Judy Richter

Although “Show Boat” has generally been considered a pioneering work of the American musical theater, it has an operatic scope. The San Francisco Opera makes that point in its lavish company premiere of the 1927 work that composer Jerome Kern and lyricist-author Oscar Hammerstein II based on a novel by American Edna Ferber.

Many of its songs are familiar to American audiences, but they sound better with operatic voices. As soon as sonorous bass Morris Robinson starts singing one of those songs, “Ol’ Man River,” early in the show,  it takes on a new resonance. Robinson plays Joe, a black worker on the Cotton Blossom, the titular show boat on theMississippi.

Another outstanding singer is baritone Michael Todd Simpson as Gaylord Ravenal, a debonair gambler who happens upon the boat and immediately falls in love with the owner’s daughter, Magnolia Hawks, played by soprano Heidi Stober. Their “Make Believe” upon meeting is another of the show’s many highlights. Stober also is a talented dancer and even plays guitar in one scene.

Joe’s wife, the no-nonsense Queenie, the boat’s cook, is played by soprano Angela Renée Simpson.

The final singer from operatic ranks is longtime SFO and worldwide favorite, soprano Patricia Racette, who plays Julie, leading lady of the Cotton Blossom show and a close friend of Magnolia. She enlivens the stage with “Can’t Help Lovin’ DatMan.”

Playing in two acts with a 25-minute intermission, “Show Boat” spans more than 40 years, starting in the 1880s and continuing through 1927. Paul Tazewell’s colorful costumes and Michele Lynch’s dynamic choreography for nearly everyone in the cast reflect the changing times and styles. Sets by Peter J. Davison take the action to Natchez, Miss., Chicago and New York City.

Others featured in the cast are rubber-legged comic actor Bill Irwin as Cap’n Andy Hawks, the boat’s owner; and Harriet Harris as his dour wife, Parthy Ann. Patrick Cummings plays Julie’s husband and co-star, Steve. The secondary actors in the boat’s show are Ellie May Chipley (Kirsten Wyatt) and Frank Schultz (John Bolton).

John DeMain conducts the excellent orchestra and Ian Robertson’s always wonderful chorus.

“Show Boat” not only examines a facet of American show business history but also looks at the toll taken by racism at the time. It’s also a love story for several characters through the years.

The San Francisco Opera proves that it rightfully belongs on the operatic stage and deserves this outstanding production.

It continues at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House through July 2. For tickets and information, call (415) 864-3330 or visit www.sfopera.com.

Judy Richter

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It’s 1896, and a former whaling ship is sailing from the United States to Liberia with an all-black crew in Christina Anderson’s “pen/man/ship,” being given its world premiere by Magic Theatre.

The only characters the audience meets are the three black passengers and a crew member. Chief among the passengers is Charles (Adrian Roberts), a land surveyor who has chartered the ship and hired the crew because he has a project awaiting him in the African nation. At first, he’s the only one who knows the true nature of the mission.

He is accompanied by his adult son, Jacob (Eddie Ray Jackson), who has brought along a woman friend, Ruby (Tangela Large). The crew member who befriends Charles is the accordion-playing Cecil (Tyee Tilghman).

Part of this psychological drama focuses on the love-hate relationship that Jacob has for his imperious, elitist father, who imbibes regularly in gin. The other part focuses on the astute Ruby and her increasingly contentious relationship with Charles and closer relationship to the crew, who are growing to dislike him.

The passage of time in this two-act play is depicted by the journal kept by the widowed Charles. Many scenes take place on the sabbath, which father and son have regularly observed with hymns and the study of Bible verses. Ruby is invited to join them, but she’s not terribly receptive, especially since Charles doesn’t trust her.

After the death of a crewman who supposedly attacked Charles, he refuses to tell the crew what happened. Consequently, Ruby orders the sailors to lower the sails, leaving the ship adrift on the ocean, until he agrees to talk to them.

Director Ryan Guzzo Purcell keeps the play moving fairly well despite its talkiness and relatively confined quarters (set by Angrette McCloskey). Still, it drags in spots. Likewise, the actors do well, but sometimes the characters reveal key information so off-handedly that some in the audience might not catch its implications.

