Riverdance Romeo

Last summer, the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company performed “Romeo and Juliet” on the lawn at Cal Lutheran University. The troupe is currently reviving the production--with some casting changes--at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

Kingsmen, an offshoot of Cal Lutheran’s theater program and the Santa Susana Repertory Company, has set its “Romeo” in 19th century Ireland. That allows for different costumes, and there’s some “Riverdance”-style dancing before the show, but otherwise the conceit may strike fans of the play as rather pointless.

Nobody’s going to leave the theater with new insights (“Oh, that explains why the O’Montagues and McCapulets are feuding”). On the other hand, Shakespeare has survived many other attempts to update or relocate his plays, and this one isn’t particularly damaging.

Only one actor attempts an Irish accent (Robert Nairn channeling Barry Fitzgerald as Friar . . . er, Father . . . Lawrence), and the whole Catholic-Protestant thing isn’t brought up. (Kingsmen’s other presentation last summer, transporting “The Taming of the Shrew” to the American West, was at least an amusing change of scene.)

Robert Beitzel--whose credits include several soap operas, including a continuing role on “The Young and the Restless”--is an appealing Romeo, callow but charming. Janna Ferguson, who played Juliet last summer, reprises the role to good effect. Jason Rennie and Manny Darden, as Romeo’s pals Benvolio and Mercutio, are especially strong, and Susan Kelejian brightens every scene she’s in as Juliet’s strong-willed nurse. The fight choreography, by Derek Medina and Brett Elliott, is witty, and the balcony scene is well-staged by director Michael J. Arndt. Rick Rhodes composed (and evidently plays) the original music, and the Irish dance choreography is by Diane Adair.

Opening the same weekend as Sir Peter Hall’s production of “Romeo” in Los Angeles, the Kingsmen’s show lacks star power. On the other hand, it’s respectable, closer to home and less expensive--though not as much a bargain as when it was performed for free last summer.

DETAILS

“Romeo and Juliet” continues at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2:30 Sunday through Feb. 18 at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza’s Forum Theater, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. Tickets are $23.50 to $29.50 and may be purchased from the box office, TicketMaster outlets or at 583-8700.

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A classic of more recent vintage is currently playing at the Arts Council Center in Thousand Oaks: Joseph Kesselring’s “Arsenic and Old Lace.”

Even compacted from three acts to two (and running well under 150 minutes), the play shows its age, primarily in a few references that will have you turning to your grandparents for explanation. On the other hand, the houseful-of-loonies concept has seldom been written better, and the current cast does it proud.

Denise Lowe and Theresa Secor are Abby and Martha Brewster, the two sweetest old ladies in town--despite the bodies buried in their basement by Teddy (Palmer Scott), who believes himself to be President Theodore Roosevelt, burying yellow fever victims in new locks for the Panama Canal.

The Brewsters’ nephew, Mortimer (director Marq del Monte), is as normal as can be expected for a theater critic. He’s about to marry neighbor Elaine Harper (Pamela Canton), daughter of a local minister (Sergio Bertolli), when out of nowhere appears Mortimer’s brother Jonathan (Michael Jordan), recently escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane, with one Dr. Einstein (Matt Miller) in tow. High jinks, needless to mention, ensue.

The supporting cast is excellent, and although del Monte won’t remind anyone of Cary Grant (who played Mortimer in the film), he can be taken, alas, as a theater critic.

DETAILS

“Arsenic and Old Lace” continues at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday, then at 8 p.m. Feb. 15-17 at the Thousand Oaks Arts Council Center, 482 Greenmeadow Drive in Thousand Oaks. Tickets are $10; $8 seniors and students. For reservations, call 381-2747.

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Todd Everett can be reached at teverett@concentric.net.