A smart portrait of genius

Intelligent craft turns the sullen art of Dylan Thomas into creditable drama in “Dylan” at the Celtic Arts Center. Sidney Michaels’ episodic look at Thomas’ last American tours receives a worthy revival with a penetrating performance by Kevin Kearns as the great Welsh poet.

A Tony winner for original star Alec Guinness on Broadway, and Celtic Arts’ inaugural offering in 1985, regional favorite “Dylan” draws from memoirs by Thomas’ widow, Caitlin, and John Malcolm Brinnin, Thomas’ American poetic envoy. It begins in Wales in the early 1950s, where a broke, writer’s-blocked Thomas does expository battle with Caitlin (the excellent Karen Ryan). The forked lightning of his alcoholic self-condemnation and her bitterly justified skepticism launches a fragmented portrait of genius at tragic odds with existence.

Although Michaels sifts facts into action more efficiently than creatively, “Dylan” grabs its subject and audience. Director Barry Lynch’s resourceful staging scores in the sensual essentials. Set designer Dan Conroy shifts locales with smart economy. Peter Strauss (lighting), Reid Woodbury Jr. (sound) and Lois Tedrow (costumes) offer restrained atmosphere.

Kearns, less innately similar than acclaimed Thomas soloist Bob Kingdom, inhabits the sodden antic and sudden lyricism with heartbreaking conviction. Ryan’s acute Caitlin mirrors him, underplaying the accent, illuminating her own contradictions.

Their fellow actors are competent, with Jennifer Ruckman a quiet standout as Meg Stuart. Robin Leabman’s collegiate Brinnin needs shading, and David Mersault’s avid Angus Marius, among others, should breathe. Group scenes often hit breakneck pace, which hobbles phrasing. “Dylan” pays praise for its wages, but it could go more gently into that good night.

-- David C. Nichols

“Dylan,” The Celtic Arts Center, 4843 Laurel Canyon Blvd., Valley Village. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends Nov. 13. $18. (818) 760-8322. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

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The collateral damage of fame

Fame. Everyone in this town seems to want it, even though it comes at a price -- paid not just by those who achieve it, but also by those around them.

Aram Saroyan’s earnest but unfocused “At the Beach House” assesses the collateral damage.

The author comes to playwriting after having established himself in poetry (most memorably the one-word “lighght”), memoir (“Last Rites”) and a long list of other genres. What’s more pertinent to “At the Beach House,” though, is that he’s the son of writer William Saroyan (“The Time of Your Life”) and Carol Marcus, a famous beauty and professed model for Truman Capote’s Holly Golightly, who later married Walter Matthau.

The hope of gleaning fact from fiction might propel some curiosity-seekers to the Lost Studio to catch the play’s world premiere, directed by Marcia Rodd. What they’ll find, though, is hardly “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”

The story unfolds at the Malibu home of aging movie star Clyde Harrow (Orson Bean) and his wife, Wanda (Nancy Jeris). The main through line, however, belongs to Angela Bennett (Lisa Glass), Wanda’s daughter from her prior marriage. Jobless, Angela has deposited herself at the house with no apparent purpose other than to seek oblivion through mind-altering substances. Her brother Nick (Jake Eberle) and stepbrother Stevie (Ben Baker) are messed up in other ways, as, for that matter, is Wanda. In a metaphoric sense, they all need to detoxify.

The dialogue barely rises to the level of soap opera, though, and the plot -- which shifts tone in the second act with the arrival of Wanda’s mother (Dena Dietrich) -- rambles through needless characters and sidetracks. Perhaps it’s not surprising then that none of the performers seems invested, despite attention to surface detail.

These characters live in dreamlands, as does Saroyan, if he believes this script has anything new or compelling to say.

-- Daryl H. Miller

“At the Beach House,” the Lost Studio, 130 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends Nov. 27. $20. (323) 960-7721 or www.plays411.com/beach. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.