 7446 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys; Fridays-Saturdays,8 p.m. Indefinitely. $17.50; (818) 904-0444. Running time: 2 hours , 10 minutes.

Uneven One-Acts at Burbage Theatre

The highlight of Program C in West Los Angeles’ Burbage Theatre four-evening panoply of one-acts called “Shorts,” is a taut little slice of life about two whites on a subway unavoidably involved in a conversation with a voluble black man. In James Serpento’s “On the El Nighttimes,” under Francine Markow’s crisp, fully detailed direction, the playwright fairly romps through what amounts to a tone poem on prejudice, both direct and reverse. Is the black man really threatening, or just having his ironic way with the two muddled suburbanites? Cooper Bates never tips his hand in a delicious performance as the black man, and Ed Levey and Jack Harrell provide full counterpoint as his alleged innocent victims.

Robin Fulford’s “Dark Song” doesn’t deserve the lucid, interesting direction with which Frederick Johntz has staged it. It’s just another rape story, which doesn’t provide new insight into this most demeaning of personal crimes.

Taylor Gilbert is good as the victim, as is Ian Gregory as the building superintendent who attacks her, but we’ve heard the story before.

Andy Griggs’ direction keeps a fine pace going in Joel Murray’s “There,” a sort of schizoid paean to the lengths actors will travel for their art. The play is much too long for its own good and for what it has to say, but Cameron Watson is funny as the young actor willing to do anything, and Tom Waldman even finds humor in the sadness of his roommate, too wrapped up in finding a “method” to find himself.

Both one-acts in Program D of “Shorts,” amount to little more than one-joke items, but in both cases the writing is clever and the opener at least gives the work its best shot.

Michael Korn is funny and properly naive as an inexperienced young playwright trying to sell his script to a dubious director in Willie Holtzman’s “White Trash.” Under Andy Griggs’ direction the characters who inhabit the bar where the playwright works as bartender only fitfully come up to their peripheral roles in the play’s gag--as stereotypes from the work of famous writers. Alison McHale and Frederick Johntz come off best, recreating the worlds of Tennessee Williams and Sam Shepard, along with Mick Collins who spouts fine Clifford Odets urban cynicism.

Collins’ direction of David Kranes’ “Keats’ Ghost” gives it color, but suffers from the overplaying of Bill Frenzer as a theatrical agent named Keats who is inhabited by the ghost of poet John Keats. Jokes make television sketches, not plays.

‘Shorts (Programs C and D),” Burbage Theatre, 2330 Sawtelle Blvd., West Los Angeles; Thursdays-Saturdays, 8:30 p.m.; Sundays, 7:30 p.m. Call for repertory schedule. Ends Jan. 27. $15 (all four evenings, $40); (213) 478-0897. Running time: 1 hour , 30 minutes.