Theater Review : ‘Rails’ Melodrama Picks Corn Ripe for Parody

For better or worse, the old-fashioned melodrama, with its overly dramatic acting and absurd simplicity, has become a staple of community theaters.

*

These plays about mustache-twirling villains tying heroines (or heroes) tied to railroad tracks are takeoffs on real melodramas of the 19th Century, in which stars of the period toured the country. They were taken very seriously by their creators and performers. The comic sendup came much later, with purposely bad plots staged by deliberately inept performers to catcalls, boos and hisses from the audience.

The charm of La Habra’s youth theater production of Morland Cary’s parody “Love Rides the Rails, or, Will the Mail-Train Run Tonight?” is in director Terri Miller Schmidt’s hints that her troupe is supposed to be an inept company trying its best to put on a thundering melodrama. Actions and reactions to the show’s outrageousness indicate the ruse.

The story, as in every other melodrama, isn’t important. What matters is that the young cast has a ball mocking a style of acting troupe that existed on the lowest rung of the touring repertory company ladder. And, for the most part, they pull it off.

The acting throughout is overdone but in such a tongue-in-cheek way that the actors are obviously letting the audience in on their joke.

Particularly able are Edward La Bay as stalwart hero Truman Pendennis, David Carnevale as the dense best friend, Harold Stanfast, and Melanie Jacobson as heroine Prudence Hopewell, with bee-stung lips and Mary Pickford sausage-curls. La Bay also has a strong singing voice and gives a good period mawkishness to his olio number, “She Is More to Be Pitied.”

Jack Millis, as snarling villain Simon Darkway, and David Rivera as his sniveling sidekick, Dirk Sneath, have funny moments getting tangled up in props.

Kristine Vaughn as a friend of the heroine and Nicole Peek as the saloon hostess also do well with their vocal numbers. Peek adds to the genre’s incongruence by including a few 1920s Charleston steps to her 19th-Century choreography.

Director Schmidt and Chris Wuebben’s scenic design looks like the thrown-together painted curtains that a down-at-the-heels touring company might put up anywhere to please their entertainment-starved rural audiences.

* “Love Rides the Rails, or, Will the Mail-Train Run Tonight?” La Habra Depot Theatre, 311 S. Euclid St., La Habra. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2:30. Ends June 24. $8-$10. (310) 905-9708. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Edward La Bay: Truman Pendennis

Melanie Jacobson: Prudence Hopewell

David Carnevale: Harold Stanfast

Jack Millis: Simon Darkway

David Rivera: Dirk Sneath/Olio Emcee

Nicole Peek: Carlotta Cortez

Kristine Vaughn: Letticia Lovethorn

A La Habra Depot Theatre production of a comic melodrama by Morland Cary, produced by Kay Young. Directed by Terri Miller Schmidt. Scenic design: Schmidt and Chris Wuebben. Lighting design: Mitch Atkins. Musical direction: Stephanie Halvorsen. Choreography: Nicole Peek. Stage manager: Verlene Van Amber.