BACK STAGE WEST

April 05, 2001 

        

THE WICKED STAGE

 

by Rob Kendt

Recently, after a play's final performance, someone asked innocently, "When's the strike?" The questioner got an earful about the Writers Guild and SAG's contract deadlines--until he explained that he was referring to the set take-down. Oops.

 

The Evidence Room is probably the most exciting theatre space in Los Angeles, and not just for what's onstage. There's an inviting hangout vibe from the moment you enter the cavernous lobby, with its comfortable seating, kitschy light fixtures, and spacious bar. It's easy to see why it's a popular gathering spot; even after impresario Bart DeLorenzo's harrowing recent production of Saved, which you'd think would send an audience out in grim silence, post-show schmoozing showed no signs of abating.

 

Now up through Apr. 22 is Zoo District's Nosferatu, a fascinating if not always harmonious blend of Gothic, commedia, and Weimar cabaret. One gets the feeling, as we watch a young, energetic cast hurtle and camp around some brilliantly executed scenic elements, that the authors and actors have essentially put a bunch of stuff they think is cool onstage. A lot of it is, and not the least of cool things is the score played live by a five-piece band that includes composer/drummer/performer Jef Bek (who, by the way, is still looking for banjo, marimba, and washboard players to assay his "mud music" score for ZD's upcoming The Slow and Painful Death of Sam Shepard).

 

Full disclosure: I hired Bek and co. as the house band for our Garland awards in January, and Bek has invited yours truly to perform some songs a few times at the ZD's Cafe Fini, a casual cabaret held occasionally after weekend performances of Nosferatu. A recent edition of Fini featured weird and woolly hosting by Ben Simonetti and short films by ZD members Simonetti, Joe Fria, and Peter Alton (the black cat from ZD's award-winning 2000 production of The Master and Margarita). Also caught recently at the Evidence Room was ZD member Ben Davis' captivating, dryly funny one-man show In Absentia, directed by Loren Rubin.

 

Interesting trivia about the Evidence Room's current production of Richard Greenberg's three-hander Three Days of Rain, which has been all over the regional circuit since its premiere at South Coast Rep in 1997: Threads are courtesy of the show's original costumer, Candice Cain, a friend of the company and of small L.A. theatre in general.

 

Meanwhile, connections formed during last year's tremendous The Berlin Circle are still bearing fruit: Director David Schweizer and star Megan Mullally will team up to take another swing at Mullally's one-woman cabaret show, which ran with the title Sweetheart at the Coast Playhouse in 1999. This twisted performance piece, with a band backing the diva in some eclectic covers (including songs by Megan's two fave tunesmiths, Tom Waits and Randy Newman), got positive if slightly puzzled reviews; I recall that our critic Paul Birchall called it "precious." Schweizer's playful but razor-sharp directorial touch should do the piece good. It will open with the new title Jaded on May 26 for a limited run.

 

Schweizer is also helming a solo piece by another of Berlin's stars, John Fleck, whose Mud in Your Eye will preview Apr. 8, 3 p.m. at the Evidence Room prior to a New York run. And in May, The Imperialists at the Club Cave Canem, a piece by Berlin's brilliant author Charles L. Mee, will run at the space for three weeks. DeLorenzo calls it a "wild, edgy bedroom play, continually interrupted by performance pieces," which will mean guest turns by performance luminaries.

 

Finally, Berlin also made a love connection: Mullally and Nick Offerman, who was hilarious as a Berlin police flunky and later received raves for his work in Saved. I first enjoyed his work in Roadworks' Chicago-imported production of Mike Leigh's Ecstasy at the Odyssey in 1998.

 

And so the Evidence circle expands. Such are the makings of a bona fide theatre scene, methinks.