Judy Richter

Joseph Alsop was perhaps the most influential political columnist in the country for many years, but his power gradually declined.

David Auburn’s 2012 “The Columnist,”presented by Dragon Theatre in its Bay Area premiere, chronicles that decline in a fascinating glimpse at recent American history.

While he was professionally well known, Joseph, called Joe, had a secret life that’s revealed to the audience in the opening scene,  set in 1954.  Joe (Randy Hurst) has just had an afternoon tryst in a Moscow hotel room with Andrei (Casey Robbins), who was working for the KGB — unknown to Joe at the time.

Before that decline, which came more than a decade later, the aristocratic Joe moved in the nation’s most powerful political circles. For example, President John F. Kennedy went to his house after his inauguration in 1961.

Joe, whose column was widely syndicated, admired JFK and ardently supported the war in Vietnam as a way to halt the spread of communism. He was so convinced that the U.S. was winning that war that he tried to get younger reporters like David Halberstam (Drew Reitz) removed from their Vietnam posts because they were reporting otherwise.

After JFK’s assassination in 1963, Joe continued to support the war and its leaders like President Lyndon B. Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. However, Joe failed to recognize the social upheaval wrought by the war as protestors and hippies took to the streets.

Although these events serve as backdrops to the play, the focus is more personal, stressing Joe’s family life. He was close to his younger brother, Stewart (Gary Mosher), with whom he co-wrote his column from 1945 to 1958.

He was married to Susan Mary Jay (Mary Price Moore) for several years. Even though she knew he was gay, they were good friends, so she agreed to the marriage. He also was fond of her teenage daughter, Abigail (Camille Brown).

Running about two hours with one intermission, the play ends in Washington in 1968 when Joe and Andrei happen to meet again while watching a demonstration on the Washington Mall.

Director Brandon Jackson paces the episodic action well.  Scene changes are punctuated by songs of the time in the sound design by Michael St. Clair.

It’s generally well acted, especially by Moore as Susan,  Mosher as Stewart and Brown as Abigail. Hurst as Joe holds the stage well and conveys his growing egotism and social unawareness well, but he frequently muffed his lines on opening night.

Set designer/technical director Rory Strahan-Mauk has created a utilitarian set with lighting by Jeff  Swan. Katherine Halcrow’s costumes, especially for Abigail, reflect the changing times.

It’s an interesting play offering insights to and bringing up memories of turbulent times as seen through one man’s experiences.

“The Columnist” will continue through June 21 at Dragon Productions Theatre, 2120 Broadway St., Redwood City. For tickets and information, call (650) 493-2006 or visit www.dragonproductions.net.

The genius of composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim is on display in American Conservatory Theater’s production of  “A Little Night Music.”

Based on an Ingmar Bergman film, “Smiles of a Summer Night,” this 1973 Tony Award-winning musical is set during a Swedish summer at the turn of the 20th century.

During this time when the sun rarely sets,  love is arranged and rearranged among lovers young and older.

Sondheim wrote virtually the entire musical in 3/4 time, but the best known song is “Send in the Clowns,” which has been sung by the likes of Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand and others.

In the context of the show, however, it takes on deep poignancy as one of the older lovers, Desiree Armfeldt (Karen Ziemba), an actress, sings it to her former lover, Fredrik Egerman (Patrick Cassidy), to express their dilemma:  She’s ready to settle down after years of touring and of taking on various lovers, while he’s married.

And even though his 18-year-old wife, Anne (Laurie Veldheer), is still a virgin after 11 months of marriage, he’s reluctant to leave this woman who’s young enough to be his daughter. In fact, she’s close in age to his son, Henrik (Justin Scott Brown), a gloomy seminary student who’s worried about sin and who’s secretly in love with her.

Another of the older lovers is Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm (Paolo Montalban), a handsome but egotistical and pea-brained dragoon who has been involved with Desiree despite being married to Charlotte (Emily Skinner).

Everything comes together one weekend when everyone gathers at the country home of Desiree’s mother, Madame Armfeldt (Dana Ivey), who’s known her share of lovers. They’re joined by Desiree’s teenage daughter, Fredrika (Brigid O’Brien); the Egermans’ maid,  Petra (Marissa McGowan); and Frid (Michael McIntire), Madame Armfeldt’s servant.

There’s lots of foolish behavior, but various triangles are resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.

Director Mark Lamos weaves everything together thanks to a fine cast, especially among the older characters. Ziemba as the bemused Desiree and Skinner as the wronged Charlotte have impeccable timing as they react to the goings-on, and both sing well.

Except for Veldheer’s piercing upper notes as Anne, all of the principals sing well.

