STAGE REVIEWS : ‘Taste of Life’ an Overly Earnest Lesson-Play

If “A Taste of Life: Oh Mama” could be approached on some kind of camp level, then writer-director Carlotta Adams’ impossibly crude, moralistic melodrama at Theatre of Arts might be a revelatory cartoon of a good girl gone bad.

But things are too earnest here for that: This is a lesson-play on what terrible things happen to rich, spoiled teen-ager Reecie (Gloria Henri, strong on the emotions) when she doesn’t obey her mother (Contrella Patrick-Henry). It’s hard to learn anything, though, when Richard Scully’s and Adams’ set isn’t even a middle-class abode, when family members repeatedly let dangerous strangers storm into the house and when Mama becomes an all-too-convenient sacrificial lamb. The gospel music interludes are a reminder of what real emotion through pain feels like.

“A Taste of Life: Oh Mama,” Theatre of Arts, 4128 Wilshire Blvd., Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 and 8 p.m. Ends Sept. 27. $14; (310) 632-6621 or (818) 980-8084. Running time: 2 hours.

‘I Sing!’ Poor Imitation of the Real Thing

A fellow next to me at the Complex remembered Molly Picon, the belle of Yiddish theater. He was watching Sandy Kanan’s one-woman re-creation of Picon, “I Sing!,” and figured that nobody under 50 could relate to it. On the other hand, though he felt it was nostalgic for him (he saw Picon perform when he was 14), “this just isn’t the same thing at all.”

That’s the problem with “I Sing!” Fans of Yiddish musicals like Picon’s “Yankele” will likely consider Kanan’s act (with flat-toned piano support from musical director Bruce A. Friedman) a poor substitute. Non-fans won’t be able to get past Kanan’s weak, undertrained singing.

A career story that encompasses Al Capone, the Holocaust and Carol Channing is something anyone can respond to, but not when it’s as plodding as this version.

“I Sing!,” The Complex, 6476 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Dec. 13. $12; (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hours.