WEEKEND : Theater : ‘Rainmaker’ Works No Miracles Today

Lizzie Curry’s maidenhood is the primary concern not only of every Curry family member but of the very weather itself. Set in an unspecified western state during a terrible drought, “The Rainmaker” is obsessed with the matrimonial drought of its plain and proud heroine. Lizzie lives on a ranch with her fond father and two brothers, who constantly discuss what they should do about her impending spinsterhood. Into this den of worry walks Bill Starbuck, the self-proclaimed miracle worker, a man who says he can bring rain for money. He has charlatan stamped on every arm-waving gesture, yet he soon has the family buying what he is selling: magic, no matter how cheap or transparent. And indeed, Starbuck delivers a human miracle for Lizzie when he makes her believe she is beautiful.

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts presents a straight-forward production of a play that shows its age. N. Richard Nash’s 1954 “The Rainmaker” tells us more about 1950s gender Americana than it does any universal truth, even if its ostensible message is that beauty must be perceived from within. But this is no “Doll’s House.” Married Lizzie must become, if everything is to be right in this particular universe.

Indeed, the audience laughs heartily, if uncomfortably, when Lizzie’s brother Noah tells her, in the name of tough love, “You’re gonna be an old maid.” That obsolete designation, apparently, can still send shudders down the spine of a 1996 audience, which seems to be unclear as to whether those dark days of spinsterhood doom are completely behind us.

As Lizzie, Blake Lindsley is capable of being shrill, silently sure of herself and terribly insecure. She is not plain, so she has been saddled with a god-awful wig (she resembles the Mormon real estate agent in “Angels in America”) and a series of dresses that no matter how frilly always look like housecoats. Her director, Jules Aaron, has undersold her by giving her a Starbuck (David Drummond) who seems to be imprisoned in Burt Lancaster’s weird film Starbuck without hatching an authentically charismatic one of his own. From the moment he comes swaggering into the handsome Curry ranch-house (designed by John Iacovelli), his black-hatted head brushing the top of the door frame, Drummond overstates and overplays the charms of this rainmaker. He is not helped by his dialogue and direction. “Water!” he exclaims, flinging the flowers out of a vase and gulping down the water therein, “I recommend it!” Even Lancaster had trouble finding true charisma with lines like “I needed a name that had the whole sky in it!”

The more understated roles do better. Lizzie’s kind father (James Greene) and her petty tyrant brother Noah (John Demita) are good, as is her repressed suitor File (David Graf). Jamison Jones easily delivers the most endearing performance as her simple brother Jim, who puffs a cigar with elaborate pleasure once he has found the courage to fall in love with a tarty girl of whom his brother strictly disapproves.

In the barn with Starbuck, listening to his enormous dreams, Lizzie is moved to talk about small dreams of her own. She summons a quiet dignity when she imagines “how it feels to say the word ‘husband’ ” that has nothing to do with fear. At that moment “The Rainmaker” transcends its specific time and place and touches something rare, a mood soon spoiled by Chuck Estes’s warm and fuzzy background music. Soon enough, it’s raining men.

* “The Rainmaker,” La Mirada Theatre, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., Tue.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Saturday, Sunday Jan. 20 and 21, 2:30 p.m. Sunday and Jan. 21, 7:30 p.m. Ends Jan. 21. $32. (310) 944-9801, (714) 994-6310. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.

James Greene: H.C. Curry

John Demita: Noah Curry

Jamison Jones: Jim Curry

Blake Lindsley: Lizzie Curry

Daniel Bryan Cartmell: Sheriff Thomas

David Graf: File

David Drummond: Bill Starbuck

A La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts and McCoy/Rigby Entertainment production. By N. Richard Nash. Directed by Jules Aaron. Sets John Iacovelli. Lights Martin Aronstein. Sound Jon Gottlieb. Costumes Dwight Richard Odle. Music Chuck Estes. Production stage manager Nevin Hedley.