The show has five other named characters who serve more as a Greek chorus. They aren’t seen by the other characters, but they introduce scenes and, in Lamos’s staging, move set pieces on Riccardo Hernandez’s set. Traditionally the three women and two men are older, but Lamos has chosen to make them younger and far more sensual, as indicated by their behavior and the underclothing they wear in the opening scene. It’s not an entirely effective approach. Moreover, they don’t blend well vocally.

The elegant period costumes for the main characters are by Candice Donnelly. Lighting by Robert Wierzel captures the almost perpetual twilight of that time in Sweden.

Orchestrations and musical direction are by Wayne Barker, while the sound is by Kevin Kennedy. Choreography, mostly waltzes, is by Val Caniparoli.

Taken as a whole, this ACT production is first rate, thanks in large part to Sondheim’s intricate music and lyrics and some outstanding performances, especially by Ziemba and Skinner.

“A Little Night Music” will continue through June 24 at ACT’s Geary Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco. For tickets and information, call (415) 749-2228 or visit www.act-sf.org.

Audiences for Center REPertory Company’s production of Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes” are in for a real treat.

Artistic director Michael Butler, who directs, has assembled a stellar group of performers and designers, resulting in a thoroughly entertaining show from start to finish.

The indisputable star is Molly Bell as Reno Sweeney, a role originated by Ethel Merman in the 1934 Broadway production. While Merman put her own inimitable stamp on the role, Bell has a different style that’s equally effective. She’s a triple-threat dynamo who can sing, dance and act with equal ease.

Reno is a brash nightclub “evangelist” who’s the featured entertainer on a passenger ship sailing from New York City to London.  She’s romantically interested in Billy Crocker (Joshua Hollister), who works for a Wall Street investor. Billy, though, has his heart set on Hope Harcourt (Brittany Danielle).

However, she’s engaged to a wealthy English nobleman, Sir Evelyn Oakley (Jeffrey Draper), a good-natured but naive sort who’s fascinated by American expressions.

With Billy as a stowaway, they all wind up on the S.S. American along with an assortment of other passengers and crew. Complications arise, but all get sorted out.

Porter’s music and lyrics have made this show a classic of the American musical theater. The long list of memorable songs includes such treasures as “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “You’re the Top,” “Friendship” “It’s De-Lovely,” “Blow, Gabriel, Blow” and of course the title song. Closing the first act, it showcases the versatile choreography of Amanda Folena, artistic director ofRedwood City’s Broadway By the Bay, with a tap extravaganza.

As Billy, Hollister sings the show’s most difficult song, “All Through the Night,” better than almost everyone else I’ve heard in the role.

In addition to great singing and dancing, this production provides ample laughs, many of them triggered by Colin Thomson as Moonface Martin, a gangster of sorts, and by Lizzie O’Hara as Erma, his gal pal. She can sing and dance, too.

The show is a visual feast thanks to costumes by Victoria Livingston-Hall, who has given the women one delectable outfit after another.

The serviceable set by Michael Locher (lit by Kurt Landisman) places the 11-member orchestra (including musical director Brandon Adams on piano) on the top deck. If there’s one drawback in the show, it’s that the sound design by Jeff Mockus sometimes can’t compete with the orchestra.

Everyone in the 23-member cast does an outstanding job no matter how small the role. However, the one who makes this production especially memorable is Bell. She’s the top.

Running about two and a half hours with one intermission, “Anything Goes” will continue through June 27 at Center REPertory Company, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. For tickets and information, call (925) 943-7469 or visit www.centerREP.org.

The zany “One Man, Two Guvnors” at Berkeley Repertory Theatre traces its roots back to commedia dell’arte in the 18th century with its stock character and often improbable situations.

Richard Bean based “One Man, Two Guvnors” on one of the best known works of that time, 1743’s “The Servant of Two Masters” by Carlo Goldoni.

In Berkeley Rep’s production, co-produced with South Coast Repertory, the “one man” is Dan Donohue, familiar to fans of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival since 1994. His roles have ranged from the dramatic, like Hamlet and Richard III, to the comedic, especially the unflappable steward in Tom Stoppard’s “Rough Crossing” in 1997.

This time he plays the impecunious Francis Henshall, who finds himself working for two “guvnors” in Brighton, England, in 1963.

He believes one to be Roscoe, who’s actually the murdered gangster twin brother of Rachel (Helen Sadler). She has assumed her brother’s identity to protect his killer, Stanley (William Connell), her boyfriend.

Unbeknownst to her,Stanleyis Francis’s other guvnor. Moreover, Francis doesn’t want anyone to know he’s serving them both. Other plot details are convoluted, but all turns out well.

Donohue first displays his unrivaled comedic skills in trying to move Stanley’s large trunk. Another comic highlight comes later in the first act when the starving Francis is supposed to serve meals to his two masters, each in a different room in a pub. His ways of helping himself to the food are hilarious.

