STAGE REVIEWS : Lots of Trickery but Little Magic in Gimmicky ‘Gogol’

Getting through Len Jenkin’s “Gogol” is like taking apart one of those Chinese box sets, only to come to the last and smallest box--and find nothing. Of course, a Chinese box set contains--as with so much in Chinese culture--an impish pleasure, a variant on the aesthetic fascination of the Mobius strip. “Gogol’s” nothingness is a real cavity.

And nearly as painful, based on what director Lisa Sanman-Smith has put together in a visiting production at Los Angeles Theatre Center’s Theatre 4.

It’s easy to see why Jenkin’s play was a logical choice for Sanman-Smith after Ronald Ribman’s “Buck,” which she produced two years ago: Like “Buck,” “Gogol” is naturally theatrical, concerned with how the creative act can trick both creator and audience.

But if “Gogol” can work at all, it has to be grounded in something more than the idea of illusions; like the Mobius strip, it has to be staged with a powerful aesthetic jump-start that provides its own overwhelming illusion. If we see the mere gimmickry underneath, it’s Oz’s Wizard at the end of the day.

Viewers should know going in that the illusions extend to the titular character himself: This Gogol isn’t remotely close to Nikolai Gogol, the great Russian writer. We’ll call him “gogol” (Ebbe Roe Smith), a sneaky, slightly cynical theater man foundering away in a vaguely Mediterranean setting with his troupe of actors (Jeff Brown designed). He has nothing more to do with his time than to invite renegade scientist Franz Mesmer (he of mesmerism fame, played with bumbling charm by Wally Kurth) to “an evening of theatricals.”

Jenkin is fooling with time (Gogol was 5 when Mesmer died) and place (sometimes we’re in Brazil, sometimes in Europe), but like gogol’s real motives for inviting Mesmer, the reasons for this diddling seem impulsive. The play could just as well be in, say, Haiti or San Francisco, and gogol could just as well want Mesmer to see his train set as take away his fatal bleeding.

Smith is such a mix of Bill Murray and Joel Grey’s “Cabaret” emcee that we even wonder about the fatal business--probably another trick. In a subplot out of another universe, Smith doubles as the obese Inspector Bucket, out to arrest Mesmer while contending with body snatchers (Steven M. Porter’s corpse merchant is the most fully developed comic character in the show).

But like the rest of “Gogol,” Bucket is less than he appears--simply a plot device. Despite a wealth of talented actors, several from the Actors’ Gang, Sanman-Smith isn’t able to mesmerize the audience. The style here is physical, aggressively presentational, with incongruous jazz and Joshua D. Abramson’s thin piano pieces in the background. Jenkin’s text, though, calls for Mozart’s music. A more elegant arrangement might make “Gogol” easier to swallow.

* “Gogol,” Los Angeles Theatre Center , Theatre 4, 514 S. Spring St., Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays 2 and 8 p.m. Ends July 7. $15-$18; (213) 627-5599. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.