A ‘Misalliance’ of Talents in Long Beach

George Bernard Shaw’s “Misalliance” is an eloquent social commentary about mismatched romantic pairings among the English upper classes and aristocracy, where marriage is more an economic and social merger of families than a union of lovelorn hearts.

Unfortunately, Shaw’s witty work finds few suitable allies in this Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre production. With one notable exception, the mostly charmless characters quickly lose our interest and, at times, the pacing crawls.

A wealthy merchant’s bored daughter, Hypatia Tarleton (Karen Stapleton), seems destined to marry spoiled, prissy Bentley (Jared Slater), the son of Lord Summerhays (Tom Moses). A mechanical problem forces an old friend of Bentley (Andrew Hawkins) to land his plane on the Tarleton estate with a mysterious passenger (Dorothy A. Gallagher). Romantic alliances will be broken and revealed. New ones are formed for a happy ending.

Slater--as the willfully bratty Bentley, who manipulates people through tantrums and fake frights--is excruciatingly but amusingly annoying. His every move seems planned to grate, from his precociously curved pinkies to his facial contortions. He fairly steals every scene he’s in.

The other characters are portrayed competently enough, although Moses as Lord Summerhays bears an odd resemblance to an anemic Col. Sanders. But this play demands that all the characters be uniformly interesting, and without this, the long speeches creak by.

Director Robert G. Leigh, trying to depict an atmosphere of feigned ennui, succeeds only in creating real ennui within his audience. If the British royals were this boring, they wouldn’t have to worry about paparazzi.

* “Misalliance,” Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sunday matinees, Jan. 11 and 18, 2 p.m. Ends Jan. 24. $10-$15. (562) 494-1616. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.