STAGE REVIEWS : Surprise: A Functional Family Copes in ‘Dance’

Late in Doug Haverty’s “Could I Have This Dance?,” a Colony production at the Studio Theatre Playhouse, Errol (Gil Johnson), the former boyfriend of one of the daughters, drops by the house in the middle of a major crisis and announces how much he’s missed this family.

What he really misses is the way they cope. This tells you all you need to know about the Glendennings. “Could I Have This Dance?” is about--are you ready?--a functional family.

Lay to rest the rumor that this is another disease-of-the-month play. Yes, the Glendennings are haunted by Huntington’s Disease. It runs in the family. Mom’s got it and her two daughters are candidates. But this is the circumstance of the play, not what it’s about.

Mom (Toni Sawyer) could be afflicted with any genetically transmittable disease other than Huntington’s and the anxiety and skepticism borne by her daughters Monica (Elizabeth Norment) and Mandy (Bonita Friedericy) would be the same. What we’re treated to--an increasingly rare treat--is how well they handle this reality and their own emotions.

It helps that Haverty has an uncluttered sense of character and a good ear for snappy dialogue, particularly when his plot is sometimes too accommodating.

It’s dramatically convenient if a bit unlikely, for instance, to have Monica and Mandy run the family business from the living room of the airy, modern home they share with Mom and Dad. (Susan Gratch designed the classy set, well-lit by Michael Gilliam.) True, they took over the public relations firm from Mom when her illness made it impossible for her to continue. And it’s logical enough for them to work from home so they can help their Dad (John Bluto) look after Mom.

It’s called pulling together.

So the set-up is a little pat, but Haverty’s people are down to earth and in touch with their feelings. They also speak their mind with a sobering candor.

When Monica’s friend Colin (Robert Stoeckle) announces that there’s a new test that makes it possible to find out if you’ll get Huntington’s, reckless Mandy takes it, while Monica resists. You’ll know why when you see the play, but the welcome pattern of sanity that runs through this bantering piece leaves you in the end with a bit of a glow and wishing there were more of this up front kind of coping in real life.

Director Jules Aaron keeps things breezy, swift, but in tow. He gives Sawyer a dance-like swaying motion to symbolize her disease, occasionally letting her lapse into more realistic out-of-control twitching as a reminder of the ailment’s true anguish and pain.

The rest of the acting is uniformly strong, especially Norment’s complex Monica, and including that of the boyish Johnson as Mandy’s younger boyfriend, whom she briefly sends away but who returns with that comment about really missing this family.

Who can blame him? There is nothing so attractive or refreshing as people who can face whatever life dishes up and deal with it. That singular element makes Haverty’s unexpectedly urban play a surprise as well as a joy.

“Could I Have This Dance?,” Colony Studio Theatre, 1944 Riverside Drive, Silver Lake. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m., June 9, 23; matinees Sundays, 3 p.m., May 26, June 16, 30. Ends June 30. $15-$18; (213) 665-3011. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.