Kovitz’s ‘Grizly Cargo’ a Literary, Musical Cornucopia

“Grizly Cargo: a band and a man with a load on his mind” at Theatre/Theater is a literary, musical cornucopia overflowing with the abundant talent of writer-performer-director (and drummer!) Randy Kovitz.

Kovitz doesn’t subscribe to the theory about spreading yourself too thin. Accompanied by a three-man band (the exciting Lies Like Truth), he blends coffeehouse atmosphere with jazz, rock, hip-hop, calypso, Beat-inspired poetry and literary flourishes that flash like a meteor through the mind of a character whose baggage is “grizly,” a British word that approximates “bloody worrisome.”

However much the show is driven by its music, it’s the language that underscores the experience. Among the brighter tone poems are a mesmerizing ode to an old GTO (Kovitz materializing like a grease monkey) to a lovers’ quarrel to a stunning eyewitness description of the birth of a baby.

Kovitz, who co-directed with musician Charles Otte, tightly weaves this horn of plenty into captivating performance art that values humor over pretension.

Near the end of the show, Kovitz makes one of his periodic trips to his drum set and launches into a fierce drum duel with percussionist Korey Mall. Without exaggerating, the clash summoned up memories of Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich, who used to duel each other in the ‘50s. But Kovitz, in a gesture that would have delighted Ernie Kovacs, turns his sticks, like a kid playing with toy soldiers, into rat-a-tatting warriors battling Mall’s sticks across the floor of the stage.

However, this is a choreographed battle, a balletic dance to the death. So down go the drumsticks and up come real rapiers (in truth, Kovitz has another specialty: fight choreography, and is quite good at it).

Kovitz’s message is hard to categorize. But his physical logo in the show is a guy continually bursting through a door, which is a nice way of summing up one of his more telling verbal logos:

“Just hang onto the demons and try to enjoy the ride.”

* “Grizly Cargo,” Theatre/Theater, 1713 Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood. Fridays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 1 p.m. (except Easter Sunday). Ends April 30. $10; (213) 469-9689. Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes.

‘Storm’ Turns Disability Into Art

Access Theatre means just that--accessibility to all, the deaf, blind, disabled and non-disabled. The barriers are down, on both sides of the stage.

The Santa Barbara-based company’s “Storm Reading,” at the Tiffany Theatre, is an experience that turns disability into art.

Actor-writer Neil Marcus, who is speech- and movement-impaired, has dystonia, a neuromuscular disorder. He performs from his wheelchair when he’s not getting out of it, imagining that he’s Fred Astaire and curling his body into images of uncommon grace.

Many shows, of course, feature disabled actors. Few, if any, match the sense of freedom, the celebration of life and the boisterous humor of this “storm reading of the soul.”

In a text based on Marcus’ writings and adapted for the stage by director Rod Lathim, Marcus and his brother Roger, we hear exactly what Marcus thinks.

Marcus, who’s 38 and calls himself, in his press materials, “a fantastic spastic creatively endowed with disability,” is also dramatized through the spoken words of actor Matthew Ingersoll and the sign-on physicalization of Kathryn Voice.

They glide in and out of non-disabled characters who approach Marcus with stupefaction and befuddlement on the street, in theaters, restaurants and laundromats.

Production values, from music to projected graphics, are first class.

* “Storm Reading,” Tiffany Theatre, 8532 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends May 2. $18.50-$16.50; (310) 289-2999. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

Four One-Acts at Theatre 40--3 Gems

Four short plays, one of them a world premiere by Pulitzer-winning “Kentucky Cycle” playwright Robert Schenkkan, continues Theatre 40’s lucky hand at playing one-act poker.

Every year this Beverly Hills company seems to cull one or two gems from hundreds of one-acts submitted nationwide.

But this year the theater hit three aces--and the other work, a comedy about a wife who falls in love with her talking dog (“Stay, Carl, Stay” by “Murphy Brown” producer Peter Tolan) nearly pulls off the absolute shaggy dog tale of all time except for its length.

