Intense, Innovative ‘Passion of Carmen’

A gender-bending dance piece set during the Spanish Civil War, “The Passion of Carmen” at Celebration Theatre is a short but refreshing draught of distilled sensuality. Loosely adapted from Bizet’s opera and Merimee’s novel, this revisionist, almost wordless dramatization offers undiminished intensity, along with a casting innovation--a male Carmen (Marco de La Cruz).

Adapter-director Bruce Bierman compellingly articulates the romance of Don Jose (Tony Spinosa) and Carmen, never missing the opportunity for a florid flourish or a smoldering glance. Choreographer Paco Morales, who also plays Escamillo, Carmen’s bullfighter lover, informs his flamenco-inspired dances with a keen sense of subject and composition (although the torrid pas de deux between the lovers is self-indulgently slow-paced.)

In an otherwise workmanlike sound design, which includes live guitar music as well as taped Spanish ballads and segments of the opera, Peter Stenshoel would do well to lower the volume on the blaring Bizet. Bradley Kaye’s set, Frank McKown’s lighting and Leonard Pollack’s costumes all add to the pervasively languorous ambience. Lina Acosta is a stunning Micaela, and the mature Joi Staton displays a whippersnapper’s energy throughout. As for the scenes between Don Jose and his fickle innamorato, they crackle with an electric energy that needs no translation--or words, for that matter.

* “The Passion of Carmen,” Celebration Theatre, 7051 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Saturdays, Mondays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends April 28. (213) 857-8085. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.