A Contrast in Styles

Popular songwriting has generated two styles of lyrics. Those written by traditionalists can be likened to realistic paintings: You know immediately and certainly what “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” is about.

The second and newer style (hold Bob Dylan responsible) is more oblique: If you’d asked Kurt Cobain what “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was about, he’d have likely shrugged.

Two plays being offered in distant corners of Ventura County are analogous to those two styles of songwriting. “She Loves Me” at the Marquie Dinner Theatre is an old-fashioned musical, based on a property that dates back more than 60 years. The absurdist drama “Endgame,” at the Ojai Art Center, challenges the audience to come up with a meaning on its own--and playwright Samuel Beckett has proposed at least two alternatives.

While both plays are well performed, you probably know already which of the two you will find more appealing.

“She Loves Me” is based on a play that has been filmed twice: in the ‘30s as “The Shop Around the Corner” and two decades later as the musical, “In the Good Old Summertime.” A young man, working in a middle-European cosmetics shop, is carrying on a fevered correspondence with a female pen pal he’s never met. A young woman in the same shop has a pen pal, too, whom she’s never seen. Romantic high jinks ensue.

Gary Romm and Jeannine Marquie head the cast, which includes Don Pearlman as the shopkeeper and Hank Florence, Aaron Van Etten, David Milligan and Aileen-Marie Scott as co-workers. They’re attractive and capable under Rex Waggoner’s imaginative direction.

Joe Masteroff’s libretto is charming and gently amusing. The songs aren’t the best ever by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (who wrote “Fiddler on the Roof,” among other musicals), but they’re functional. The title song sounds like a last-minute attempt to generate a hit, and indeed became something of a standard in the early ‘60s.

With five changes of scenery and 13 cast members, this is easily the Marquie’s most ambitious production, and it should find a large and responsive following.

Incidentally, the old story is being filmed yet again next year--only this time, the correspondence is (of course) via e-mail.

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“Endgame” is Irish playwright Samuel Beckett’s follow-up to his “Waiting for Godot,” which has been puzzling, and amusing, audiences since the mid-’50s. Instead of two men chatting as they wait for a third person who never shows up, “Endgame” features two men living together in what could be a master-servant relationship. It’s never made entirely clear.

Beckett has been quoted as saying that the play is about his own then-disintegrating marriage (a theory to which director Taylor Kasch subscribes), and also--conversely--that it’s a sort of sequel to “Godot.” You might have your own idea: Is one of those guys God? And what of the man and woman living in garbage cans toward the rear of the stage? If “Sesame Street’s” Oscar the Grouch occurs to you, you aren’t alone.

In any event, this production is darned well acted by Gary Best and Tom Mueller (and Judy Gottlieb and Jim McRobie), all of whom seem convinced that they know what it’s about, and the play is only 90 minutes long. Interesting and challenging, it’s most likely not for the same audience as “She Loves Me.”

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Casting Call: Theater 33 will hold open auditions at the Ojai Art Center from 7-9 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday for a production of Ray Cooney’s British farce, “Funny Money,” to run at the center weekends from Jan. 9-31. Director Tom Eubanks is looking for six men who can play ages between 45 and 65, and two women to play ages 45 and 55. For further information, call (805) 649-9443.

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BE THERE

“She Loves Me,” Marquie Dinner Theatre, 340 N. Mobil Ave., Camarillo. Thursday-Saturday, dinner at 7 p.m., show to follow, through Nov. 23. $30. (805) 484-9909.

“Endgame,” Ojai Art Center, 113 S. Montgomery St. Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2 p.m., through Nov. 9. $16, $12 for seniors and $10 for students. (805) 646-0117.