‘90s Reality Dulls Edge of ‘Coming Attractions’

Nearly 10 years before “The Silence of the Lambs” earned a screenwriting Oscar for Ted Tally, the playwright tackled public fascination with serial killers in “Coming Attractions,” an odd, caustic black comedy.

The earlier piece--which teeters uneasily between satire and melodrama, Brechtian musical and TV sitcom--is based on real-life serial killer David Berkowitz, known as “Son of Sam.” The play appeared in the 1980-81 Playwrights Horizon season in New York and quickly faded.

Until, that is, a fellow named O.J. hijacked all that media attention in the mid-’90s. Suddenly, the story of a killer whose rise to show-biz fame is engineered by an agent seemed like a prescient mirror reflecting a blood-minded, electronic culture. In Tally’s play, murder makes Lonnie’s career in much the same way that the controversy surrounding O.J. Simpson rekindled interest in the former football star.

Today’s audience is likely to find the O.J. reality more bizarre and ironic than the fiction cooked up by Tally and musician-lyricists Jack Feldman and Bruce Sussman. Alas, this revival of “Coming Attractions”--directed by Robert G. Leigh at Santa Ana College’s Phillips Hall Theatre--cannot overcome that likelihood.

Add an ambitious staging that proves too much for the college cast, and the result is like a satire viewed underwater. Dark comedy demanding the talents of a Joel Grey is a tall order for a college group (even as one as determined as this), but it’s undone when we’re well ahead of Tally’s satiric jabs. Blame it on O.J.

We know where Lonnie (Ken Michaels, whose profile has a disarming resemblance to Tom Cruise’s) is going when Manny (Stanford Godbey) persuades Lonnie to surrender after taking hostages, then signs him to a long-term contract.

The author revels--as does director Leigh in graphics projected on a looming monitor above the stage--in Lonnie’s rise to fame as “the Halloween Killer.” The media and public are played as chumps. (After Lonnie’s murder spree has captured prime time, one investigating cop confers with an eyewitness about their various “Halloween Killer” book deals.)

Like Alex in “A Clockwork Orange,” Lonnie is meant to win our affections because everyone else around him is worse. But Lonnie really is a smarmy killer-hero who spurns Manny when he reaches stardom, makes a pathetic attempt at being Neil Diamond (in one of the show’s few, negligible songs) and whines when his wife, a former Miss America (played by a funny, squeaky Erin Davis), dumps him.

“Coming Attractions” ends up a yellowing cartoon that we’ve already seen.

It could be interesting to see what a director skilled in comic noir would do with this material, dated or no, and with athletic actors willing to go to the edge. That’s what’s required in “Coming Attractions.” Leigh’s cast might be able to do it in a few years. It’s college, after all, and they’re learning.

David Di Ioria’s music direction and additional music is suitably cheesy; Sean Small’s black-box set and blinding lights are a good experiment in giving viewers the creeps.

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* “Coming Attractions,” Santa Ana College, Phillips Hall Theatre, 1530 W. 17th St., Santa Ana. Tonight-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2:30 p.m. Ends Sunday. $6-$8. (714) 564-5661. Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes.

Ken Michaels: Lonnie

Stanford Godbey: Manny

Erin Davis: Miss America, Second Newswoman, Backup Girl, Gofer

Jeremy Schaeg: First Newsman, Mr. X, Shrink, Lab Coat No. 1,

Detective, Prosecutor, Director

Albert Correa: Witness, Stagehand, Khaled, Private Eye No. 2, Defense Attorney

Joseph H. Saenz: Cop’s Voice, First TV Reporter, Publisher, Sammy Dazzle, Private Eye No. 1, Warden

Stacy Gale: Terri Sterling, Backup Girl, Sunflower, Script Girl

Steve Honer: Chief Braddock, Announcer, Interpreter, Tweed Shrink

Tonia McKittrick: Female Hostage, Newswoman, Secretary, Interviewer, Female Shrink

Kevin Covey: Male Hostage, Second TV Reporter, Cop, Camera Man, Stagehand, Shrink, Lab Coat No. 2

Kendra Polcha: Female Hostage, Bystander, Stage Manager, Stenographer

Charles Snook: Male Hostage, Victim’s Father, Judge, Chaplain

A Santa Ana College and Santiago Canyon College drama department production of Ted Tally’s comedy. Music by Jack Feldman. Lyrics by Bruce Sussman and Feldman. Director: Robert G. Leigh. Music director and additional music: David Di Ioria. Set and lights: Sean Small. Costumes: Julie Keen. Sound: Justus Matthews. Makeup/wigs: Barbara Matthews.