Lessons at the Piano Offer Insight About Life

At first, “2 Pianos, 4 Hands” looks like nothing more than a playful account of two boys who are learning to play the piano.

Finally, however, the production resonates beyond the world of music. It explores the feelings that arise after the awful discovery that you’re not going to make it in the career for which you’ve prepared for years. There are plenty of aspiring actors in Los Angeles to whom this play would speak.

Maybe the actors should take up the piano. It appears that pianists Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt took up acting, and the theater, after concluding they wouldn’t be Horowitzes.

Dykstra and Greenblatt--both Canadians--not only wrote “2 Pianos, 4 Hands,” but they named the leading characters Ted and Richard, and first played the roles themselves. Dykstra’s program bio says he performed the play 701 times.

The authors aren’t on stage at La Mirada Theatre, but their substitutes, Mark Anders as Ted and Carl J. Danielsen as Richard, bring ample conviction and polish--musical as well as dramatic--to the roles.

Two grand pianos face one another across the stage. Busts of Bach and Beethoven look down upon a formal rehearsal studio. Richard is on one side and Ted on the other, and we see glimpses of each, as they progress through their pianistic educations, from the ages of 8 to 18.

Whenever the focus is on one of the boys, the other actor assumes the role of an adult in the boy’s life--a parade of piano teachers, parents, adjudicators for competitions and conservatories. The varied styles of the teachers provide much of the play’s comedy.

The contrasting attitudes of the boys’ fathers may well lead to serious discussions among theatergoers about the perpetual parental question of how far to guide a child in any one direction.

Are the rewards of intensive piano study worth the lack of development in other areas that might prove even more important to the child’s growth?

As the boys age, they’re tempted by various forms of popular music. Richard decides to pursue jazz.

Later, in the most painfully funny scenes of the play, the almost-grown boys try to earn some money. Ted starts teaching piano, but a middle-aged matron (Danielsen) prefers to spend her lesson time talking about her personal life.

Richard is reduced to playing endless versions of “Piano Man” in a cocktail lounge, where Anders plays an inebriated customer.

Occasionally we see the two boys together--as wary rivals, as competitive duet performers and finally as friends in their 30s who still carry a torch for the piano, even though they’ve now moved on to other, largely undefined, careers.

Directed by Bruce J. Sevy, Anders and Danielsen whip through their sketches and a wide range of musical excerpts, adept at both kinds of “playing.”

They open and close with a more extended performance of the first movement of a Bach concerto.

“2 Pianos, 4 Hands,” La Mirada Theatre,14900 La Mirada Blvd. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2:30 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Ends Oct. 6. $30 to $38. (562) 944-9801 or (714) 994-6310. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

Mark Anders ... Ted

Carl J. Danielsen ... Richard

By Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt. Directed by Bruce K. Sevy. Set by Scott Weldin. Costumes by Kish Finnegan. Lighting by Don Darnutzer. Sound by Brian Jerome Peterson. Production stage manager Gina Farina.