It delivers the evening’s most uproarious performance (cleverly directed by Stewart J. Zully) in red-mopped Christopher Michael Moore as the romantic mutt, even more huggable than Snoopy.

Meanwhile, an array of impressive talent, certainly the visceral Hawthorne James who grabs your attention like a young James Earl Jones, illuminates each play. Two of the one-acts--Doug Grissom’s Southern fried “Fish Kill on Maria Sanchez” and Tom Coash’s conjugal prison story “Inside/Out”--deal with interracial relationships.

Playwright Schenkkan’s haunting curtain-opener, “Conversations with the Spanish Lady,” recreates the horror of a long-forgotten World War I homefront plague--the devastating influenza that wiped out thousands of people. As a sleepless old railroad man (the perfectly cast Bill Erwin) describes hauling trains full of the dead across Canada, a Spanish lady cloaked in white hovers over his tortured figure as the ghost and embodiment of the plague itself.

Director Lorenzo DeStefano (producer of ABC’s “Life Goes On,” whose connections landed the piece for Theatre 40) layers the play with a bleak tenderness.

Schenkkan has written a theatrical tone poem, not primarily of history but of AIDS.

* “One-Act Lives!,” Theatre 40, 241 Moreno Dr., Beverly Hills, Mondays through Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Ends May 5. $10. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.

‘Raft of the Medusa’ Still Packs a Punch

“Raft of the Medusa,” about 14 AIDS sufferers and their therapist, has re-emerged at the Zephyr Theatre following its explosive debut at the Incline in Santa Monica last year.

Incline’s newest rendition has added two characters, a handful of new actors and cast newcomer Cotter Smith as the therapist. Arrayed against all the boisterous, angry characters slashing the scenery around him, Smith’s is a thankless, almost invisible role.

With Laura Henry again directing and most members of the former ensemble reprising their parts (once more led by the flamboyant Bill Brochtrup, the meek George Dobosh and the snarling Stephen Hornyak), the play’s punch is still appreciable.

The essential difference is the set. Instead of the austere, bare space in the Santa Monica production, a naturalistic design (Denise Dugally) effectively cloaks the show in grimy, beige institutional colors, complete with grease-stained windows and ratty chairs.

Perhaps it’s the audience’s closer interaction at the Zephyr, but playwright Joe Pintauro’s drama this time seems a shade pat and frequently over-the-top. Nevertheless, it’s vivid theater, and the show’s community outreach program has made an impact.

* “The Raft of the Medusa,” Zephyr Theatre, 7456 Melrose Ave., Hollywood, tonight-Saturday, 8 p.m. Ends Saturday. $14.50-$21.50; (714) 854-4646. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

‘American Fast’ Stalls in the Tundra

The American Conservatory Ensemble’s newly developed 2nd Stage for original works has come up with a remarkably boring serio-comedy, “American Fast” by Bruce Mason, at the Lex Theatre.

A man and woman (Sam Winch and Andrea Stein) are snowbound in their encyclopedia-and-Nutra Fab-laden Plymouth Valiant in the remote tundra of Minnesota. They never leave the front seat of their car. He sings “Moon River” and she decides not to speak at all, after hinting that “masters” somewhere are dictating their destiny. Mercifully, a patrolman (Nathan Hamilton) interrupts their idyll and the whir of a state chopper ends this pretentious absurdity, directed by Jill C. Klein.

The achievements are technical: the bone chill in the air and the great round moon of Mike Pirzl’s set, abetted by Jay Spothelfer’s sound design and Johnny Chicago’s “wind design” (charting new ground for esoteric credits).

* “American Fast,” Lex Theatre, 6760 Lexington Ave., Hollywood, Mondays-Tuesdays, 8 p.m. Ends April 27. $10; (213) 463-6244. Running time: 1 hour.