Skewed miracles, divine meetings

Norman Lear meets Norman Vincent Peale in “Acts of God” at Actors Workout Studio in North Hollywood. Writer-director Peter Fox’s triad of plays links the battle between art and commerce to existential theological questions, with sidesplitting results.

First is “God Knows,” in which pregnant Ruth (Jessica Randle) and fiance Joe (understudy Dave Dettore) seek counsel from Father Mike (Brennan Byers). After God (Cary Thompson) appears to Ruth, the ensuing debate sets forth the evening’s skewed course in miracles.

The centerpiece, “God’s Nose,” finds “God Knows” author Peter Reynard (Greg Forshay, subbing for Joel Stoffer) and television producer Sid Markowitz (Bob Neches) at an upscale eatery. Their negotiations lead to another divine encounter, embodied by a waitress (Minda Burr).

The finale, “God Noes,” depicts Sid’s pasteboard sitcom pilot. By its conclusion, everyone from cast (Bridget Nelson, Matt Corboy, David Keats and Tim Starks) to audience (understudy Gus Buktenica) is demanding better representation, especially the Deity.

Fox has a bright central concept, and his staging is adept. The actors are hilarious, with the howl-inducing Neches stealing the show.

The satiric reach is limited by excessive polemic and disproportionate focus, plus an unnecessary intermission. Nevertheless, the witty irreverence on tap recommends “Acts of God” to agnostics and AFTRA members alike.

-- David C. Nichols

“Acts of God,” Actors Workout Studio, 4735 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Dec. 14. $15. (818) 506-3903. Mature audiences. Running time: 70 minutes.

*

In this version, it’s all about Ophelia

Prominent theatrical iconoclast Steven Berkoff leaves no cliche unturned in “The Secret Love Life of Ophelia,” an uncharacteristically prosaic offering receiving its U.S. premiere at the Odyssey Theatre.

Berkoff’s two-person epistolary play, directed by Barry Phillips based on Berkoff’s original staging, examines “secret correspondence” between Hamlet and Ophelia.

In “Hamlet,” Ophelia, who has been painfully spurned by Hamlet, returns Hamlet’s letters upon orders of her father, Polonius. In Berkoff’s revisionist take, Ophelia and Hamlet feign their estrangement to gull their elders. (Why they feel this is necessary, when there is no obvious impediment to their union, remains obscure.)

Berkoff’s version takes on a certain resonance in the second act, when Hamlet’s murder of Polonius and his subsequent exile launch Ophelia on a dark path to obsessive guilt and madness. Unfortunately, the one-note first act, a dramatization of the lovers’ erotic correspondence, is a soft-core diatribe that soon wears parchment thin.

In Berkoff’s priapic profusion, Hamlet (Dominic Comperatore) gushes on and on about quills and inkpots, quivers and bows, furrows and plows, while Ophelia (Ingrid Nelson) sighs and heaves in rapturous response.

Perhaps all this grunt-and-grope verbiage is meant to be amusing, but the production’s overall tone gives little clue to Berkoff’s intent. Considering the eventual segue into tragedy, the steamy silliness seems misplaced. Prepossessing and passionate, Comperatore and Nelson excel in the play’s second half, and they handle the preposterousness of their initial scenes with the necessary brio.

-- F. Kathleen Foley

“The Secret Love Life of Ophelia,” Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Nov. 24 and Dec. 15 only, 2 p.m. No performances Nov. 27 and 28. Ends Dec. 22. $20.50-$25. (310) 477-2055. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

*

Gleeful send-up on growing old

“I’m somehow aging much faster than everyone else .... It’s only a matter of time before I’m the oldest man in show business.”

So laments Steve Rudnick in “The Oldest Man in Show Business,” Rudnick’s two-person play, now in its world-premiere engagement at the Hudson Backstage. Fifty and “tired of lying about it,” veteran screenwriter Rudnick (co-writer on “The Santa Clause” and “The Santa Clause 2”) gleefully bites the development deal that feeds him in his vaguely autobiographical send-up. Although it may not qualify as deathless art, Rudnick’s bright, slight comedy makes serious points about Hollywood ageism and the misappropriation of the creative process by rank novices and bean counters.

Under the skillful direction of John Riggi, Rudnick stars as a battered survivor of the Hollywood trenches forced to “pitch” to young studio executive Jason (fresh-faced, funny Brian Dietzen), a rankly ignorant puppy whose cultural literacy stretches back about as far as the Smurfs. In an amusing turnabout, the action frequently switches back to the heyday of the Hollywood studio system, with Rudnick holding court as tough uber-mogul Shmule Mordechai. Shmule rules his movie-making roost with an iron hand, while such nervous underlings as Nelson (Dietzen), a young contract writer, scurry to execute his every capricious command.

