A great time in the Great War

Roaming wide-open skies with no commanding officer -- it was the perfect combat job for a congenital misfit, and William Avery “Billy” Bishop, the most celebrated Allied fighter pilot of World War I, certainly fills the bill. The story of how Bishop -- a liar and cheat facing expulsion from the Royal Military College of Canada -- found his true calling inspired “Billy Bishop Goes to War,” John Gray and Eric Peterson’s two-performer biographical drama with songs.

This perennial favorite on the revival circuit receives an elegantly simple staging by David Rose for Burbank’s Colony Theatre Company. Larry Cedar’s engaging narration in the title role vividly sweeps us up in Billy’s wartime exploits, at the same time poignantly framing the conflicted morality they embody -- though the play stops short of any deeper conclusions or ultimate resolution.

In a graceful, unobtrusive supporting performance, Jeffrey Rockwell provides piano accompaniment, vocal harmonies, sound effects and occasional dialogue.

Billy’s mostly upbeat, often comical reminiscences are punctuated by the harrowing realities of warfare in 1914. To escape his miserable assignment in a British desert cavalry unit, he applied to the Royal Flying Corps. The only downside was the average life expectancy of a new pilot: 11 days.

Cedar’s Billy peppers his anecdotes with the voices of 17 peripheral characters (male and female, with varying success, though his boa-draped French chanteuse is most amusing). Blessed with the right combination of recklessness, accuracy and luck, Billy finds in the air the clarity of purpose that eluded him on the ground. “In the crucible of battle I grew from youth to manhood,” he explains, but that maturation came at a terrible cost of human life, among both his friends and enemies. And Billy’s giddy enthusiasm bears some complicity in the carnage.

Cedar and Rockwell address this with a particularly effective rueful spin on the recurring musical refrain “Somehow it didn’t seem like war at all,” but that’s about as much inward reflection as we get.

-- Philip Brandes

“Billy Bishop Goes to War,” Colony Theatre, 555 N. 3rd St., Burbank. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays; call for additional performances. Ends July 16. $30-$40. (818) 558-7000, Ext. 15, or www.colonytheatre.org. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes.

*

‘Salesman’ a bit overwrought

Awash in autobiographical undercurrents, Arthur Miller’s plays are as much personal exorcisms as they are dramas. “Death of a Salesman,” Miller’s story about doomed salesman Willy Loman, reflects Miller’s own father’s ruin in pursuit of the American dream, just as “The Crucible” treated Miller’s persecution during the McCarthy era and “After the Fall” expiated his relationship with Marilyn Monroe.

Sometimes, symbols can get in the way of empathy. Of course, Miller intended Loman to represent the ravages of untrammeled capitalism. In her current staging of “Salesman” at Pacific Repertory Theatre, director Elina de Santos emphasizes archetype over character, at least initially. Her interpretive intent is evident in Haibo Yu’s awkward set, which is festooned with blowups of period advertisements, suggesting an iconic realm more than any recognizable domestic microcosm.

Although it resonates intellectually, the tack results in a certain strained artificiality in the production’s opening scenes. Willy (Richard Fancy), his face a mask of exhaustion and suffering, commences his sad story at a level of emotionalism that we fear will be difficult to sustain. At first, long-suffering Linda (Sharron Shayne) is so self-consciously self-effacing that she seems one-dimensional, while Biff (Greg Vignolle) and Happy (David Clayberg), Willy and Linda’s troubled sons, are initially pitched just this side of caricature.

Emotionally speaking, the actors go from zero to 60 as soon as the lights go up. Bear with them. As the play progresses, they break new land speed records in truthfulness and poignancy. Trim and formidable Fancy is not an obvious casting choice for bulky Willy, but he skillfully unearths the teeming self-loathing underneath Willy’s fatal braggadocio in an ultimately assured performance that commands our admiration as well as our pity.

