‘Boy’s’ Search Leads Down a Funny but Rocky Path

In “Boy,” a bright cartoon of a play that opened Sunday night at the La Jolla Playhouse, a couple conspires at the birth of their fourth daughter to announce they finally have a son, and they raise the baby as a boy. They call her Boy. This seems to work, until Boy begins to develop characteristics of Girl.

Director Michael Greif (fresh from his New York triumph with the musical “Rent”) has clearly identified playwright Diana Son’s trump card--her striking, storybook tone, which runs like a backbone through the play even when Son loses hold of her themes in the second act. Even then, Greif’s production stays its course, thanks to a terrific and energized young cast and boldly funny sets and costumes, both designed by Mark Wendland.

With a nod to Michael Graves, Wendland supplies “Boy’s” elegant, playful backdrop: a long row of square windows (lit in a succession of fantastic colors by James F. Ingalls), and several house-framed platforms on wheels that are rolled around and reassembled to make new structures, as the heroine attempts to find her true home.

In the hands of Greif, a play that threatens at times to be puerile becomes a sustained alternate universe, sillier than but similar to our own.

Boy’s sisters are named Vulva, Labia and Hymen, and her childhood male friends are Weiner, Dickie and Woody. Families are made willy-nilly of black, white and Asian actors. And, though all of the characters seem very nice, gender prejudices are as pronounced as a goiter.

You know right away that Mama (Cynthia Martells) and Papa (Robert Dorfman) are archetypal--their last name is Uber Alles. Papa believes that no one will respect him if he does not produce a son. Mama assures her skeptical daughters that “no matter how much preferential love I give this boy, he will never be my daughter.” It’s as if Son has cleared away every other animus to explore the one that interests her. And Greif drives the play with a spirit as springy as the Strauss waltzes and Dixieland jazz that punctuate Boy’s relatively untroubled childhood.

Boy is worshiped by her parents, envied by her sisters, and, when she is not replacing the shingles on the roof, merrily spends her time playing with the other boys. Of course, Boy is different--she feels queasy enough about blowing up frogs to become a vegetarian. And when an unhappy family moves in next door--the sexually voracious Jessie (again, Cynthia Martells) and her unhappy daughter Charlotte (Andrea Renee Portes)--the presence of this strange duo forces the issue of Boy’s sexuality, which has been all but forgotten by her parents.

Michi Barall is a credible, enthusiastic Boy, and it is startling to see her naked female form when she throws off her overalls and baseball cap and demands to be told who she is. This one, searing moment, however, is followed by a waffling search for true self that has no real drive to it.

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One person is overjoyed to learn the truth about Boy--the sweet but thick-headed Shermie (Todd Cerveris), a childhood friend whose preference for Boy had him looking like a budding homosexual. For her part, Boy is clearly attracted to Charlotte. Son seems strangely unwilling to examine the real meaning of these adolescent same-sex crushes, particularly as Boy becomes a woman and remains just as strongly drawn to Charlotte. There is some hint of incest, as well, between Charlotte and her mother, but all sexual issues disappear as soon as they arise.

At first “Boy” is a parable about a society that values boys over girls, then a tale of a tomboy who finds herself ill-equipped to become a wife. Then the play appears to suggest that finding your own unprescribed sexuality is true freedom. Finally, “Boy” becomes a salute to the importance of living alone.

As for the stranded plot points, Greif lets the cards fall where they may. But there is still much to enjoy here. The entire ensemble is terrific. Martells is particularly wonderful, both as the nurturing Mama and the suffocating Jessie, the woman who first discovers that Boy is missing something crucial.

Portes brings a focused desire to the role of Charlotte. Dorfman is very funny as Papa, who displays an Eddie Cantor comic intensity and a sad, existential unknowingness. Boy remains a bland role despite its gender pyrotechnics, all of which Barall fulfills. But she, too, seems stranded in the second act.

Diana Son is a talented young playwright, whose gifts are being celebrated visually on stage at La Jolla. In the program notes, she has suggested that there are autobiographical elements in this fable. If you leave “Boy” wishing you could have learned a little more about the title character, have faith that next time, whatever she’s called, you will.

* “Boy,” La Jolla Playhouse, La Jolla Village Drive and Torrey Pines Road, Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends July 14. $19-$36. (619) 550-1010. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.

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“Boy,”

Michi Barall: Boy

Cynthia Martells: Mama/Jessie

Robert Dorfman: Papa

Alyssa Lupo: Vulva

Amy Elizabeth McKenna: Labia

Melody Butiu: Hymen

James Saba: M. Stickey

Damen Scranton: Weiner

Mike Ryan: Dickie

Kevin Berntson: Woody

Todd Cerveris: Shermie

Andrea Renee Portes: Charlotte

A La Jolla Playhouse Production. By Diana Son. Directed by Michael Greif. Sets and costumes Mark Wendland. Lights James F. Ingalls. Sound Darron L. West. Dramaturgy Gregory Gunter. Stage manager Lori M. Doyle.