The often-dark lighting is by Ray Oppenheimer with ocean sounds by Sara Huddleston. Costumes are by Antonia Gunnarson.

The play has undergone a long genesis of workshops at several venues, but it still could benefit from some tightening and clarifying.

It will continue at the Magic Theatre, Building D, FortMasonCenter, San Francisco, through June 15. For tickets and information, call (415) 441-8822 or visit www.magictheatre.org.

Judy Richter

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t’s 1959, and three generations of the Younger family share a cramped, rundown apartment on Chicago’s predominantly black South Side.

Hope is scarce, but now the family has some in Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun,” presented by California Shakespeare Theater. The matriarch, Lena Younger (Margo Hall), receives a $10,000 check (big money in those days) from her late husband’s life insurance. It’s enough that maybe some dreams can come true.

Lena dreams of moving the family to a home of their own. Her college student daughter, Beneatha (Nemuna Ceesay), wants to become a doctor. Her son, Walter Lee (Marcus Henderson), wants to become rich by investing in a liquor store. His wife, Ruth (Ryan Nicole Peters), wants to revive their crumbling marriage and provide a better future for their 10-year-old son, Travis (Zion Richardson).

These dreams come in a racially divided society, one that has left Walter Lee, who works as a white man’s chauffeur, frustrated and angry. He takes out his anger on the women in his family, especially Ruth, and tries to escape through alcohol.

When Lena makes a down payment on a house in a predominantly white neighborhood, ClybournePark, a representative of its homeowner association, Karl Lindner (Liam Vincent), calls on them. In one of the highlights of this production directed by Patricia McGregor, the family’s politeness on the assumption that he is welcoming them to the neighborhood gradually turns to dismay and anger when they learn that the association will buy their house at a considerable sum to keep them out. They send him on his way.

In the meantime, Lena has given Walter Lee the $6,500 left after the down payment. She tells him to set aside $2,000 for Beneatha’s education and to put the rest into a checking account for himself. Instead, he gives all of the money to one of his partners in the liquor store plan, but the man disappears.

This play, which opens Cal Shakes’ 40th anniversary season, is historic in its own right because it was the first play by a black woman to be produced on Broadway. It also depicts a sorry chapter in American history that is still ongoing despite numerous advances in racial relations since 1959.

Director McGregor has elicited nicely nuanced performances, especially by Hall as the indomitable Lena and Peters as Walter’s long-suffering wife. Ceesay makes Beneatha an intelligent young woman who’s searching for more meaning in her life. Richardson is believable as young Travis. Beneatha’s two boyfriends and fellow students, the wealthy, pretentious George and politically astute Joseph from Nigeria, are well played by York Walker and Rotimi Agbabiaka (who hails from Nigeria), respectively. Vincent is suitably officious as Karl, the white neighborhood emissary who keeps referring to the family as “you people.”

Henderson’s performance as Walter Lee is problematic because he makes the character so agitated most of the time.

The set is by Dede M. Ayite with ambient lighting by Gabe Maxson and sound by Will McCandless. Costumes are by Katherine Nowacki.

The play’s title comes from “Harlem,” by black poet Langston Hughes, who wrote, “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”

In the case of the Younger family, it doesn’t, thanks to the hope evinced by the ending.

“A Raisin in the Sun” will continue at Cal Shakes’ outdoor Bruns Memorial Amphitheater, 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way(off Highway 24), Orinda, through June 15. For tickets and information, call (510) 548-9666 or visit www.calshakes.org.

If you’re a first-timer, be advised that evening performances can be quite chilly. Picnicking is OK, and there’s a café.

Judy Richter

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There’s no doubt that Tony Kushner is one of the nation’s most brilliant, erudite playwrights. His much-honored “Angels inAmerica” is the best example of his genius.

Now Berkeley Repertory Theatre is staging a more recent work, “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures.” While it doesn’t equal the power and fascination of “Angels,” it nevertheless is absorbing and often humorous throughout most of its three hours and 40 minutes (including two 15-minute intermissions).

The title itself reflects Kushner’s wide-ranging intellect, referring to playwright George Bernard Shaw’s nonfiction “The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism” and Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy’s “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.”

