‘White Boy’ Trims Down to Uplifting Drama

When first produced at Highways in late 1996, Michael Spillers’ loosely autobiographical “White Boy” was an emotionally resonant but self-indulgently desultory drama about an aspiring songwriter from Missouri who falls in love with an East L.A. homeboy.

The play’s present incarnation at the Celebration Theatre, closely following a run at the St. Genesius, has been impressively streamlined, cut by a solid 50 minutes without losing one necessary pulse of the action. Where he once meandered, Spillers--who directed and once again stars--now cuts to the chase in his funny, wrenching and ultimately uplifting drama.

This time out, Spillers has more effectively delineated his characters, making them less specifically autobiographical and more the exponents of his own dramatic invention. Virtually all the actors in the original production had the same names as their characters. Rewrites, as well as cast changes, have lessened the confusion (and discomfort) about whether certain of the characters’ intimate revelations were fact or fiction.

Spillers plays Michael, the eponymous “white boy” who makes a painful passage through the “brown” barrier to bond with gangbanger Lobo (Joseph Aguilar, alternating with Lobo Sebastian, the role’s originator), an ostensibly straight Latino struggling to come to terms with his own emerging homosexuality. Joe Elvis Alway once again plays Rocco Elvis, a dancer and wannabe actor whose defiant nude dance is a highlight. Salvador Gonzalez has a poignant monologue as Junior, the bumbling stagehand, while Victor Allen (alternating with Robert Lazo) provides comic relief as the flamboyant dancer Wally.

As before, the explicit sexual material is discreetly and truthfully handled, but be forewarned that some graphic video footage could prove offensive to some.

BE THERE

“White Boy,” Celebration Theatre, 7051 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends Feb. 1. $20. (213) 660-8587. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes.