Hamlet Is the Whole Show in Topanga

Everest-like, The Role is always out there, looming. For some actors, it’s an adventure; for others, it’s a project to sweat over. For David Anthony Smith, it’s a little of both.

The Role is Hamlet, and at Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga, where Smith is taking it on, the peak hasn’t been reached. (It seldom is.)

He is worth listening to, though very little around him is. George McDaniel as Claudius telegraphs his guilt far too soon. Stuart Rogers as Laertes is Ophelia’s brother in name only. Melora Marshall as Ophelia feels like the Danish court’s sacrificed lamb only at the end. Very few in Ellen Geer’s staging are challenging “Hamlet.”

Smith is working at it, since he correctly operates as if we’ve never heard the play before. Though he boxes himself in too early with outbursts of melancholy--he takes it so far he has nowhere to go with it--Smith’s approach to the prince as a confused late adolescent is fundamentally sound.

His Hamlet can’t reconcile the artificial experience at university with the high stakes at the court, so any attempts at play-acting crazy are always shallow. This is as much a part of Hamlet’s problem as working up the will to avenge his father’s death, which is why it’s The Role, and not just any role. Smith hasn’t solved the problem artistically, but, like a good student in a dull class, at least he’s applying himself.

“Hamlet,” Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga. Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 1 p.m. Ends Sept. 13. $12; (310) 455-3723. Running time: 3 hours.

‘The Rivalry’ Revisits Lincoln-Douglas Debates

The funniest line in “The Rivalry,” Norman Corwin’s somewhat dusty depiction of the 1858 Abraham Lincoln-Stephen Douglas debates, comes not from Lincoln but from Mrs. Douglas, who exclaims, “What’s happened to politics in this country?”

Like that comment, “The Rivalry” tends to put everything about today’s political campaigns into perspective--not bad for an obscure work written in 1959. Heard at Theatre 40 in the middle of the convention for “the party of Lincoln,” Corwin’s debate shows how brilliant politicians are almost always undervalued in their own time.

Corwin is remembered mainly as a radio drama author, and “The Rivalry” remains a piece for voices rather than a play. Indeed, director Elizabeth O’Reilly casting probably would work better for radio. Walt Beaver’s command of Lincoln--especially the rough-hewn voice--is mainly from the neck up (his unsure physical presence dangerously resembles Abe from Disneyland). Eric Mason’s Douglas has the properly pompous New England-bred manner, but is too slender for the short, stout dynamo (and, on opening night, too forgetful of his lines). Dorothy James, on the other hand, provides a steadying hand as the narrating Mrs. D.

“The Rivalry,” Theatre 40, 241 Moreno Drive, Beverly Hills High School. Mondays-Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Ends Sept. 9. $10; (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hours.

‘Gays of Our Lives’ Is a Soapy Spoof

Mary Pat is married to Jeff who loves her brother, Lance, who may or may not be responsible for Jeff’s murder which, despite the efforts of her ultra-loose sister, Kathleen, actually lands Mary Pat in jail where she fears getting attacked with a broom handle. Meanwhile, Tip--Mary Pat’s, Kathleen’s and Lance’s mother--quits her computer job for life on the high seas, where she’s seduced by both the female captain and the captain’s lover, a Hong Kong criminal who’s really from Dubuque.

We would also say stay tuned for next week’s episode, but, with Claudia Allen’s soapy spoof, “The Gays of Our Lives,” at Celebration Theatre, there isn’t one. True, it’s a ton of work keeping a theater soap series going, but the current “Specific Hospital” shows it’s not impossible. And Allen’s parade of gay and lesbian eccentrics would keep a series running for a few seasons.

Allen’s dialogue has a smart, camp appeal that resists playing to the lowest common denominator (Mary Pat confronting Lance on Jeff’s murder: “How could you do it?” Jeff: “Is this a technical question?”). Director Ron Edwards’ ensemble is fairly smart, too, goaded on by some real comedians like Robert Slacum as Jeff and his evil twin and Elizabeth Dement as a truly demented Mary Pat.

“The Gays of Our Lives,” Celebration Theatre, 7051B Santa Monica Blvd . , Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Indefinitely. $15; (213) 660-8587. Running time: 2 hours.

Flawed Portrait of Judy Garland

Howard Burman’s portrait of Judy Garland, “Judy,” at California Repertory Company, is a solo performance that will remind people of certain politicians: It’s never sure what it stands for, and even less sure where it’s going.

Because director Joanne Gordon has overseen several interesting and idiosyncratic projects (most recently “For Every Child . . .), we assume that Sheri Nichols’ jarring, frantic entrance as Judy will lead to something. Alas, the only notable quirk here is that Burman’s script travels back in time. There’s no particular reason for it, except to counter bio-drama’s traditional chronology.

Gordon does little to prod Nichols into becoming younger, and hesitantly navigates the script’s repetitive shifts from tunes to traumatic life moments and back again. The constant shifting renders “Judy” shapeless; neither concert nor a play, it also offers no fresh alternative to a form that is seriously playing itself out.

As a singer, Nichols isn’t played out at all. But she’s caught in the show’s own identity problem, sometimes going for a performance, sometimes an impersonation. We suspect that an evening of Nichols as Nichols would be a lot more fun.

“Judy,” California Repertory Company, Cal State Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Aug. 22 and Sept. 5, 2 p.m. Ends Sept. 12. $15; (310) 985-5526. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

‘Devil’s Canyon’ in Deep Water

“Devil’s Canyon” is not the post-modern comedy playwright Dave Hunsaker intended, because his anti-hero, Steve--at least the way Steven Memel plays him--seems too much of an unconfident jerk to concoct the kind of imaginings that crowd in on his domestic life. Besides, the banter between men-of-battle Jeb Stuart (Stuart Weiss) and Sir Philip Sidney (Doug Kerr) never intersects with Steve’s dilemma, which is his fear of taking a risk.

That’s how this viewer saw it at the Burbage Theatre, though someone else might view it as Steve’s problems with sex. He seems to have lost his pal Zumas (David Asher) while kayaking down Alaska’s Devil’s Canyon, and wants to go back and relive it--but only after he indulges in a threesome with his girlfriend Sandy (Deborah Carlisle) and a partner-for-hire (Kim Gillingham).

That Steve and Sandy are upset when they learn she’s a hooker is only one of the play’s pointless intrusions, all of them lessening the sense of male dread that the play wants to build up. But it also wants to be magical, comical and emotional, so it’s not surprising that co-directors Louis Fantasia and Jenny Gilman can’t keep their actors upright in the water.

“Devil’s Canyon,” Burbage Theatre, 2330 Sawtelle Blvd., West Los Angeles. Thursdays, 8:30 p.m.; Fridays-Saturdays, 9 p.m. Ends Sept. 12. $15; (310) 478-0897. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.