‘As You Like It’ Gets Hip Treatment

Director R. Jeffrey Cohen’s grafting of an inner-city reality onto Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”--and retitling it “As You Like It--Fresh!”--may appear to be cashing in on the easy trend of employing the L.A. unrest and aftermath as background. But the place here is Anycity, U.S.A., with the Forest of Arden Federal Housing Project as a ghetto stop for exiles. Besides, Cohen’s real inspiration isn’t the unrest, but Joseph Papp’s tradition of making Shakespeare “relevant.”

Cohen’s vision of black, white and brown reconciliation (where, pray, are the colors of yellow and red?) works as nicely at the Matrix Theatre as the adaptation of Elizabethan songs to a rap beat. Some details are more questionable. But Cohen’s urbanized comedy keeps up a fairly consistent suspension of disbelief because his actors are firmly committed to his game plan.

Glenn Plummer’s Touchstone is the kind of unpredictably ironic voice of mocking wisdom that Spike Lee is so fond of, while Wren T. Brown’s wheelchair-bound Jaques lends an eloquent sympathy to a role often made too bitter to the taste. Reg E. Cathey’s love-struck Orlando is a man on a genuine quest rather than a mere dazed youth, and Monte Markham simply relishes his dual roles as the rival Dukes. Kimberly Russell’s Phebe comes on strong in the late going--just in time to energize a staging that forgets this play requires speedy scene changes.

On the other hand, Tony Lauro, with his plain-wrap set, seems to have ignored Cohen’s concept altogether. Still, this show is hip enough that it’s easy to imagine Fairfax High kids making the field trip down Melrose to catch it.

* “As You Like It--Fresh!,” Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays 2 and 7 p.m. Ends Nov. 22. $15-$17.50; (213) 660-8587. Running time: 3 hours, 5 minutes.

‘Macbeth’ Attuned to Today’s Political Topics

Across town is another work of multicultural, contemporary Shakespeare--but of much bleaker stuff, befitting the north downtown warehouse home of the Compass Theatre. Sterling Macer Jr. stages “Macbeth” not with the L.A. unrest in mind, but the Gulf War.

As the ill-fated military man with a poisonous urge to consolidate power, Ron Canada delivers an operatic version of a Gen. Colin Powell slowly losing control. Canada is as enormous a presence--his booming voice virtually rattling the warehouse’s metal walls--as he is very generous to his fellow actors, particularly the steely, regal Gina Spellman as a Lady Macbeth fully steeped in the arts of war.

Much of what surrounds these two is less clear at the moment. The world in Macer’s staging, run by a high-tech military-political complex always aiming for a photo opportunity, is undermined by a lack of production resources. (There’s a pretty sad excuse for a press corps, comically crying out “Hail! King of Scotland!”) The trio of writhing “witches” (one of them male), dressed in torn leotards, is more an oddity than a scary premonition. And some of Macer’s actors, rather than following Canada’s lead and overcoming the warehouse’s troublesome acoustics, are aurally undone by them.

When it can be heard, though, this is a “Macbeth” attuned to today’s politics--especially the politics of Iraqgate.

* “Macbeth,” Compass Theatre at the Brewery, 670 Avenue 21, Los Angeles. Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends Nov. 28. $12.50; (213) 882-4928. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.

‘Coca-Cola’ Tries Too Hard to Be a Bad Show

Those tacky entertainers from some distant roach-ridden dive are back and putting on their old show called “El Grande de Coca-Cola.” At the Odyssey Theatre, it’s not clear why they’ve returned.

Co-directors Ron House (who also plays the unctuous, toupeed emcee Senor Don Pepe) and Diz White (in many, many guises) created this spoof of the lowest show-bizzers of the low in the early ‘70s with their Low Moan Spectacular Comedy Troupe. But running down bad performers is a little like hitting all high notes: How long do you dare do it, until people start leaving (as one patron did Wednesday night)?

After awful pianists, disastrous drummers, near-fatal magicians and numbing singers, it’s no wonder that the real laughs come from the ad breaks for Coca-Cola and Rodger Bumpass’ wizardly mini-masterpiece of slapstick as Henri Toulouse-Lautrec struggling to get his canvas propped on an easel.

* “El Grande de Coca-Cola,” Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles. Wednesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 8 and 22, 3 p.m. Ends Nov. 22. $17.50-$21.50; (310) 477-2055. Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes.

‘Kuru’ Doesn’t Live Up to Gruber’s Grand Set

That’s some set Don Gruber has built for Shashin Desai’s staging of Josh Manheimer’s “Kuru,” at International City Theatre. Now, they need to find a play to put on it.

Gruber’s huge thatched hut framed by a New Guinea jungle, contrasted by a wood-paneled lectern that’s pure academia, suggests a big show. Instead, Manheimer’s story of a Nobel-hungry scientist dealing with both a mentally disturbed Guinea tribe and a manic girlfriend from Iowa is more like an awful “Gilligan’s Island” episode.

We know things are amiss when Michael David Simms’ Arthur sounds idiotic at his Nobel acceptance speech. But when the play flashbacks to his hut, we’re in a laugh-track nightmare: Not only are we to believe that Tamara Zook’s Mary Lou hiked through 300 miles of wild jungle in her high heels in order to pester Arthur, but it soon becomes clear that Zook’s two tones are loud and louder. It’s also clear that the local tribe, in the person of Bethany Butler’s Mokina, is just an excuse for cheap laughs.

* “Kuru,” International City Theatre, Long Beach City College, Harvey Way and Clark, Long Beach. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends Nov. 15. $15; (213) 480-3232 or (310) 420-4128. Running time: 2 hours.

Psychic Poker Should Try Fresh Approach

Psychic Poker is the shaggy dog breed among the various comedy-sketch improv groups: Certainly huggable, but in need of some cleaning up. The group’s new late-night show at Friends and Artists Theatre, “As Rather Oblique As They Wanna Be,” is actually rather sloppy. But oblique? Never.

The strengths rarely lie in the ensemble, directed by Greg Wall, but in individual moments: Ray Bumatai’s fatuous security guard; Audrey Rapoport’s myopically prim guide at the Richard M. Nixon museum; Claudette Wells’ savagely comic take on a strung-out blues singer; Michele Seipp as a wailing, buzzing, talking car alarm; Steve Mazur in several smart moments, including a kid who can’t stop yakking; and Wall as Martin Scorsese directing fourth-graders.

Almost everything here is vaguely familiar, or so tied into the general media gestalt that we think we’ve seen it before. Besides needing something fresher than Dusty Haws’ tinny keyboard support and tighter scene changes, the Poker players must push the envelope of originality if they want to stand apart from the nocturnal comedy crowd.

* “As Rather Oblique As They Wanna Be,” Friends and Artists Theatre, 1761 N. Vermont Ave., Hollywood. Saturdays, 11 p.m. Indefinitely. $6; (310) 288-8216. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.