The play, however, is primarily a family drama set in the Brooklyn brownstone of the Marcantonio family in 2007. The sister of the Italian American family’s patriarch, 72-year-old Gus (Mark Margolis), has gathered his three adult children and their significant others because he wants to sell the house and commit suicide. He says he’s developing Alzheimer’s.  It later turns out that Gus, a retired longshoreman, former Marxist and labor leader, also has grown disenchanted with the 21st century.

Although his announced intention is the catalyst for the play, it also focuses on relationships within the family and between the children and others, starting with his son Pill (Lou Liberatore). He’s a history teacher who recently moved to Minneapolis with his longtime lover and now husband, Paul (Tyrone Mitchell Henderson). The couple moved from New York because of Pill’s romantic relationship with a young hustler, Eli (Jordan Geiger).

Gus’s only daughter is Empty (her real name is Maria Teresa, or MT), a lawyer played by Deirdre Lovejoy. Her wife, Maeve (Liz Wisan ), is eight months pregnant with sperm from Empty’s other brother, Vito (Joseph J. Parks), a contractor, who is married to Sooze (Tina Chilip). Empty’s former husband, Adam (Anthony Fusco), lives in the home’s basement apartment.

Completing the family circle is Gus’s taciturn sister, Clio (Randy Danson), a former nun who does social work in the slums of nearby Patterson,N.J. The only outside character is Gus’s friend Shelle (Robynn Rodriguez), who appears briefly in Act 3 and details how he can kill himself.

There’s a great deal of angst, argument and political philosophy as events unfold. Often everyone talks at once, but does anyone listen?

Directed by BRT artistic director Tony Taccone, the acting is excellent and most of the characters are sharply etched, but Kushner hasn’t developed some as well as others.

Christopher Barecca’s set design features the two-level brownstone and other locations that are slid or lowered into place. Completing the design team are Alexander V. Nichols, lighting; Jake Rodriguez, sound; and Meg Neville, costumes.

Even though Taccone does his best to keep the action flowing and Kushner has revised the play since its 2009 premiere in Minneapolis, it still could benefit from revisions. Some scenes, especially those involving Pill and Eli, are too long. Some of the secondary characters, such as Sooze and Maeve, need more fleshing out. Some plot developments seem abrupt.

In short, Kushner weaves a rich tapestry, as he always does, but this one has some loose threads.

The play will continue at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley, through June 29. For tickets and information, call (510) 647-2949 or visit www.berkeleyrep.org.

Judy Richter

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Even though J.B. Priestley’s “An Inspector Calls” is set in Brumley, England, in 1912, it could just as easily be set in the United States in 2014.

Its condemnation of an elitist attitude that disregards the needs of the less privileged is as relevant today as it was then. Stanford Repertory Theater (formerly Stanford Summer Theater) makes that point clear in its excellent production directed by Rush Rehm.

Priestley’s original, written in the winter of 1944-45, near the end of World War II, was in three acts and ran for more than two hours. Rehm apparently is using the streamlined, 90-minute Royal National Theatre adaptation by director Stephen Daldry, which won four 1994 Tony Awards and came to San Francisco in 1996.

The action takes place in the drawing room of the wealthy Birling family. They’re celebrating the engagement of daughter Sheila (Kiki Bagger) to Gerald Croft (Ethan Wilcox). His father’s firm is the chief rival to Sheila’s father’s firm. Her father, the socially and financially ambitious Arthur (James Carpenter), foresees a successful business alliance in their romantic relationship.

Joining the celebration are Sheila’s mother, Sybil (Courtney Walsh), and brother, Eric (Andre Amarotico).

Their evening is interrupted by the arrival of Inspector Goole (Weston Gaylord) of the Brumley police. He says that a young woman has committed suicide by swallowing disinfectant, leading to an agonizing death.

Their reaction, although horrified, amounts to “So what? This has nothing to do with us.” Inspector Goole disagrees, and proceeds to show how actions by each person led to her final desperate act.

Her downfall started two years earlier when she was working in Arthur’s factory. He fired her because she led a campaign to raise his workers’ wages. He said that if he paid his workers more, his profits would drop.

Later, she was working in a fashionable women’s clothing store when Sheila demanded that she be fired because of a perceived impertinence. When Gerald and then Eric met her, she was desperately poor. Each man helped her for a bit, but Gerald abandoned her, and she broke off with Eric. Finally, she went to a committee that helps poor women, but her request was refused by Sybil, the committee head.

Hence, they see how each one bore some responsibility for the woman’s fate. Shortly thereafter, however, they suspect that what Goole has told them isn’t true and that he isn’t who he says he is.

The elder Birlings and Gerald are relieved and readily resume their elitist attitudes. However, Sheila and Eric seem transformed by their feelings of guilt. The audience is left to ponder who Goole (rhymes with ghoul) really is and why he arrived that evening.

As is true with Stanford Rep’s summer productions, this one features both seasoned, professional actors alongside students. The professionals here are Carpenter and Walsh, who so ably portray the parents and their sense of privilege. The students do an excellent job of bringing out the nuances of their characters. The cast is completed by another student, Jenna Wisch, as the Birlings’ maid.

Production values are high with period costumes by Connie Strayer and lighting by Dan Wadleigh. Erik Flatmo’s dining room set features an ample dining table, sideboard and grandfather clock, which shows the correct time.

In today’s terms, one might say that the people in the Birlings’ dining room represent the 1 percent. Therefore, it’s appropriate that this production is a part of the Ethics of Wealth series presented by Stanford’s Ethics in Society program.

It’s both theatrically rewarding and intellectually intriguing.

“An Inspector Calls” will continue in Piggott Theater (Memorial Auditorium), 551 Serra Mall, Stanford, through May 24. For tickets and information, call (650) 725-5838 or visit http://taps.stanford.edu/

Judy Richter

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In an intricately constructed 90 minutes spanning five generations and several decades, San Jose Repertory Theater is staging “The Big Meal” by Dan LeFranc.

All of the action takes place in a restaurant — not necessarily the same one over the years — where the story begins with the meeting of Sam, a customer, and Nicole. After some ups and downs, they marry, have kids, grandkids and even a great grandchild. Along the way there are marriages, deaths, spats, humor and an underlying sense of caring.

The action is propelled by four pairs of actors: two children, two young adults, two middle-aged adults and two senior citizens. Youngsters Sophia Grace Cuthbert and Nicolas Garcia play all of the children’s roles. The adults portray Sam and Nicole at various stages in their lives.

When first seen, Sam and Nicole are played by Aaron Wilton and Jessica Lynn Carroll. As their characters mature, they’re replaced by Carrie Paff and Mark Anderson Phillips. Finally, Catherine MacNeal and Richard Farrell, who are first seen as Sam’s parents, become Sam and Nicole. Along the way, the actors portray other characters. For example, Wilton and Carroll, the young adults, become Sam and Nicole’s young adult children, Robbie and Maddie.

As the play continues, it’s sometimes difficult to keep up with everyone. A family tree in the program would help.

Director Kirsten Brandt moves the action briskly. For example, an actor might exit as one character and immediately return as another. Before a character dies, he or she eats one last meal (brought by an uncredited stage hand), then quietly exits.

In one of the final scenes, Sam and Nicole (MacNeal and Farrell), are elderly. Because Sam has dementia, probably Alzheimer’s, Nicki lovingly feeds him before he exits. It’s a moving moment.

Nina Ball’s set features diner-style tables downstage with several booths upstage, backed by a set of doors and several windows that enable to audience to see a character’s final exit. The effective lighting is by Kurt Landisman, with unobtrusive sound by Jeff Mockus. Costumes by Shannon Sigman easily span the decades.

All of the actors in this ensemble work are excellent. The play itself reflects the changes in family dynamics that take place over time. No doubt some in the audience might recognize scenes from their own families.

“The Big Meal” will continue at San Jose Repertory Theatre, 101 Paseo de San Antonio, San Jose, through June 1. For tickets and information, call (408) 367-7255 or visit www.sjrep.com.

Judy Richter

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Leaving her post after 16 years, Hillbarn Theatre artistic director Lee Foster has made “The Color Purple” her swan song with the Foster City company.

It’s an ambitious undertaking with a 23-member, mostly black cast telling a story that spans nearly 40 years (1909 to 1945) in the life of a black woman in the South.

That woman, Celie (Leslie Ivy), is first seen as a 14-year-old impregnated for the second time by Pa (Andy Serrano), the man she believes to be her father. After the baby is born, Pa says he’ll get rid of it, just as he did the other child, much to Celie’s distress.

A neighboring farmer Mr. ____ (Anthone D. Jackson), calls on Pa hoping to marry Celie’s beloved younger sister, Nettie (Jacqueline Dennis), but winds up with Celie instead. After staving off advances by both Pa and Mr. ____, Nettie leaves, again to Celie’s distress.

Celie’s life with Mr. ____ is just as miserable as it was with Pa. She’s nothing more than a servant whom he mistreats and abuses. However, her fortunes begin to change when Shug Avery (Dawn L. Troupe), a popular singer and Mr.’s ____ longtime lover, moves in with them and sings at the juke joint owned by his son Harpo (Brian M. Landry).

Eventually Celie breaks away from Mr. ____, learns about real love thanks to Shug, gains self-respect and becomes a successful business woman, first in Memphis and then back in her hometown of Eatonton, Ga.

The story unfolds episodically, but the set by Kuo-Hao Lo (lighting by Don Coluzzi) accommodates quick scene changes. Costumes by Margaret Toomey help to define changing times.

Besides those already mentioned, the other major character is Harpo’s wife, Sofia (Jihan Sabir), a strong-willed woman who refuses to be subservient to anyone, a trait that proves costly.

Three Church Ladies, played by Ladidi Garba, Debra Harvey and Pam Drummer-Williams, serve as a kind of Greek chorus, commenting on the action. Others in the cast play a variety of characters.

Overall, the performance level is quite high by everyone, especially the principals. Choreography by Jayne Zaban is outstanding, especially in the juke joint scene, “Push Da Button.” The men’s dancing is especially notable.

The singing is generally quite good under the leadership of musical director Greg Sudmeier, who is Foster’s husband and who also is leaving the company. Much of the musical accompaniment is recordings from Right On Cue Services.

However, the lyrics are often difficult to follow because of diction and the Southern black dialect. Compounding the comprehension problem is Alan Chang’s sound design, which is so loud that it distorts the lyrics.

“The Color Purple” began life as a 1982 novel by Alice Walker of San Francisco. From there it became the 1985 film that helped launch the career of Oprah Winfrey, who played Sofia. She subsequently became one of the producers bringing the story to the Broadway musical stage in 2005. The national tour came to San Francisco in 2007.

Marsha Norman adapted the musical from Walker’s book. The music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray encompass several styles such as gospel, blues, honky-tonk and ragtime.

The two-act production at Hillbarn clocks in at nearly three hours, in part due to long restroom lines at intermission but in larger part due to the show itself. Despite the many years that it covers, some scenes seem expendable, especially in the second act. It opens with two long scenes from Africa, where Nettie has become a missionary who has Celie’s children with her. Only the first scene, which has some terrific dancing, works well. Another expendable scene is “Is There Anything I Can Do for You?” a duet for Harpo and Sofia. It’s well done but doesn’t do much to advance the story, especially since the adaptation is a bit short on developing some characters and clarifying some plot details.

Despite shortcomings in the show itself, this production serves it well, thanks in large part to a talented, energetic, committed cast and Foster’s astute direction.

“The Color Purple” will continue at Hillbarn Theatre, 1285 E. Hillsdale Blvd., Foster City, through June 1. For tickets and information, call (650) 349-6411 or visit www.hillbarntheatre.org.

Judy Richter

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Mel Brooks has a knack for converting his funny, successful movies into funny, successful musicals.  “The Producers” came first, and then “Young Frankenstein,” which is delighting Palo Alto Players audiences.

Director Patrick Klein has assembled an outstanding cast and artistic team who have all contributed to a polished, hilarious production.

Set in 1934, the book by Brooks and Thomas Meehan concerns a successful American brain surgeon, Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Steven Ennis), who must travel to Transylvania to claim the estate of his late grandfather.

