Punches Miss the Mark in ‘Blade to the Heat’

Oliver Mayer’s play about two champion boxers in the 1959 Los Angeles Latino boxing scene, “Blade to the Heat,” is KO’d by a confused vision, lackluster acting and awkward staging.

As the audience enters, actors mumble to each other in a pre-performance mood-setter that serves only to cast doubt on what’s to come.

When the show finally starts, at least the voices are audible. The unbeaten champ, Cuban import Mantequilla (Jason Blake), loses to Pedro Quinn (Dante Spencer) on the judges’ decision. Both men are eventually accused of being unmanly, and rumors of homosexuality haunt them.

As staged by director William White, the sexuality--gay and straight--is stilted and embarrassed. Nothing sizzles. Nothing transports us back to a more homophobic era or the confines of Latino cultures of that time. Blake’s accent is painful to hear, and he doesn’t always remember to use it. The pronunciation of Quinn as “queen” seems ham-fisted. Spencer’s Pedro is a wallflower, the silent type who is only slightly more likable than Blake’s Mantequilla. Neither is particularly charismatic.

Javier Calderon’s sound design, with its late 1950s music, is at odds with Takumi Kato’s drumming, which follows from neither the era nor the ethnicity of the characters.

Calderon also choreographed the fight sequences, which are mostly effective in both sight and sound. But no one told Spencer to keep his left fist up--hardly the form one expects from a champion-level boxer.

The blade here is dull, and the heat hasn’t even been turned on.

*

“Blade to the Heat,” Stage 52, 5299 Washington Blvd., Los Angeles. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Feb. 11. $15. (323) 960-5675. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes.