Wow. Ak again, wow. April Nixon’s performance...

Wow. Ak again, wow. April Nixon’s performance in “Damn Yankees” at the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities in Redondo Beach is just that--a double wow. Nixon was nominated for an Olivier in 1x998 when she played Lola in the West End--and it’s easy to see why. The most sizzling Lola this side of hellfire, Nixon is an exotic powerhouse who belts and shimmies like a woman in need of the first available exorcist.

And the rest of the show ain’t too shabby, either. Not to mix too many metaphors, but Sha Newman’s staging of this classic baseball yarn is built like a brick dugout, solidly constructed down to the ground. As a director and choreographer, Newman has the knack of revitalizing vintage musicals without resorting to revisionist gimmickry. A regular at South Bay Cities (a Newman-staged “West Side Story” won the Ovation Award for best musical last year), she scores again with “Yankees,” a Broadway-caliber production with handsome technical elements and a great cast.

It’s true that next to Nixon, Lenny Wolpe, who plays Applegate, comes across as a bit of a utility player. A consummately affable performer, Wolpe is likable to a fault, underplaying Applegate’s gleeful malice by just a whisper. However, Wolpe brings his considerable stage savvy to bear in “Those Were the Good Old Days”--an unalloyed delight.

But then, delights are bountiful in this production, including Eric Kunze as an appealingly wholesome Joe Hardy, Doug Carfrae as a yearning but faithful Joe Boyd, and Marsha Waterbury as Meg Boyd, Joe’s loyal missus. All in all, this is a damned fine “Yankees,” and a devilish amount of fun.

* “Damn Yankees,” Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Redondo Beach. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. (except Oct. 24). Ends Oct. 8. $30-$45. (310) 372-4477. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.

‘Southern Baptist’ Offers Serious Sermon

Those familiar with Del Shores’ work will find “Southern Baptist Sissies” at the Zephyr a daring, even heroic, departure for Shores--if not always a successful one.

Shores’ riotous cycle of Texas comedies includes such hits as “Daddy’s Dyin’ (Who’s Got the Will?)” and “Sordid Lives,” both of which have been made into feature films (“Sordid” is slated to be released in February). Despite its flip title and comic elements, “Sissies” is Shores’ take on a serious subject--the plight of homosexuals cast out of the communion of faith because of their sexual orientation.

The play revolves around Mark (Robert Lewis Stephenson), T.J. (Tate Taylor), Andrew (Sam A. McConkey) and Benny (Michael Taylor Gray), four young gay Southern Baptist men at painful odds with the precepts of their religion. Taught to view their own fleshly desires as an “abomination,” the youths cope with their emerging sexualities in different ways. However, whether they embrace fundamentalism, reject the church completely or simply waffle in a limbo of conflicting emotions, the characters all experience guilt and self-loathing, an exquisite sadness over being forced to choose between their sexual identities and the faith of their fathers.

Shores, whose father and brother are both Southern Baptist preachers, was inspired to write his play after the Matthew Shepard murder. For “Sissies,” Shores, who also directs, gets his own shot in the pulpit, using the theater as a medium to preach about the dangers of intolerance and homophobia. And a bully sermon it is--even if it ultimately tips into didacticism and melodrama.

Not that Shores, savvy side-splitter that he is, doesn’t know the value of a good laugh. He intersperses his main narrative with welcome comic relief, especially from Leslie Jordan and Ann Walker as a couple of colorful barflies given to folksy, funny pronouncements about life in general and sex in particular. Familiar from past Shores vehicles, Jordan and Walker are no-holds-barred hilarious, as is Gray as the drag queen Iona Traylor, an extravagantly attired creature who raises lip-syncing to a fine art. Newell Alexander and Rosemary Alexander, also Shores regulars, round out this capably comic cast.

Many might perceive certain passages in the play as sacrilegious--and there’s no doubt that Shores sometimes segues into the outrageous to get his point across. But it’s a point well-taken, however belabored, an outcry on behalf of those who feel outcast from their established religion but who still yearn toward the connection of the spiritual community in which they were raised. As Shores makes clear, it’s an agonizing rift that may never be mended.

* “Southern Baptist Sissies,” Zephyr Theatre, 7456 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Nov. 19. $22-$25. (310) 289-2999. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.

Chaotic Staging Undoes a Thoughtful ‘Ithaka’

“Ithaka,” German playwright Botho Strauss’ retelling of Odysseus’ bloody return to his homeland, at Cal Rep’s Edison Theatre, is a busy little bee of a production, bustling with industry and lofty intentions. However, despite the odd moment of sweep and grandeur, Ronald Allan Lindblom’s staging of the play is so wildly eclectic that it’s largely incoherent.

Distracting design elements are a huge problem. Although scenic designer Danila Korogodsky’s set is striking, with a tidy platform that is raised and lowered like an elevator at different junctures in the action, Korogodsky’s costumes are purely dreadful, mingling the period attire of ancient Greece and contemporary elements with little regard for theme or logic. Feathers and fishnet stockings proliferate. Athene (able Katie Johnson), tricked out more like a low-rent floozy than the goddess of wisdom, writhes about in a “breastplate”--literally. One actor sports a bright green suit that looks suspiciously like the conductor’s costume from “Shining Time Station.”

Also garish, Barbara Matthews’ makeup leaves no spare inch of visible skin unpainted. David Jacques’ lighting alternates between the minatory and the garish, while Lindblom and Mark Abel’s baffling sound features one silly effect reminiscent of a toilet overflowing.

A few visually stunning moments result from these disparate components, but Lindblom fails to control or discipline the lurid trappings, at a heavy cost to Strauss’ thoughtful text. Shrillness prevails among the actors as well, although Linda Bisetti’s long-suffering Penelope and Stephen Mendel’s loyal Eumaios are refreshingly restrained, islands of decorum in a maelstrom of glitz.

* “Ithaka,” Cal Rep at the Edison Theatre, 213 E. Broadway, Long Beach. Tonight, Saturday, Oct. 7, 8 p.m.; next Wednesday and Thursday, 7 p.m.; Oct. 7 and 14, 2 p.m. Ends Oct. 14. $20. (562) 432-1818. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.