THEATRE REVIEW:
KPBS AIRDATE: February 09, 2007
Ahh, the idle rich. They have an overabundance of
time – to abandon their relatives and debase their friends. Whether effete snobs
or petulant little girls, the wannabes take a drubbing in two veddy English
plays: Noël Coward’s “Hay Fever” and the musical version of Frances Hodgson
Burnett’s beloved classic, “The Secret Garden.”
Young Mary Lennox is a beleaguered orphan whose parents
died in India during a cholera outbreak. At the outset of the Lucy Simon
musical, with book by Marsha Norman, Mary’s a nasty, spoiled little thing when
she arrives at her sour uncle’s mansion in Yorkshire. The Lamb’s Players
Theatre production plays down her initial irascibility, so she doesn’t take
much of a personal journey, though she does reawaken her brooding, inattentive
uncle and the neglected garden of her deceased aunt. The two kids are cute, but
there are some age mis-matches that undermine the proceedings. The long-dead
aunt looks older than the husband who survived her. The uncle is more youthful
than his younger brother. With minimal heat between the separated lovers, we
aren’t deeply moved when they croon a romantic, yearning ballad across the
Great Divide.
But the singing is flawless, thanks to a stellar
cast, under the musical direction of G. Scott Lacy. The costumes are also
lovely, especially the white silk frocks of the ghosts that swirl through the
action. The up-and-down-the-stairs staging gets a little repetitive, and the
minimalist set doesn’t give the feel of a looming, dingy castle. But the score
is charming and the story, poignant. And those glorious voices provide many
moments of sheer bliss.
The bliss is of a strikingly cynical, derisive
nature up at the Avo, where some snooty Londoners are having a heckuva time out
in the country. In the Moonlight production of “Hay Fever,” the Bliss family, a
wacky, eccentric lot, perhaps more affected than outrageous, has inadvertently invited
too many houseguests for the weekend. The hosts play musical partners, feign
envy and engage in head-spinning mind-games to amuse themselves and undermine
their visitors, who desperately seek an escape to sanity. The mocking repartee
can be relentless if it isn’t done right. But under the crisp direction of
guest artist Eric Bishop, a theater prof at Mira Costa College, it’s all
wonderfully right. The ensemble is outstanding, every actor carving out a
character that, while not necessarily likable, certainly is sharply etched and
well conveyed. From the flibbertigibbet sister to the harebrained brother, the
desultory father to the hyper-theatrical mother, this is a clan you can easily
learn to detest. But their less artistic, more pedestrian guests are odious,
too. The production is deliciously decadent fun, gorgeously attired. Pointless,
predatory behavior never looked so good or seemed so entertaining.
So, take your Hay Fever out into the Garden and
rub noses with the rich and monstrous.
©2007 Patté Productions Inc.