Bawdy ‘Bridegroom’ Not for Children

The first thing you need to know about the California Youth Theatre is that “Youth” doesn’t mean children, but older teens and adults in their early 20s.

The second thing is that its work is not always appropriate for children--last year, for instance, it tackled Peter Weiss’ bloody “The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade.” Whew.

This year, the company opens its free alfresco season at Barnsdall Art Park with “The Robber Bridegroom,” the bawdy bluegrass Alfred Uhry/Robert Waldman musical set in the Louisiana Purchase days, based on a novella by the great Southern storyteller Eudora Welty. This tall Gothic tale about bad bandit Jamie Lockhart and the rich beauty who falls for him, with attendant themes of implied violence, including rape, is definitely not for children.

True, the rollicking, eager-to-please production seeks to keep the mood light. Director-choreographer Corky Dominguez goes for the laughs, not the edge. There are no moss-dripping trees or treacherous swamp mists and Ron Lindblom’s solid, square-dance barn setting with its multifunctional barrels and planks is downright homey. Lighting designer Richard Taylor introduces a note of melancholy here and there, but no real danger lurks in his shadows.

Still, there’s no getting around the fact that these are all pretty unsavory characters. Aside from conscienceless Lockhart (Bill Hare) and his lady love and notorious liar Rosamund (Jordan Savage-Hare), there’s the prize simpleton Goat (Ryan Orange) whose price as a hired killer is a suckling pig or a sack of okra, brothers Little Harp (Jason Ades), a scruffy robber, and Big Harp (Richard Gallegos), a disembodied head in a trunk.

Clement Musgrove (Greg Bryan), Rosamund’s father, is the rich planter who carries naivete to extremes and Salome Musgrove (Sabrina Sharpe) is his witchy, lascivious and jealous second wife who puts a contract out on Rosamund. Salty epithets abound.

The show is smoothly directed, the dancing is spirited and there’s overall professionalism and assurance in the cast, although varied levels of experience show and not all solos are solidly nailed. The ensemble chorus enhances every song, however; among the best are Rosamund’s plaintive “Ain’t Nothin’ Up” and the opening number “Once Upon the Natchez Trace.”

Bryan, in particular, shines in his duped planter role and Sharpe gets big laughs as nasty Salome. Hare is authoritative as the villain, but his “Doogie Howser”-type of fresh-faced innocence works against him.

Hare’s youthful looks and those of the rest of the cast are one reason why the most unsubtle moments of sex and violence--Little Harp’s ideal woman is one who’s tied up; Lockhart is so used to stealing “love” he has to knock willing Rosamund unconscious before he can function--are jolting.

The other reason is that since Dominguez has chosen to stage the show so broadly for laughs, without any real underlying darkness or danger, such moments seem incongruous and gratuitous.

“The Robber Bridegroom,” Barnsdall Art Park, 4800 Hollywood Blvd., today, Aug. 20, 22, 27 and 29, 8:15 p.m., free; (310) 657-3270.

Youthful Romance: The Our Gang Teen Ensemble is presenting “Poems, Youth and Spring” by John Logan and “Senior Prom” by Robert Mearns, two plays about young love, at Our Gang Theatre in North Hollywood. Performed by students in the company’s theater training program, ages 13 to 20, the shows are targeted at teens, but adults and seniors are welcome. Ticket prices are $10 for adults and $7 for those under age 18 and for seniors. Information: (818) 503-2952.