Path to Redemption Is Lined With Sitcoms in Merry ‘Primetime’

In the skewered footsteps of “Bat Boy!” and “Urinetown” comes “Once Upon a Primetime,” a Neurotic Young Urbanites premiere now playing the Powerhouse Theatre in Santa Monica.

Lauren Bowles and Lauren Cohn’s libretto presents one Edna Crumb (the memorable Jodi Harris), born minus vocal cords (“You’ve got a bouncing baby mime!”), with network programming her only consolation. After devilish Diablo Skeezix (the outre Christopher Shea) ensnares Edna in a Faustian pact to obtain a voice, she embarks on a television quest through Reagan-era sitcoms to retrieve her soul.

At its best, this loopy spoof is deliciously twisted, with directors Patrick Fischer and John Lange ready to exploit all satiric avenues. The sharply executed, inventive designs reflect this, especially Ilana Radin’s TV-screen-dominated set, and so does the endearing ensemble.

Harris, suggesting Marlee Matlin and Susan Egan morphed, carries the house from entrance onward with effortless charm. Shea is hilariously over the top--Charles Busch as a George Grosz drawing--and the surrounding players all attack multiple roles with the unfettered glee of Harvard students in a Hasty Pudding lampoon.

Paradoxically, this reveals the show’s principal shortcoming. The amiably jejune book and score (music by Curtis Moore, lyrics by Amanda Green) lack substantive identity, slighting the theme of trusting one’s inner voice in favor of ham-fisted parody. Still, if “Once Upon a Primetime” seems more cabaret than integrated musical, it provides considerable merriment regardless.

David C. Nichols

“Once Upon a Primetime,” Powerhouse Theatre, 3116 2nd St., Santa Monica. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends July 27. $20. (310) 572-6748. Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes.

*

Inner Beauty the Topic of Sluggish ‘Fat Chance’

A couple of feel-good sayings--beauty is in the eye of the beholder; it’s what’s inside that counts--have been cobbled together in what seems a sincere attempt at humor as well as poignancy in “Fat Chance.”

But too little of either quality comes through in the sluggishly paced production that Blue Sphere Alliance gives this unfocused, static story.

Jim Brochu’s early-’90s play predates his work on the musical “The Last Session” with songwriter Steve Schalchlin. Both shows deal with the power of friendship and the surprises that can lurk beneath a person’s appearance, but that’s where the resemblance ends.

“Fat Chance” visits the Philadelphia home of sculptor Matisse Salinger (Ann Partrich). Self-conscious about her weight, she hasn’t ventured outside the house in months, causing her gallery-owner mother (Peggy Mannix) and her longtime housekeeper and friend (Masequa Myers, substituting for Jonelle Allen) to become concerned. A resolution seems to present itself when a stalled car brings a handsome stranger (Michael Lightsey) to the door. He stays to become Matisse’s model and, perhaps, more.

Partrich is believable as a woman who has been damaged by life and uses an ironic sense of humor to keep anyone from getting close enough to hurt her again. Lightsey brings a sly sexiness to his role, as well as an endearing desire to be appreciated for more than his pretty body.

But at a recent performance, long pauses and a general sense of hesitancy bogged down Anthony Barnao’s staging, which drew attention to the weaknesses in Brochu’s talky, pop-psychology-spouting script.

Nudity alert: It’s part of the show, but used artfully and discreetly.

Daryl H. Miller

Blue Sphere Alliance at the Lex, 6760 Lexington Ave., Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Also this Sunday, 7 p.m. Ends July 6. $15. (323) 957-5782. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

*

Morality, Compromises in WWII-Era Italy

Ravaged by poverty, corruption and oppression, the moral quagmire of World War II-era Naples is a fitting backdrop for Italian playwright Eduardo deFilippo’s “Napoli Milionaria,” a cautionary tale about the tests of character a family faces in its struggle for survival.

In a lavish staging by Deborah LaVine for the Road Theatre Company, skillful performances by Sam Anderson and Suanne Spoke bring timeless resonance to DeFilippo’s fascination with the best and worst in human nature. With even bare necessities hard to come by under the Mussolini regime, Spoke’s fiercely ambitious matriarch, Donna Amalia, supports her family by dealing in black market commodities. Her more genial, easygoing husband Gennaro (Anderson) goes along with her scams, reaching a farcical peak of passivity when pretending to be a corpse to keep the police from finding the contraband stashed in his “deathbed.”

Penned in an era less constricted by cast budgets, DeFilippo’s meandering first act establishes a broad social tableau inhabited by the family’s many acquaintances, only a fraction of which figure prominently in the ensuing action. The household and even the neighboring street life are rendered with breathtaking detail in another of Desma Murphy’s space-defying sets, which continue to put larger, better-resourced venues to shame. Amid the gently humorous portrayals of eccentric personalities, a particularly well-staged, seat-rattling re-creation of an air raid injects a sobering reminder of the ongoing war.

Nevertheless, keeping track of a bewildering array of characters without a clear direction to the story is a tough challenge. Some accents as authentic as canned spaghetti cause further distractions.

Following the intermission, however, the piece finds its focus and dramatic footing when Gennaro, separated from the family (by a plot device) for more than a year, returns home to find a very different state of affairs. Amalia’s smuggling business has continued to thrive, even under the Allied occupation. No longer able to rationalize their illegal pursuits in the name of survival, the morally compromised clan has a hard time accepting criticism from Gennaro’s insightful voice of conscience. It takes an act of supreme nobility from one of the victims (K.C. Marsh) of Amalia’s exploitation to rekindle their sense of social responsibility.

An old-fashioned morality tale, to be sure, but one that still connects through hard-hitting performances.

Philip Brandes

“Napoli Milionaria,” Lankershim Arts Center, 5108 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Aug. 24. $20 (this Sunday, pay what you can), (818) 761-8838. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.