‘Dylan’ Evokes Stunning Image of Poet

Awash in alcohol, the great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas died on the cusp of 40 during his 1953 lecture tour of the United States.

In “Dylan,” playwright Sidney Michaels propounded that the reason for Thomas’ spectacular self-destruction was the stellar American success that lured him away from his quiet writer’s life in Wales. A revival of “Dylan” at the Skylight is a stunning, sprawling evocation of those turbulent months before Dylan’s untimely death in New York.

The play opens with a knockdown, drag-out brawl between Thomas (Dave Higgins) and his tempestuous wife Caitlin (Pat Destro) on the eve of Thomas’ departure for his inaugural U.S. tour. Never one to pull a punch or mince a word, Caitlin is her husband’s mettlesome muse, although she fears, rightly so, that the looming shadow of the American continent will permanently eclipse her influence over Thomas. Part seraph, part harpy, Caitlin does “rage, rage” against the dying of her light, and Destro finds the perfect balance between her fury and her tenderness.

Director Robert Walden does a formidable balancing act as well, handling the logistic difficulties of a large cast and numerous set changes with the pacing and panache of a big-budget Broadway musical director while never sacrificing the intellectual content of the piece. There’s not a weak link in this cast, which also features Michael Kaplan, Michael Durrell, Sibel Ergener, Rachel Mass, David Alexander, Elaine Giftos and Jerry Bernard.

Higgins’ performance in the title role is the most agile balancing act of all. His Welsh dialect may occasionally go astray, but it’s a minor flaw in an otherwise perfect performance.

* “Dylan,” Skylight Theatre, 1816 1/2 N. Vermont Ave., Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8; Sunday, 7. Ends Oct. 16. $20. (213) 660-8587. Running time: 2 hours, 55 minutes.

A ‘Choice’ View of Conformity

“Beguiled by Choice,” two one-acts at Moving Arts, share a common theme about how society’s pressure to conform creates a drag on the human spirit.

The opener, “The Goddess of My Heart” by Kerry Madden-Lunsford, is a slight but entertaining tidbit about a middle-aged woman whose obsession for k.d. lang threatens not only her marriage but her previously unquestioned values.

Engaging but hyperkinetic, P.B. Hutton (who alternates in this one-woman show with Glenda Chism) needs to ease up a notch on her delivery. Still, one feels a genuine affection for her scrappy, sassy housewife and suspects that she will eventually blunder onto the path of happiness.

There’s no such intimation of a happy ending in Kevin Barry’s “I Will Love You at 8 P.M. Next Wednesday,” which chronicles an ongoing sexual relationship between two ostensibly “straight” men. The play has been sensitively directed by Joseph Mustacchi, who also directed the first piece.

Bobby (Stuart McLean) and Mitch (Al Sapienza, alternating in the role with Kevin Vickery) are buttoned-down corporate types who have spent their adult lives systematically deceiving their wives, their families and their conservative business associates about their sexual orientation.

McLean and Sapienza give the effectively underplayed performances of men accustomed to routinely curbing their natural impulses. Barry’s play is an uncomfortable, vivid illustration of secret lives and desperate machinations.

* “Beguiled by Choice,” Moving Arts, 1822 Hyperion Blvd., Silver Lake. Thursday-Saturday, 8. Ends Oct. 1. $12. (213) 665-8961. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

‘Women’: A Look at Actress Ellen Terry

“Wonderful Women,” British actress Eunice Roberts’ one-woman show on the life of the Victorian actress Ellen Terry, at Playwrights’ Arena, is presented in conjunction with the UK/LA Festival. The play flashes back and forth in time between the elderly Terry on her last American tour in 1915 and a more youthful Terry expounding on her trade at the lecture podium.

As a performer, Roberts displays subtlety and talent. As playwright, however, she lacks the powers of dramatic invention and synthesis that would have enlivened Terry’s eventful life.

A renowned wit in her own right and a member of a great theatrical dynasty, Terry was both celebrated and notorious, but her many marriages and turbulent romances are only alluded to elliptically in what becomes more an exegesis of Terry’s Shakespearean acting methods than a vibrant re-creation of the famous actress.

* “Wonderful Women,” Playwrights’ Arena, 5262 Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. Sundays-Mondays, 8 p.m. Ends Oct. 2. $10. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes.