STAGE REVIEW : Odets Spans an Era : The L.A. Repertory Company’s revival of ‘Rocket to the Moon’ makes the drama as relevant as it was in 1938.

Clifford Odets’ Depression-era drama about loneliness and hope, “Rocket to the Moon,” may be a curiosity 54 years after its premiere, but the L.A. Repertory Company in Studio City revives it with a vitality you would not expect.

Sure, that first act seems slow and, yes, those two intermissions are a drag, and, OK, the play does plod a bit. But wow, that 1930s Broadway boy wonder Odets could sure write dialogue. This production, directed by Peter Ellenstein, makes Odets’ play about dreams and middle-aged romance seem as relevant today as in 1938.

The cast is uniformly solid, and the play’s dentist parlor, with its sticky air and dark decor, seems right out of a time capsule. Scenic design by Jim Freiburger is excellent.

Said to have been Odets’ favorite among his plays, though not the hit that his earlier “Waiting for Lefty” and “Awake and Sing” were, the play is markedly different from Odets’ more florid, socially conscious work. All the characters here--the married, the unmarried and the old man--are seeking love. That none of them finds it is not the least of the drama’s many-layered surprises.

The dentist protagonist, Ben Stark, exceptionally well captured by John Herzog, is a weak, reactive, naive man who longs for something better than the caged world in which he festers. His conventional, insecure wife, who may as well be toting a leash--a wonderfully angular performance by Laura Gardner--literally manages his life.

And his imposing father-in-law (the theatrical Robert Ellenstein as the aptly named Mr. Prince) represents everything, including sexual freedom, that the husband lacks the guts to win for himself.

The doctors who share the office are either hapless and sweet/soft like a chocolate eclair (Alex Henteloff), cynical and loveless (Alan Safier) or, like the greasy entrepreneur downstairs, a phony, self-centered elitist (Paul Carr).

Into this muggy, tense environment steps the determined Cleo--the forthright Reo Danzelle--a moony dental assistant in love with the idea of love but no fool. She’s a character who breathes clear, bright air, not dust like everyone else.

Every man in the building lusts after her and, in a step that emboldens his life, our Hamlet-of-a-dentist actually has her. When his harridan wife discovers this, the play literally crackles, like a rocket to the moon.

Odets? That old-fashioned, simplistic playwright? You gotta be kidding.

Where and When

What: “Rocket to the Moon.”

Location: L.A. Repertory Company at Company of Characters Theatre, 12655 Ventura Blvd., Studio City.

Hours: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sunday matinees, through Aug. 30.

Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.

Price: $15-$17.50.

Call: (213) 466-1767.