The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 104

F26 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1994 LOS ANGELES TIMES 'Sonnyville': A Passionate Adaptation anti-dogmatist tract Durang intended, but it is satisfyingly silly. Religious ramifications aside, this is essentially a showcase for Bellamy, who plays the lovable, hateable, mind-bogglingly intolerant nun of Durang's piece. When Bellamy is good, she is very, very good when she's not going up on her lines, that is. In the evening's opener "The Actor's Nightmare," a hapless accountant (Philip Abrams) gets trapped onstage in an ever-mutating production that shifts dizzy-ingly from one theatrical style to another. This companion piece to "Sister Mary" is also played strictly for laughs but then, unlike "Sister Mary," it's supposed to be.

F.K.F. Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You" and "The Actor's Nightmare," Theatre Geo, 1229 N. Highland Los Angeles. Sundays only at 7 p.m. Ends Oct.

30. $12. (213) 466-1767. Running 2 hours. 5 minutes.

'Sister Mary Ignatius' Is Satisfyingly Silly A some-odd-decade ago, Christopher Durang's "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You" was banned in St. Louis, that great Catholic bastion of the Midwest, resulting in a media outcry and earnest editorials about censorship. Today it's hard to understand what all the fuss was about. The character of Sister Mary (Diana Bellamy) is still hilariously horrifying, but in light of recent scandals concerning pedophilic priests, Durang's nun seems more quaint than genuinely shocking. Geo Hartley, who has directed the current production at his own Theatre Geo, displays the fine sense of the ridiculous requisite in the staging of Durang but fails to hone the play to a cutting edge.

Played strictly for laughs, the production may not succeed as the shortcomings, "Hula Hoop Sha-Boop" is an engaging entertainment, with juggernaut choreography by Nathan Prevost and Lynn Brilhante and an infectiously perky cast. F.K.F. Hoop Sha-Boop," 5919 Franklin Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Ends Nov. 20. $15. (213) 466-1767. Running 1 hour, 30 minutes.

'Mr. Sloane' Could Be More Entertaining Cntertaining Mr. Sloane" is Joe tOrton's outrageously lewd parody of a stuffy British drawing-room comedy. But the current revival at the World Theatre in Hollywood has some elements of mystery, too. The viewer wonders why something that reads so funny on paper isn't funnier onstage.

Here are some clues: Under Milton Justice's halting direction, the show moves at a fitful pace, never really kicking into high gear until late in the second act. A promising cast, meanwhile, ultimately disappoints by giving the most obvious readings of these deceptively textured parts. In the title role, David Hamilton somewhat overplays the young man's wide-eyed innocence, while Bonnie McNeil's horny middle-aged matron Kat relies too heavily on quick gestures, such as licking her lips to indicate lasciviousness. Tim McNeil, however, is scarily (and hilariously) cadaverous as Kat's decrepit father, and David Meyer as brother Ed lends the right air of hypocritical dignity to the proceedings. S.C.

Entertaining Mr. Sloane," World Theatre, 6543 Santa Monica Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Oct. 29.

$12. (213) 883-1565. Running time: 2 hours. rs a I A iilOEl AY THE LIGHTS DDOQIIT 1111113111 En ABE IIL 3 imagines a series of amusing counters between her heroine and a gallery of daft characters: a snooty English woman, a fortuneteller and a pornographic model. Director Anne Beatts, a one-time writer for TV's "Saturday Night Live," may have helped mine the comic potential from these bits, even if their connection to the rest of the plot seems a little stretched.

Yet Brucker doesn't expose enough of her character's psyche to win our sympathy or offer the crucial insights that would elevate the show beyond the level of a somewhat superficial monologue. Particularly disconcerting is this self-absorbed protagonist's lack of concern for how risking her marriage might affect her daughter. By the end, the viewer is convinced that Brucker's heroine needs either a good therapist or a good divorce lawyer. The play, meanwhile, could stand a good rewrite. -SCOTT COLLINS Pants on Fire," Met Theatre, 1089 Oxford Hollywood.

Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Nov. 19. $12. (213) 957-1152.

Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes. 'Hula Hoop' Moves in Right Direction So what's not to like about "Hula Hoop Sha-Boop," the toe-tapping musical at the Tamarind in which a high-energy cast sings and dances to pop music of the mid-'50s to early '60s? The narrative that hinges the show together may be slight, but the music is boppin' and the mood strictly escapist. Directed by Larry Deckel, who co-wrote the musical with John Leicht and John Tanner, this revisionist romp down memory lane concentrates on the most common denominators of the period's youth culture fast cars, dating, vintage dance crazes, and, of course, the Hula-Hoop, symbol of a generation just getting into the pelvic-grinding rhythms of rock n' roll. A born pelvis-grinder, the rebellious, black-leather-clad Johnny (Robert Gant) wants to score with fast and flashy Suzie (Jill Salmon). Johnny's nerdy pal Paul (Richard Israel), on the other hand, discreetly and sweetly covets the virginal Paula (Jean Gunn).

These antithetical couples may approach romance from different angles, but their paths converge at the altar. The tone becomes barbed during "Duck and Cover," an actual jingle of the time advising children what to do in the event of an atomic explosion. However, for the most part, McCarthyism, the Cold War and the threat of nuclear annihilation are distant murmurings, only dimly heard above the din of the malt shop Wurlitzer. The show's coda, which alludes to the Kennedy assassination and the Vietnam War, seems tacked on, an obligatory paean to the end of an era. Whatever its structural TKEMREEflf From the moment we enter the Lex Theatre, redolent of incense and twinkling with fairy lights strung in the trees of Gar-man Noah's wonderfully ramshackle set, we are seduced into a desultory daydream that is alter nately turbulent and torpid, gently humorous and rantingly melodra matic.

We are in "Sonnyville," the Actors Conservatory Ensemble's loose adaptation of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya," updated and set in a failing Mendocino winery. The writer and director of the piece, Mark Haining, who recently directed both "Uncle Vanya" and "The Three Sisters" at ACE, knows his way around Chekhov, circuitously speaking. Like Chekhov's, Haining's characters drift in a purposeless void, -yet their every action is informed by an undercurrent of throbbing Sensuality that vitalizes them. A melange of eccentrics, the characters range from unreconstructed 'hippies to visionary New Agers to 'modern-day philistines. Eventually, the sexual crosscurrents among them reach flood stage.

Haining's rambling, self-indulgent adaptation is risky, but his -actors, himself included, are so Committed to the work that they pull it off. Keenly nostalgic, the play is reminiscent of students "fuddled about a dorm room ranting about life and the universe until the wee hours. Although we may lose our way in the discourse, we admire the passion behind it. F. KATHLEEN FOLEY I Sonnyville," Lex Theatre, 6760 Lexington Hollywood.

Thurs-' days-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 Ends Oct. 30. $15. (213) 1 463-6244. Running 2 hours, 45 minutes.

'Pants on Fire': A -Smothered Attempt If Madame Bovary were living today in a big American city, she might resemble the heroine of "Pants on Fire." Writer-performer Jane Bruck-er's seriocomic one -woman play concerns a 30-something New York artist (Brucker) who has an affair with one of her male models after years of stultifying marriage. The show runs in the Met Theatre's downstairs space, for- told Los Angeles Actors' Theatre. Ruefully noting that she had always wanted to be buried next to her husband, Brucker's protagonist catches herself: "What am I talking about? I've been buried next to i him for the last couple of years." i Such is the wistful -bitter tone of 'Pants on Fire," which is sporadically funny and touching but seems to deliver far less than it promises. A superb mimic, Brucker here ill! BH0AD1M1Y! Discover the place where they're even brighter in Sunday's Calendar. (213)972-0700 uiiitttna HoMwoodCotUMttt m.

CorMtrrtmtPvW end cam uupiu Part II Preview Tonight at ISLANDS Oct 23 -Dec 11 Performance Schedule FRIOCT 21 SATOCT 22 SUNOCT 23 PREVIEW PART II 8PM MARATHON PREVIEW PARTI 2PM PART II OPENS TODAY 2PM MARKJAPERFORUM Music Center of Los Angeles County 135 N. Grand Los Angeles Tonight at 81 Hurry! Final 5 Perfs! "PRAY TO GET 'i-A TICKET." -Daryl II. Miller, Daily Htm The Royal National Theatre Company of Great Britain In David Hare's Bemon Directed by Richard Eyre Exclusive Engagement Thru Sun, Oct 23 Onlyl 0 AhmansonDoolittle UCLA JAMES A. DOOLITTLE THEATRE 1615 N. Vine Street, Hollywood Purchase your exact seat locations to Racing Demon or Floating Islands by calling (213) 3653500 740-2000 Of buy ydhr tickets at BtocWxJStfif MusiC, Reinserts May, Tower Stores.

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