Humor blooms again in ‘Cherry’

Anton Chekhov outspokenly intended his final play, “The Cherry Orchard,” a portrait of impecunious Russian aristocrats overwhelmed by social change and their own passivity, as a broad comedy. That assertion has challenged generations of subsequent interpreters, many of whom have found Chekhov’s intended comic rhythms frustratingly elusive.

But anyone who has ever doubted the essential hilarity of the piece will become a believer after seeing director Bart DeLorenzo’s alternately side-splitting and heartbreaking production at the Evidence Room. An uproarious elegy, DeLorenzo’s staging is a slice of life served with a side of farce, a messily propulsive blend of the traditional and the revisionist that charms us by its very audacity.

Beautifully lighted by Adam H. Greene and Christopher Kuhl, the ideally cast actors are authoritative. In an eccentric turn, Maria O’Brien plays Liubov Ranyevskaya, the estate’s profligate owner, as a sort of pill-popping hedonist who floats above impending crisis in a drug-fueled haze.

As her equally impractical brother, Tom Fitzpatrick is perfectly fussy and effete, a helpless child-man made pitiful by privilege.

And as Lopakhin, the peasant-turned-millionaire who eventually buys the estate, Don Oscar Smith is a buttoned-down conqueror whose initial deference to his former masters gives way to gleeful supremacy.

Especially charming is Ken Roht’s interstitial choreography -- herky-jerky apache dances featuring family servant Dunyasha (Ryan Templeton) and her slimy seducer, Yasha (Will Watkins), that perfectly complement DeLorenzo’s serio-antic tone.

Sadly, this is the Evidence Room’s last production in the company’s marvelous Beverly Boulevard space -- and it is an almost eerily appropriate swan song.

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‘The Cherry Orchard’

Where: The Evidence Room, 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays

Ends: May 27

Price: $15 to $20

Contact: (213) 381-7118

Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes