The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 107

2003:10:23:14:36:25 E36 LOSANGELESTIMES For more information, call (818) 772-3484 or (818) 772-3085 or visit our Web site at latimes.com/TIE Yes! I would like tosign up for On The Move. FOR LOS ANGELES COUNTY TEACHERS ONLY School NameGrade Level Subject School Address CityZIPDistrict School PhoneSchool fax Deliver copies (multiples of10) ofthe newspaper on: Start Delivery End Delivery (12 weeks max. program dates: Oct. 6 March 5, 2004) Exclusion Please enroll online at latimes.com/TIE or orders to: 03TIEV048 Street Blvd. Avenue Road Los Angeles County TEACHERS Greater Los Angeles Times in Education 202WestFirstSt.

Los 90012 833-0200 Times in Education 20000 Prairie Chatsworth, CA91311 772-3502 For grades 4-8 NO COSTTO TEACHERS OR SCHOOLS Enroll your classin On The Move a transportation program for the 21stcenturysponsored by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Your studentswill: Use timely content in the newspaper tolearn about transportation in Los Angeles County, how goods and people are moved from one place toanother plus bus and rail transportation opportunitiesfor Los AngelesCounty residentsand visitors. Apply skills in language arts, social science and math. THEATER BEAT facts into the narrative, but veracity the objective. Developed at Theatre of hard-to-define piece is, essentially, a series of nightmarish free associations in which life and work unfold in an America patrolled by sex police. Crumbling walls are covered with political art (by Matt Se- sow)that depicts sex as a closely regulated activity, and the dozen performers are outfitted in dark- blue uniforms (by Kathryn Stockwood).

In episodes stretching from youth to his death at age 62 in 1956, Kinsey (Terry Tocantins) is presented as a man who lives in his head but is eager to get his body involved as well. Though socially awkward, he is catnip to women and men alike, and his sexual activity (depicted with a fair amount of nudity and simulation) ranges across his own Kinsey scale. The brave cast includes Jennifer Ann Evansas wife; Greg Wall as a looming, occasionally brutish authority figure; and Kirsten Vangsnessas a conduit of conflicting attitudes about work. Though in many ways imaginative and ambitious, can be thuddingly obvious one moment and frustratingly incomprehensible the next. Even those who admire it may end up feeling been stung.

Theatre of NOTE, 1517 N. Cahuenga Hollywood. Thursdays- Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Nov. 15.

$15. (323) 856-8611. Running time: 2 hours. Troubled teens take a hike The title hike in Road to leads to the Rocky Mountain Institute, a boot camp for troubled teens. This locale serves as metaphor and pivot for Jay Parkerand James cautionary drama, now at Two Roads Theatre in Studio City.

The principal characters are an embattled father and son, who carry the codependent premise. Michael Daniels (Jeffrey Markle) is a prominent Los Angeles cancer specialist who blinds himself to the corollaries between pot-smoking scion Timothy (Alan Fuller) and jovial alcoholism. After ex-wife sends Timothy to live with Dad and stepmother Aracely (Adriana Millan), the accelerating rebellion becomes untenable. Michael packs his hell- raising offspring off to Colorado on a tip from best friend Richard (Skip Pipo), whose illness Michael fails to detect. Under the watch of RMI counselor Erock (Rico E.

Anderson), Timothy tastes self-esteem for the first time. Mail restrictions keep him unaware that he left his ex-girlfriend (Jennifer Lutheran) expecting, or that Aracely has left Michael, who faces professional ruin from litigious widow (Mikaela Rachal). Real-life physician fact-based narrative is rampant with good intentions. As constructed with co-author Parker, occupies a surreal epistolary whorl that combines Michael Shadow with every inspirational Digest profile ever published. direction is resourceful, and the tech is respectable.

So are the actors, with Markle and Fuller giving their clashes everything they have, as do their accomplished colleagues. Yet the script strains for dramatic impetus, with excessive exposition and too many sidebar plot threads. An affecting property dwells beneath the overgrowth along Road to but its excavation requires the tough love of revision. C. Nichols Road to Two Roads Theatre, 4345 Tujunga Studio City.

