‘Carnival’ Launches Cal State L.A. Rep Program

“Carnival” at Cal State L.A. is a boisterous and heartfelt musical, staged with a whoop by a mix of professional actors, variety artists and students. The production drops you into a bedizened little circus in the south of Europe and flaps together the spectacle of the 1961 Broadway show and the innocence inspired by the 1953 MGM Leslie Caron movie that inspired it, “Lili.”

The musical launches faculty director Theresa Larkin’s splashy new summer rep program, “Theatre for the 21st Century,” earmarked by pros working with students, including some from the campus-based Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. Arena seating in a sound stage-like setting propels the show’s musty charm, which alternates with another musical, “Working”--ventures that Larkin calls a blastoff to a permanent year-round student-professional rep program.

Vocally and musically (with a huge live student orchestra), the production brings ample verve to Bob Merrill’s durable score.

The real problem is the production’s flabby pace. After a compelling opening scene on the midway (against colorful scrims of circus life designed by Edward E. Haynes Jr.), the momentum flags.

Opera singer Cinthea Stahl (surviving a pair of horribly dumpy housedresses) is an endearing Lili and embittered, love-smitten puppeteer Kevin Cade is a forceful singer who catches the fragility of the puppet scenes.

Among other eye-openers are the sublime mime Zoot, the athletic, stilt-walking clown Laura Pape, the dashing magician James Brandon, staunch puppeteer sidekick C. Omega Wallace, and two gorgeous knockouts: Swedish snake charmer Kaisa Sandstrom and svelte Ringling Brothers aerialist Seva Anthony. Here’s a sideshow your children will remember.

“Carnival,” State Playhouse, Cal State L.A., 5151 State University Dr., tonight and Sunday, 8 p.m., Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Ends Sunday. $8-$10; (213) 343-4112. Running time: 3 hours.

‘Hopeful Romantic’ Inaugurates New Site

The Celebration Theatre, L.A.’s only venue devoted exclusively to gay- and lesbian-themed drama, is inaugurating its new quarters in West Hollywood with the premiere of Michael Van Duzer’s “Hopeful Romantic,” a low-key comedy about the quest for the perfect mate. It’s so universal it’s quaint.

The material is rudimentary, but Jack Mills’ resourceful direction and a uniformly sharp cast led by affable, winning performances from Jim Phipps and Todd Hansen give these hormonal vagaries a glow you don’t expect.

There are no stereotypes here; the seven actors create likeable, individual characters, from the funny appearances of Richard Hochberg’s Oscar Wilde and Paul Sandman’s Alexander the Great to the solid support of John Allen Haxby, Matt Pashkow and Timothy Douglas. Brian Alan Reed’s lighting design artfully compensates for Francis Young’s stone-cold slab of a set design.

It’s refreshing, if a bit startling, to attend a romantic odyssey about gay life in today’s world and not for a moment have to hear the word AIDS or deal with its shadow.

“Hopeful Romantic,” Celebration Theatre, 7051 Santa Monica Blvd., Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Sept. 23. $12-$15; (213) 666-8669. Running time: 1 hour, 30 min.

Derivative ‘Women’ Has Its Rewards

Playwright Bill Crowe dedicates his comedy, “Sister Women,” in its premiere at the Cast Theatre, to his five Southern sisters. He might also have written thank you notes to “Steel Magnolias” and “Daddy’s Dyin,’ Who’s Got the Will?”

“Sister Women”--a terrible title--may be derivative of other down-home plays but the production churns up its own rewards. It’s tightly staged by director Robert Schrock and vividly acted by an ensemble of five actresses playing five Georgia sisters who share a wedding day and a family funeral.

The hugging, giggling and shrieking is overdone and you’d like to see more from the men in their lives (briefly represented by the taciturn, multiple role-playing of Van Quattro). But these gals nicely embody the Southern tone of the piece, and the play’s single explosive moment, when the mousy Kimberly Chase tells off bossy, brassy sister Suzanne Calvert, salvages the evening.

The other actresses (Carolyn Crowe, Cynthia Steele, Maggie Murphy) are festering lilies abloom in a modest living room set designed by the Cast’s resident Michelangelo, Andy Daley.

“Sister Women,” the Cast, 804 N. El Centro, Hollywood, Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Sept. 22. $10; (213) 462-0265. Running time: 1 hour, 40 min.

Racial Fusillade in Student ‘Ch. E.T.’

The curious lettering in the Latino satire, “Ch. E.T.,” an off-campus production staged entirely by students from Cal State Northridge at the Olio, stands for Chicano Entertainment Television. The whole show is framed by an imaginary Chicano TV network where, among several stinging barbs, Cesar Chavez takes on a Chicano executive of the Vons market chain and other Chicanos bitterly rail against plans by Madonna to dare attempt to play Mexican painter Frida Kahlo in the movies.

This is a very ‘90s racial fusillade, radical and raucous, harking back to the Campesino actos of Luis Valdez and, more pertinently, to Culture Clash’s “A Bowl of Beings” at the L.A. Theatre Center. One of the stars of that show, Richard Montoya, directed this production, with creative input from director John DiFusco.

You forgive the shoddy design of the show--the Olio itself is dismal, like sitting in a dank cavern--but what’s difficult to deal with is the theater’s terrible acoustics. The mix of rudimentary Spanish and English works nicely but after a point, you settle for missing perhaps 20% of the dialogue, which still leaves plenty of withering put-downs of the church, coffee plantations and cultural stereotypes. The two actors who come across forcefully are Gustavo Chavez and Alberto Ibarra.

“Ch. E.T.,” Olio, 3709 W. Sunset Blvd., Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Aug. 31. $8-$10; (213) 264-6819). Running time: 1 hour, 35 min.

Repetition Drains ‘Drop Dead’ Comedy

“Drop Dead” at the Court Theater joins the recent “Wall of Water” as one of the most dismaying comedy fiascoes of the summer. It’s directed by a TV pro, artfully designed, ambitiously cast but nevertheless a nonstop madcap farce that is torture to endure.

The cacklers in the audience at “Drop Dead” laughed at everything in this murder mystery parody of an Off Broadway dress rehearsal. The comedic motif of falling snowflakes was cute the first time, even the second, but not the tenth . That’s the problem: Despite the light touch of the actors (notably Jonathan D. Mack’s and Adrienne Barbeau’s snobbish warring siblings), grueling, hyper-repetition drains the juice out of the show.

Director Billy Van Zandt plays the harried director (named Victor Le Pewe, to give you an idea of the humor) and co-wrote the play with Jane Milmore, who is bimbo-funny in a role you applaud for its audacity. Two other well-known names, Rose Marie and Barney Martin, survive. Barely.

“Drop Dead,” 722 N. La Cienega Blvd., West Hollywood, Fridays, 8 p.m., Saturdays, 7:30 and 10:30 p.m., Sundays, 3 and 7 p.m. Ends Sept. 8. $18-$20; (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hours.