WILSON’S ‘5TH OF JULY’ AT THEATRE WEST

The characters in Lanford Wilson’s “Fifth of July” embody the day-after angst of the ‘70s a shade too neatly. Yet their struggles become surprisingly affecting by the end of the play. The initial pattern of Wilson’s story is obvious, but he works wonders with it.

Except for a few swallowed lines in Act I, Wilson’s play is unblemished in James D. Pasternak’s staging at Theatre West. Much of the effect is achieved through underplaying. Certainly Alan Toy, as the disabled vet, marshals his resources carefully in order to intensify the impact at the end. As his lover, Michael Gough is boyishly tender in a role that seemed more strident in earlier productions.

The vulnerability inside the copper heiress (Jessica Drake) is closer to the surface here; her flighty routines are more of a facade. The other performances (Anne Haney, Judith Piquet, Michael Sabatino, Jim Dratfield) resemble the prototypes, but all are played with conviction and command. Isabelle Walker’s Shirley (“if you please”) Talley is hilarious.

Christa Bartels designed an authentic slice of a white Missouri farm house, and the other designers--Eileen Cooley, Elizabeth O’Connell and Roxanne Merryfield--did unerring work.

Performances at 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West are on Thursdays through Sundays at 8 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 2 (213) 851-4839.

‘AM’

Subtitled “The Pre-Invasion Rock Musical,” the Backlot Cabaret’s “AM” purportedly focuses on the pop ditties of the period just prior to the 1964 arrival of the Beatles in America. It includes a Top 10 countdown, supposedly from August, 1963.

Yet the show’s most rousing response arises from what was actually a post-invasion hit, in 1967--Otis Redding’s version of “Try a Little Tenderness,” sung here by Darryl Milton. It’s more theatrical than the authentic pre-invasion songs; it builds to a climax.

Most of the “AM” numbers belong on the radio (hence the title), not in a theater. They have nice beats, and you can dance to them, but they don’t go anywhere, dramatically speaking.

Even some of these weren’t around in 1963; at the top of the show’s ersatz chart is “Stop! In the Name of Love,” which was a 1965 hit. However, one of the pre-invasion period’s most prominent genres, surf music, is unrepresented in “AM”--an especially odd lapse for a Los Angeles show.

Perhaps the problem was that no one in “AM” looks like a teen-age surfer. The show’s one white guy, Earl Scooter seems most comfortable with “Great Balls of Fire”--a pre-pre-invasion song with rough edges that are atypical of “AM.”

The women are better cast, especially Donna E. Miller. Jill Geddes handles the demure parts well. Marilyn Kaye gets the most laughs from Sharon L. Garrett’s outlandish costumes and wigs, yet Kaye’s campiness becomes excessive, considering the witlessness of Rick Stuart’s slender script. Incidentally, Stuart pretends that pre-invasion America was colorblind, casting further doubt on the show’s devotion to period accuracy.

Kevin Bassinson’s band lends solid support, but Anita Mann’s direction and choreography are no great shakes. Performances are at 657 N. Robertson, Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays at 8 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 7 and 9 p.m. (213) 480-3232.

‘QUARTET’

An evening with the Sledgehammer Theatre sounds dreary--and it is, but in unexpected ways. I thought Sledgehammer’s production of Heiner Muller’s “Quartet” would be anything but subtle, but instead it’s nothing but subtle. Its point vanishes in a haze of tedium.

The only sign of a sledgehammer is in the sound track, a drone of solemn noises that might come from a construction site. Perhaps director Scott Feldsher wants to hammer home a point in the slides that periodically appear on a scrim at the front of the stage, yet these aphorisms and images of sterile modern architecture don’t add up to much.

Neither does the script. Two men talk about their affairs--with each other and with women--and then engage in fantasy role-playing, alternating roles. The talk is abstruse, even at its most scatological; perhaps Carl Weber’s translation has something to do with this.

The program says the play is set in “Time-Space. A drawing room just before the French Revolution. An air-raid shelter after World War III.” Except for the characters’ names (the play is loosely adapted from “Les Liaisons Dangereuses”), none of this is evident.

“Quartet” plays tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m., at the Wallenboyd, 301 Boyd (213) 629-2205.

‘ENIGMA’

“Enigma,” a one-act comedy sketch at Company of Angels, plays like a TV pilot. It offers a few good laughs, but it’s nothing compared to any random episode of “Cheers,” its competition in the barroom comedy department.

Furthermore, it isn’t remotely enigmatic. Authors Mary Stern and Elizabeth L. Wirt play two women who try to patch up their friendship over drinks at a tacky singles joint, surrounded by male bores and boors. Gary Matanky extracts the most laughs from this well worn material.

Performances at 5846 Waring are next Monday and then Tuesdays through Thursdays at 8:30 p.m., with matinees Saturday and Aug. 30 at 2:30 p.m. Ends Sept. 11 (213) 256-3687.