‘Gin Game’: A Fine, Layered Production

Deaf West Theatre Company--billed as the only professional theater for deaf people west of the Mississippi--has opened its first full production. Tony-winning Phyllis Frelich (“Children of a Lesser God”) and Patrick Graybill star in a production of “The Gin Game” that uses both sign language and voice interpretation.

Artistic director Ed Waterstreet has wisely selected a play that is not about the problems of being deaf but of ordinary people who happen to be deaf. D. L. Coburn’s two-character drama about a gin-playing couple in a retirement home puts an unusual demand on these actors because they must negotiate constant card-playing with the busy nuances of sign language. While they play cards and jabber away, furious flying fingers animate the dreariness of their rec room.

The theater provides headsets for the hearing audience with simultaneous playback of the sign language delivered live from the lighting booth by Carolyn Kimball and Douglas Nigh. For the hearing, it’s revealing to occasionally tune out the vocal interpretation and enter into the world of silent language.

Frelich and Graybill deliver crisp, layered performances, and at one joltingly comical point, Frelich, in a burst of anger, nails Graybill with the ultimate insulting signatures--her stiff middle finger. This gin game has deadly stakes.

Linda Bove directed the onstage action, with Stephen Sachs directing the vocal actors. Bob Steinberg’s set catches the home’s tacky veneer, and Ken Booth’s lighting is evocative.

“The Gin Game,” Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Hollywood, Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Ends May 26. $12-$15; TDD (213) 660-8826 or voice phone (213) 662-1525. Running time: 2 hours.

‘Twelfth Night’ That’s Brisk and Raucous

A flavorful production of “Twelfth Night” is lighting up the St. Genesius Playhouse.

For people intimidated by teeth-gnashing memories of classroom Shakespeare, this show is a merriment, testament to the cast’s clear diction and Michael Candela’s brisk, raucous staging. The standout is Todd Alan Johnson’s priggish Malvolio, who manages to be both funny and, what is all too rare in many productions, a genuine figure of pity.

The producer, Thereza Rezzarday, is a fetching Olivia. Among the large cast, an alternate player, Harvey Sacks, turned in a splendidly forceful Antonio.

What’s hokey about it is updating Illyria to a dream-like Doheny Drive. A few palm trees don’t do it. Maybe, before the show’s trio of musicians left for other jobs, it was, as billed, a Renaissance rock ‘n’ roll show, but what it is now (with a single strumming musician) is cheerful Shakespeare with a host of vibrant players in Melrose Avenue costumes--and that’s not bad.

“Twelfth Night,” St. Genesius Theatre, 1047 Havenhurst Dr., West Hollywood, Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends May 19. $10-$15; (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.

A Star Is Reborn in ‘Not Like Me at All’

Singer Gogi Grant, who once knocked Elvis Presley off the No. 1 spot on the charts with her recording of “The Wayward Wind,” has returned to the stage in a stylish one-woman musical, “Gogi Grant . . . Not Like Me at All,” at Theatre West.

To the legions of uninitiated, Grant is a startling vocal discovery. To the wall-to-wall older crowd at Theatre West, Grant’s show is a velvety reincarnation of standards and Broadway show tunes dating back to the 1940s.

Actor Frank Langella first heard Grant sing four months ago and was so spellbound that he conceived, wrote and directed this show for her. There’s barely any musical book, but there is an artful simplicity, framed by the theme of a woman’s feelings about her life while rummaging through souvenirs in her attic.

The music, accompanied by a live off-stage band under the musical direction of Bob Florence, is alternately plaintive, soaring and hushed with misty feeling (as in a tremulously touching “If You Were the Only Boy in the World”).

Grant’s all-black costumes and those black drapes could stand some brightening up, and it wouldn’t hurt if she talked more between songs to cut down on the semblance of a nightclub act. But this is one dame who can sing. The passage of time has enhanced her talent. Take the kids. Introduce them to a star.

“Gogi Grant . . . Not Like Me At All,” Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends May 19. $25; (213) 851-7977. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.