When he arrives, he’s greeted by his grandfather’s humpbacked lab assistant, Igor (Joey McDaniel), and the comely Inga (Jessica Whittemore), who is to be his assistant, too. Also on hand is his grandfather’s housekeeper-lover, Frau Blücher (Linda Piccone).

He says he wants nothing to do with his grandfather’s work, which involved digging up dead bodies, implanting them with brains, and thus creating scary monsters that kept the villagers on edge.

Nevertheless, Frederick succumbs to the scientific lure, believing that if he implants a body with the brain of a brilliant, good person, the new creation also will be brilliant and good. Unfortunately, Igor mistakenly brings him an abnormal brain.

The resultant monster (Michael D. Reed) is a hulking, shuffling, inarticulate creature who gets loose and sends the village into a frenzy. As he crashes through the woods, he encounter sFrederick’s fiancee, Elizabeth (Lindsay Stark), who had never allowe dFrederick to touch her. She had arrived unexpectedly and found Frederick and Inga in a compromising situation. When she meets the monster, his physical endowments lead to a mutually satisfying union.

There’s more after that. Suffice it to say that the entire show is infused with Brooks’ zany, frequently risque humor as well as tuneful music with clever lyrics. Musical theater fans will find some songs with subtle references to other Broadway hits like “South Pacific” in “(There Is Nothing Like) The Brain,” “Annie” in “Together Again for the First Time” and “Fiddler on the Roof” in “Life, Life.”

Then there’s the direct use of an Irving Berlin hit, “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” that becomes a full-out, tap-dancing production number choreographed by Jennifer Gorgulho. Her work, so well executed by the ensemble and principals throughout the show, is inspired by the original Broadway director/choreographer, Susan Stroman.

Klein’s director’s notes say that when he saw the original Broadway production in 2007, he didn’t think it could be done in a regional theater because it needs “specific actors with impeccable comic timing, giant sets and a million costumes. In short, it requires a giant budget.”

Well, now the show is on a regional, nonprofessional stage without a huge budget, yet artistic creativity and an abundantly talented cast have allayed his concerns. Kuo-Hao Lo’s simple yet evocative sets easily adapt to frequent scene changes. Lighting by Carolyn Foot and sound by Grant Huberty enhance the often eerie moods, while Shannon Maxham’s costumes reflect both the era and the characters’ personalities. Musical director Matthew Mattei leads the mostly satisfactory orchestra.

As Frederick, Ennis is seemingly indefatigable, singing, dancing and acting his way through this demanding role with nary a misstep. Whittemore’s Inga is not only sexy but also multi-talented, as seen in the yodeling she does in “Roll in the Hay.”

McDaniel’s not-too-bright Igor is always amusing. And when it comes to comic timing, no one can beat Piccone as Frau Blücher. A longtime favorite of local theater, she can evoke peals of laughter from her silences and her expressive face, even when it’s deadpan.

Reed as the monster meets the physical requirement with his imposing, NBA-like height along with some agile dancing and operatic vocal abilities seen in his later scenes. Stark as Elizabethis an assured singer.

The men’s and women’s ensembles also are excellent as they sing, dance and portray all the extra characters needed in this show.

The two-act, nearly three-hour “Young Frankenstein” is an ambitious undertaking, but Palo Alto Players has surmounted its challenges to stage a thoroughly enjoyable evening of musical theater

Judy Richter

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Deaf from birth, a young English man born into a hearing family has become skilled at reading lips. A young woman, who could hear when she was born into a deaf family and has learned sign language, is losing her hearing.

Their differing backgrounds and abilities form the essential conflict in Nina Raine’s sometimes amusing “Tribes,” presented by Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

When they become romantically involved, Sylvia (Nell Geisslinger) teaches Billy (James Caverly) sign language. He then insists that he and his family communicate that way only, much to their dismay.

His family is a loud, expletive-prone, dysfunctional group presided over by his pompously intellectual father, Christopher (Paul Whitworth), and his mother, Beth (Anita Carey), a would-be writer. Like Billy, their other two adult children, Daniel (Dan Clegg) and Ruth (Elizabeth Morton), still live at home, unable to get on with their lives. Daniel has mental health issues, while Ruth aspires to be an opera singer until she hears a recording of herself singing.