What a difference a few decades make. The action ends with a nicely surreal twist, complete with a hilariously swashbuckling sword fight (credit fight directors Pason Burt and Charles Currier) in which the best -- make that the oldest -- man wins. Call that middle-age wish fulfillment, if you will. But call it funny. Rudnick’s scathing, curmudgeonly comedy is that too, and in spades.

-- F.K.F.

“The Oldest Man in Show Business,” Hudson Backstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Wednesdays-Thursdays, 8 p.m. Ends Nov. 21. $12. (323) 856-4200. Running time: 1 hour.

*

Loss of innocence in doo-wop time

Loss of innocence might seem an awfully downbeat topic for a doo-wop musical. But “Willie, Mickey & the Duke,” being given its premiere by the California Repertory Company, handles the topic intelligently, while delivering a winning succession of a cappella harmony numbers.

Looking back on the summer of 1956, Scooter (Kelley Hinman) recalls a time when life with Wick (Wesley Hunt), Cotton (Wilson Bell), Bobby (Jay Wallace) and Bobby’s girlfriend, Marilyn (Heidi Godt), revolved around the heroics of their favorite baseball players, not the McCarthy hearings or the H-bomb scare.

But the outside world intrudes when, shortly before Scooter’s departure for college, his father spends the tuition money to build a bomb shelter.

With eyes newly opened to national security concerns, Scooter begins to see the color barrier faced by Cotton and other African Americans moving into their Bayside, Queens, neighborhood.

Then, idealism gets crushed between the gears of capitalism. Hoping to replace Scooter’s tuition money, Bobby challenges a rival team to a high-stakes game of stickball. The wager becomes a metaphor for all of the joy that has been leeched out of big-money baseball.

Now and again, the script, by Cal Rep artistic producing director Howard Burman, is clumsily plotted, but the doo-wop tunes, created with composer Matt Vinson, power the story through its rough spots. The staging, by Joanne Gordon, aches with memory, and the set, by Elissa Stankiewicz, envisions an inviting, wide-banister stoop as the scene of happier times.

-- Daryl H. Miller

“Willie, Mickey & the Duke,” Edison Theatre, 213 E. Broadway, Long Beach. Today, Saturday and Nov. 22 and 23, 8 p.m.; Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 7 p.m.; Saturday and Nov. 23, 2 p.m. Ends Nov. 23. $20. (562) 432-1818. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

*

Museum motif unifies festival

Creativity and mortality interface in “escape/artists” at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Alternating two different programs weekly, this ninth edition of Moving Arts’ annual one-act play festival uses a museum motif as unifying metaphor.

Judging from the reviewed “Gallery 1,” this year’s model favors stylized think pieces, with varying results.

Notably effective is D.T. Arcieri’s seriocomic “The Scream,” a bisexual triangle involving a successful artist (Brendan Broms), a caustic bank clerk (Melissa Marie Thomas) and a free-spirited gallery owner (Liesel Kopp). Under Paul Nicolai Stein’s adroit direction, all three actors are excellent, and the net result is memorable.

The festival winner, Marc Chun’s “Match,” presents five archetypes (D.G. Bannon, Keith Berkes, Gary Marschall, Amy Thiel and Lori Yeghiayan), whose interlocking stories form a Hollywood gloss on “Rashomon.” Kimberly Glann’s direction elicits admirable ensemble cohesion, with Thiel outstanding, although the script seems more clever than profound.

Robyn Burland’s “After Loyal,” in which two teenagers (Kathi Chandler and Melissa Jones) loiter about a golf course while their dysfunctional households play out around them, is MTV fodder. Rosemary Frisino Toohey’s “In the Tank” is negligible beyond its cracked premise and the performances of Bannon and Broms.

The second program, “Gallery 2,” features “Crossed Wires” by Mark Chaet, “Busted Jesus Comix” by David Johnston and “Casse-Tete” by Rob Nixon.

-- D.C.N

“escape/artists,” Theatre 5C, Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St., L.A. Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m.. “Gallery 1” shows: Nov. 22 and 23. “Gallery 2” shows: today-Sunday, Nov. 30, Dec. 1. Ends Dec. 1. $18. (213) 473-0660. Mature audiences. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.