Abigail’s Party

Odyssey Theatre
2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A.
Wednesday-Saturday 8 p.m.,
Saturday 2 p.m.
Through October 19
Tickets: $25-30
odysseytheatre.com

Known for his acclaimed British working-class films (Secrets & Lies, Life is Sweet), writer-director Mike Leigh has a slice-of-life improvisational style that’s an acquired taste. True to form, in this 1977 play, he’s less interested in conventional storytelling than in exploring loopy characters through their idiosyncratic personality traits. Director Julian Holloway and a first-rate cast find the ideal balance between raucously funny satire and the more sobering reflections layered into Leigh’s subtext.

During the first half of this two-hour seriocomedy, it feels like Leigh is serving up a British parody of Edward Albee’s classic marriage-from-hell drama Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? There’s plenty of braying, boozing and bickering at the neighborhood party thrown by a middle-aged couple—a harridan and her henpecked realtor husband. There are vitriolic barbs aplenty, thinly disguised as benign everyday squabbling, when it’s clear the dysfunction runs much deeper. Yet Leigh is after something less metaphoric and more basic than what we get in Albee’s complex works.

The hyper-energetic and stridently aggressive Beverly (Nikki Glick) has invited the new neighbors over for a drink. Her husband, Laurence (Darren Richardson), is preoccupied, wrapping up a business deal. Angela (Phoebe James) is friendly and upbeat, while her ex-football player husband (Jonathan LaPaglia) is the strong and silent type, slowly getting sloshed while quietly observing the escalating madness. Arriving later is nervous and somewhat mystified Susan (Cerris Morgan-Moyer), whose 15-year-old daughter is throwing a shindig of her own—hence the play’s peculiar title. The seemingly mundane dialogue gradually segues to tenser exchanges and the reckless behavior of the characters escalates in proportion to the number of cocktails consumed. Leigh has a great facility for pointing out severe flaws in his characters, but he stops short of passing judgment. Humor and tragedy slowly merge, leading to a startling if rather abrupt conclusion.

Holloway brilliantly captures the ambience of a real-life party—its moments of fun as well as its lapses into tedium and ludicrous antics. As the motor-mouth shrew, the superb Glick dominates the goings-on. LaPaglia is a master at underplaying, eliciting sexual sparks and intensity while having very few words. Richardson, James and Morgan-Moyer are also excellent. Charles Erven’s evocative set perfectly suits the 1970s milieu. This is a party you will likely enjoy crashing.
—Les Spindle

Vanities

Pasadena Playhouse
39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena
Tuesday-Friday 8 p.m., Saturday 4 p.m. & 8 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m. & 7 p.m.
Through Sept. 28
Tickets: $61-76
pasadenaplayhouse.org

When Jack Heifner wrote his original play, Vanities, in 1976, there was no Sex and the City, no Steel Magnolias, hell, there wasn’t even any Golden Girls. His groundbreaking dramedy about three Texas cheerleaders and the ups and downs of their friendship over many years into adulthood struck a chord in the post-Vietnam, post-Watergate era, and the play ran for an almost unheard of five years off-Broadway. These women were decidedly apolitical, but their paths were unmistakably marked by the tumultuous times in which they grew up.

Now, more than 30 years later, Heifner has teamed up with composer David Kirschenbaum to make a musical out of the groundbreaking play, following the women into their forties in a new final scene set in 1990. If the original play was about the inevitable end of friendship, the musical is more about friendship’s endurance. The episodic nature of the show, however, keeps us on the outside of the women’s emotional lives and their mostly self-absorbed pursuits have difficulty earning our empathy.

The daring, iconoclastic gallery owner, Mary (Lauren Kennedy), is the polar opposite of the conventional and unquestioning Joanne (understudy Elizabeth Brackenbury, filling in for an injured Sarah Stiles at the performance reviewed), while the ferociously organized Kathy (Anneliese van der Pol) seems to be overcompensating for something with her endless lists and plans.

Kirschenbaum’s songs recall Pippin-era Stephen Schwartz, although lyrics at times endow the girls with a self-awareness and determination that they don’t seem to possess.

The cast is terrific, with commanding singing voices and strong comedic instincts all around. Kennedy’s powerhouse delivery of “Fly Into the Future” is a highlight, overcoming the song’s inherent hoakiness, and van der Pol shines in the touching “Cute Boys With Short Haircuts.”

Surprisingly, Tony-winning actress Judith Ivey’s direction allows—or, worse, encourages—the women to get too broad, often missing opportunities for genuine connection.

The intermissionless production is accentuated by Joseph G. Aulisi’s wonderful costumes and Josh Marquette’s appropriately conspicuous period wigs. Anna Louizos’ set is imaginative and versatile, effortlessly taking us from a Dallas girls’ locker room to a Manhattan penthouse.

Overall, Vanities is diverting entertainment delivered by a dynamite cast. If we are allowed to get to know each young woman more deeply—especially when they’re alone at their titular vanities—it might become the emotionally engaging Broadway hopeful that producers are counting on.
—Christopher Cappiello