The play’s title, “Tribes,” comes from the hierarchical nature of the community of the Deaf (capitalized in the members’ preferred style), depending on whether one was born deaf or became deaf and whether one’s parents were deaf or hearing. Signing and lip reading are other factors.

No matter how one is classified, however, the community is insular, Sylvia complains. Although she had been comfortable in it, she’s having doubts just as her hearing loss is worsening.

Although the concept is intriguing and worthy of consideration, it’s difficult to care about any of the characters except Billy and Sylvia. Christopher, the father, is too blustery and critical. Daniel, whose problems manifest themselves in hearing voices and stuttering, is dependent on Billy and doesn’t want him to leave. Ruth is a cipher who complains a lot and fights with Daniel. Beth, the mother, tries to be a peacekeeper, but she’s an enabler, too.

Some plot threads go nowhere. One of the lesser ones is what has happened to the boyfriend that Sylvia had when she and Billy met. The more glaring one comes after Billy gets a job as an expert witness who reads lips in videos involving criminal cases and his employer discovers that he invented some dialogue.

California Shakespeare Theater artistic director Jonathan Moscone has a good cast, but he needs to exercise a firmer hand on the scenes involving Christopher and sometimes Daniel, who can become manic.

Caverly, who is involved with the National Theatre of the Deaf, has played the role of Billy elsewhere and does a terrific job, especially with his concentration in watching others speak and with his speech, which is generally clear.

Geisslinger has a strong stage presence and convincingly embodies Sylvia’s conflicted emotions as her hearing dwindles. Todd Rosenthal’s set features floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with books, indicative of the family’s academic bent.

“Tribes” has been a hit at theaters in England and the United States, and Berkeley Rep’s opening night audience gave it a rousing ovation. Nevertheless, it’s not entirely satisfying.

It continues at Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley, through May 18. For tickets and information, call (510) 647-2949 or visit www.berkeleyrep.org.

Judy Richter

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Married only 20 minutes, a groom leaves his bride in order to launch his plan to overthrow the British government.

Thus Jeffrey Hatcher’s “Smash” takes the Dragon Theatre audience through a witty satire of romance, education, socialism and lofty but misguided goals.

Hatcher based this two-act play on 1883’s “The Unsocial Socialist,” the last novel George Bernard Shaw wrote before starting to write plays. Hence Shaw aficionados will recognize themes and character types that figure into his plays.

In “Smash,” the time is moved up to spring 1910. The groom is Sidney Trefusis (William J. Brown III), a rich socialist, while his beloved bride is Henrietta Jansenius (Katie Rose Krueger), daughter of a wealthy man.

Disguising himself as a laborer he calls Mengels, Sidney goes to Alton College for women. Since its students are being groomed to become the wives of England’s most powerful men, Sidney plans to indoctrinate them with the ideals of socialism, which they will pass on to their husbands-to-be to begin a revolution.

Complicating matters, one of the students, the spunky, rebellious Agatha Wylie (Sarah Benjamin), falls in love with him. Their main nemesis is Alton’s headmistress, the formidable Miss Wilson (Shelley Lynn Johnson).

Another complication arises when Henrietta and her father, Mr. Jansenius (Paul Stout), an Alton trustee and Agatha’s godfather, arrive for Founders Day. Henrietta pretends not to recognize Sidney, but she’s instrumental in bringing about his comeuppance.

Vickie Rozell skillfully directs the 10-member ensemble cast, with each actor evoking the wit of the writing and the characters’ quirks.

Completing the cast are Kendall Callaghan and Laura Henricksen as Altonstudents; Evan Michael Schumacher and Brian Flegel as the men who love them; and Nicolae Muntean as the school’s longtime handyman.

Lighting and the ivy-walled set by Michael Palumbo work well on Dragon’s small stage. Handsome period costumes are by Y. Sharon Peng. Before Act 2, the sound design by Lance Huntley fittingly features music by Gilbert and Sullivan, whose operettas skewered English society in the late 19th century.

Thanks to this well done production, “Smash” is a rewarding, amusing two hours of theater.

It will continue at Dragon Theatre, 2120 Broadway St., Redwood City, through May 4. For tickets and information, call (650) 493-2006 or visit www.dragonproductions.net.

Judy Richter

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