-- F. Kathleen Foley

“Death of a Salesman,” Pacific Resident Theatre, 703 Venice Blvd., Venice. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends July 23. $18-20. (310) 822-8392 or www.pacificresidenttheatre.com. Running time: 3 hours.

*

New troupe tackles Sartre

For its inaugural production at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the Accent Theatre Group takes on “No Exit” and deftly revives Jean-Paul Sartre’s 1944 study of hell as a sitting room.

A European sensitivity permeates the execution, which is appropriate, as “No Exit” debuted in Paris just prior to the Allied liberation of France. It opens with Garcin (Salvator Xuereb), a neurotic journalist booted into the monochromatic chamber by a liveried valet (Ary Katz), who warns him that the bell near the Sphinx head on the fireplace does not always work. He returns with Inez (Lenka Pochyly), who assumes that Garcin is the torturer she is expecting.

With the advent of sensual, materialistic Estelle (Jana Kolesarova), the valet shuts the door, and the afterlife begins. Although all three attempt to avoid disclosure, they find the room has no mirrors for a reason. Trapped with each other’s reflected guilt, the trio spill their damnable histories. “No Exit” climaxes with an apparent chance for escape, attempted violence and a thematic summation, fading out on a chilling shuffle to Chopin’s “March Funebre” as eternity looms.

Barring some sporadic slack, director and co-designer Jan Krekan directs with assured intensity, and the spare designs are resourceful. Krekan’s stark set of Empire furniture only needs tighter backdrops for full Stygian effect in the evocative lighting by Kim Negrete and Lauren Drzata.

Krekan’s vivid cast keeps the pitfalls of stasis at bay. Xuereb inhabits Garcin with feral elan. Kolesarova’s rending confession almost steals the show, and the riveting Pochyly articulates past her accent like Jeanne Moreau on overdrive. They, and Katz’s nuanced servant, intrigue us well beyond the conservatory outlines of this arresting effort by a notable new company.

-- David C. Nichols

“No Exit,” American Academy of Dramatic Arts, 1336 N. La Brea Ave., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends July 2. $20. (323) 960-7612 or www.plays411.com/noexit. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

*

Reverberations from the blacklist

Jeffrey Sweet’s somewhat awkwardly titled “The Value of Names” at the Fremont Centre Theatre is set in 1981 Malibu. Yet for Benny Silverman (George Wyner), the specter of McCarthyism still lingers.

Back in the 1950s, Benny was an up-and-coming actor, until he was denounced before the House Un-American Activities Committee by his closest friend and colleague, Leo Greshen (Michael Durrell).

A director by trade, Leo named names, weathered the hearings and went on to become a Hollywood legend. By contrast, the blacklisted Benny didn’t work for years, but ultimately achieved financial security as the star of a long-running television series.

Now, Benny’s actress daughter Norma (Emily Button) has been cast in a career-making play. But when Leo takes over as Norma’s new director, the stage is set for a long-delayed confrontation between the unforgiving Benny and his old antagonist.

Although it starts out sitcom-lite, replete with puerile “booby” jokes, Sweet’s play ultimately addresses some surprisingly resonant issues about moral rationalization and personal responsibility. Sweet also specifically tackles HUAC’s virulent anti-Semitism, a fascinating adjunct to what could have been an overly familiar tale.

Director Stan Roth’s staging is not without problems. Meant to convey Malibu opulence, Victoria Profitt’s set looks more like a dusty Reseda patio than an oceanfront mansion, while the dour Button seems incapable of even the tiniest twinkle.

However, veteran character actors Wyner and Durrell are delightfully easeful performers who never know a false moment. Well-balanced antagonists, they nail their laughs while plumbing the depths of their unexpectedly complicated characters.

-- F.K.F.

“The Value of Names,” Fremont Centre Theatre, 1000 Fremont Ave., South Pasadena. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends July 23. $25. (866) 811-4111 or www.theatermania.com. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.