STAGE REVIEW : Hot, Spicy ‘Bucket of Blood’

Julie Hebert’s “Ruby’s Bucket of Blood,” is neither conventional drama nor conventional musical, but a vivid bit of stylistic cross-fertilization. Very Cajun of her, you might say.

The results are hot and spicy: A tale of blackened passion and murder set in a roadhouse in a rural town in southwest Louisiana.

Seen at Wednesday’s opening on the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s Lyceum Stage, the show delivers a swirling mix of good old-fashioned melodrama and stomping music rousingly delivered by the onstage Sugar Kings (Kevin Flournoy, Brett Sanders, Kevin Cooper) and framed in classic images of black blues life.

Cajun Ruby Delacroix (Amanda White) runs her Bucket of Blood saloon with an iron hand that temporarily loses its grip when a substitute white singer, Alfred Billy Dupre (Rick Sparks), is brought in by Ruby’s patient if unheeded suitor, Johnny Beaugh (Antonio “T. J.” Johnson).

First the charismatic Billy wrests his $15 pay in advance from the reluctant Cajun lady, and later that night her heart. This would be less surprising if Ruby were not so sensible. She remains faithful to a vanished husband and is a loving disciplinarian with her chafing teen-ager Emerald (Natalie Turman). In addition, Billy’s married and his wife Betty (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) is unstable.

Reason and passion rarely mix and this case is no exception. Billy feels responsible for Betty’s problem, the result of an incident for which he believes he shares blame. By the same token, the normally straight-laced Ruby can’t quite believe her own capitulation.

The heat in the blood and the blood in her Bucket (a name derived from the real blood spilled at the roadhouse over the years) catch up with them both.

This is a straightforward story, hence a radical departure for Hebert, whose earlier Southern California exposure, in such plays as “True Beauties” and “Almost Asleep,” was far more experimental and abstract.

Atmospherics play a large part in “Ruby’s” and Hebert shares its success with Mark Bingham, a musician who has worked with Grammy-winning R.E.M., and whose score--a mix of original compositions and traditional tunes (“1961 New Orleans ‘swamp-pop’ ” according to Hebert)--is the beating heart of a slender book.

All of it has distinction and flavor, from the roof-raising ensemble numbers (“Wine, Wine Wine,” the tongue-twisting “Lache la Patate” and the climactic conclusion of Act I, “What’s Shakin’ Me Up”), to the more sentimental ballads (“Even Tho’ ,” “All Your Loving,” the tender “I Don’t Want to Go Home” and the traditional “Your Precious Love”).

But the show’s overall richness can be evenly attributed to a successful combination of values. Credit Jane La Motte and Robert Brill for the setting’s authentic look: overlapping clapboard ramps and stifling rooms under an immense cratered moon.

Credit Ashley York Kennedy and Diane Boomer’s fine chiaroscuro lighting, and costumer Mary Larson for men in short sleeves and suspenders and women in shiny satin and hats.

Sparks is ultramagnetic as the doomed and brooding Billy, and Van Valkenburgh turns in an arresting Betty: volatile, hyperbolic and dangerous in her incipient madness. White manages to hold her own as the central Ruby, though a bit more chemistry with Sparks wouldn’t hurt.

Turman nicely captures the impatience of a smart kid in a hurry to grow up and Johnson, an insecure singer, lends decent acting support. But the show’s special surprise is the beautifully selected (and posed) dancing and singing ensemble, a tribute to the unfailing eye of director Sam Woodhouse, whose pursuit of mood and evocation is everywhere in the show.

The squat, thick-waisted men, the tall, small, thin or amply voluptuous women, all lend tremendously to the look and to the presence of the piece. They are Ken Bryant, Tammy Casey, Cynthia Hammond, Definique Juniel, Damon Lamont and Morris White.

The sound design by Bingham and Jim Brooks could be sharpened, but it’s the only murkiness in this very bright evening.

“Ruby’s Bucket of Blood,” San Diego Repertory Theatre, Lyceum Stage, 79 Horton Plaza, San Diego. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends March 14. $19-$22; (619) 235-8025. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.

‘Ruby’s Bucket of Blood’

Amanda White: Ruby Delacroix

Natalie Turman: Emerald Delacroix

Rick Sparks: Alfred Billy Dupre

Deborah Van Valkenburgh: Betty Dupre

Antonio “T. J.” Johnson: Johnny Beaugh

Ensemble Ken Bryant, Tammy Casey, Cynthia Hammond, Definique Juniel, Damon Lamont, Morris White.

Keyboards player: Kevin Flournoy

Percussionist: Brett Sanders

Bass guitarist: Kevin Cooper

A San Diego Rep presentation of a new musical drama by Julie Hebert. Composer/musical director Mark Bingham. Director Sam Woodhouse. Sets Jane La Motte, Robert Brill. Lights Ashley York Kennedy, Diane Boomer. Costumes Mary Larson. Sound design Mark Bingham, Jim Brooks. Stage manager Susan A. Virgilio. Assistant stage manager Doug Kalal.