Fridays Saturdays, 8 p.m. Indefinitely. Mature audiences. $20. (626) 403-1177.

Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes. An musical effort Few classics have defied musical emendation more than Importance of Being Since its 1895 premiere, Oscar immortal comedy for serious has attracted would-be Offenbachs and Audens like creditors to the aristocracy, as recently as San Vantage Theatre dinner- show version in 2002. The most celebrated example remains in Lee Pockrissand Anne 1960 off-Broadway adaptation, now receiving a well-heeled revival at the Fremont Centre Theatre. After valet Lane (James Ellis Lane) and solicitor Perkins (Richard Van Slyke) establish the noblesse oblige context, author Croswell introduces dualistic hero Jack Worthing (Brendan Ford, ideally earnest), beset by pre-proposal jitters. Next, comes inamorata Gwendolen (Jacqueline Maloney, sweet- voiced without the requisite cunning), engulfed in engagement- slanted chapeaux choices.

Croswell and composer Pock- riss redistribute the epigrams with thoughtful fidelity. The rakish confessions between Jack and Wilde-surrogate Algernon (Jared Zeus, energetic but short on acerbity) become a patter- happy paean to Jack proposes via the Ivor Novello-flavored The interview with Lady Bracknell (Jayne Taini, morphing Patricia Routledge and Doris Roberts) erupts in a Gilbert Sullivan gallop: Handbag Is Not a Proper Rural ingenue Cecily (Kelly Lohman, aptly calculating) turns Palladium soubrette for Wicked Miss Prism and Reverend Chasuble (Amelia Whiteand Richard Voigts, perfectly paired) indulge their flirtation, and so goes the program. Carol Jane and Dan direction are tasteful and commendable. Standouts amid the designs are Evan A. set and Peter A.

Beardsley-meets-Peter Max costumes. However, incomparable text carries innate musicality, rendering underscoring redundant. The nacreous songs are no match for the nonpareil drollery upon which they intrude, with diminishing returns. Audiences who enjoyed Oliver recent film distortion might appreciate this proficient, irrelevant diversion. Die-hard devotees may envy the ephemeral Bunbury.

in Fremont Centre Theatre, 1000 Fremont South Pasadena. Thursdays Saturdays, 8 p.m. Sundays, 2:30 p.m. Also Nov. 9, 16, 23, 30 at 7:30 p.m.

Dark Thanksgiving; Ends Nov. 30. (626) 441-5977. Running time: 2hours, 25 minutes. Historical couples on the couch Romeo to Lancelot: pecs.

You on Lancelot: Wallis Simpson to Romeo: are your Romeo, uncomprehending: Guinevere, complimenting Mrs. outfit: so deceitfully cut, with such a morose melange of Mrs. Simpson: Merci These are some of playwright Marc memorable exchanges from in a new musical that puts three legendary problem couples in therapy with the same exhausted shrink (Linda Kerns) and goes nowhere with them. For 2 1 2 hours. Composer-lyricist Dan Alvy, not to be outdone, has his own clunkers for the hard-working cast.

Juliet, singing about Lancelot: he has the cutest he seems from outer Or the good doctor: I even get For enduring all this Musically, score boasts one mildly striking motif, in lament, and one passable charm song, Favorite an old-style tap duet for Edward and Mrs. Simpson (choreography by Dan Mojica). The rest is chug and slop, neatly dispatched by a three-piece band and sung with heroic conviction by the cast. David direction only heightens the car- toonishness, as actors slam randomly back and forth through the metal doors of Dorian Ver- vaguely sci- fi set. for Something to is one first- act wish number.

the theme song throughout. in Peralta Productions and Shoestring Productions at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. (No performance on Nov.

27; added performance, Nov. 30, 7 p.m.) Ends Dec. 14. $20. (310) 477-2055.

2 hours, 30 minutes. Theater, from Page E35 Peter Gref COUPLING: Terry Tocantins and Celia Anne Brown in Theatre of freely inspired by the life of Alfred Kinsey. Michael Helms WILDE NIGHT: Kelly Lohman and Jared Zeus in the musical in based on Importance of Being.