However, this scene could be trimmed as Donohue tends to get carried away in some respects. Both scenes have some audience involvement.

Still, this pub scene also involves some comic pratfalls by Ron Campbell as Alfie, a tottering waiter in his 80s. Alfie is overseen by Danny Scheie as Gareth, the pretentious head waiter.

Everyone in this cast directed by David Ivers contributes to the fun in some way. They include Sarah Moser as the proverbial dumb blonde, Pauline; Brad Culver as her volatile boyfriend, Alan; Robert Sicular as Charlie Clench, her father; and Claire Warden as Dolly, his bookkeeper.

Entertaining the audience before the show and during scene changes is a four-member skiffle band playing songs by Grant Olding, with musical direction by Gregg Coffin. Musical staging is by dance captain Gerry McIntyre, who also plays Lloyd Boateng, a Clench family friend.

The whimsical sets are by Hugh Landwehr with ’60s costumes by Meg Neville, lighting by Alexander V. Nichols and sound by Lindsay Jones.

Despite some comic scenes that go on too long — the show runs more than two and a half hours with one intermission — the overall production is a lighthearted romp made especially delightful by Donohue.

“One Man, Two Guvnors” will continue in Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley, through June 21. For tickets and information, call (510) 647-2949 or visit www.berkeleyrep.org.

“Curtains,” the musical being presented by Hillbarn Theatre, is by John Kander and Fred Ebb, the team behind the great “Cabaret” and “Chicago.”

It was the last collaboration between composer Kander and lyricist Ebb, who died in 2004 before its completion. Rupert Holmes, who wrote the book based on a concept by the late Peter Stone, stepped in to write the final lyrics in conjunction with Kander.

The show opened on Broadway in 2007 and received eight Tony nominations even though it wasn’t up to the standards of  “Cabaret” and “Chicago.”

Hillbarn’s production has some echoes of the show’s less-than-ideal genesis. At least it did on opening night, when a program insert listed substitutes for two minor characters and a key member of the creative team.

Whether those changes reflect inherent problems or just unforeseen circumstances isn’t known. What is known is that opening night had some troublesome design issues and a sense that more rehearsal time might have helped this show directed by Nancy Fitzgerald-Metzler, who also co-designed the lighting

“Curtains” is a whodunit as well as a tribute to show people. It’s set in 1959 in a Boston theater where a new musical comedy, “Robbin’ Hood of the Old West,” is being staged prior to moving to New York.

“Robbin’ Hood’s” leading lady, Jessica Cranshaw (Deborah Rosengaus), can’t sing, act or dance, but while the cast is taking its bows, she faints and is taken to a hospital. Shortly thereafter, the cast learns that she had died of poisoning.

Police Lt. Frank Cioffi (overly low-key Ross Neuenfeldt) orders everyone to stay in the theater because they’re all possible suspects. During his investigation, he becomes attracted to an actress, Niki Harris (Brandy Collazo). In addition, he soon has two more murders to investigate.

Although he makes his living as a cop, he’s a musical theater buff who begins suggesting ways to improve the show.

A subplot involves the show’s composer, Aaron Fox (Christopher M. Nelson), who’s unhappy that his longtime lyricist and lover, Georgia Hendricks (Katherine Stein), has become involved with one of the actors.

Other key characters are brassy producer Carmen Bernstein (Sasha Motalygo); her performer daughter, Bambi Bernet (Jessica Maxey); and director Christopher Belling (Raymond Mendonca, the cast’s only Equity actor).

Most of the singing is at least adequate, but Motalygo as Carmen, especially in “It’s a Business”; and Stein as Georgia, as in “Thataway!” are the standouts. The latter song, which closes Act 1, is the most evocative of the familiar Kander-Ebb style.

One of the more poignant songs is “I Miss the Music,” sung by Nelson as Aaron. In it the composer sings about missing his collaborations with Georgia, but it’s believed to be Kander’s tribute to Ebb, his late lyricist.

Choreography by Jayne Zaban is highlighted by the terrific “Kansasland” routine with its pas de deux for Charlie Fields as Bobby and the unbelievably agile Maxey as Bambi.

The serviceable set is by Andrew J. Diggins with colorful costumes by Valerie Emmi. Musical direction is by Tony Asaro, but the orchestral accompaniment is recorded.

Sometimes that accompaniment overwhelms the singers in the sound design by Jesse Scarborough, who apparently stepped in for Alan Chang at the last minute.

The most egregious technical glitches on opening night were in the lighting co-designed by Fitzgerald-Metzler and Stephanie Dittbern. It appeared that several cues were missed, leaving some scenes — and the audience — in the dark, especially for the third of the three murders.

Despite the shortcomings, the show has its merits thanks to some fine performances and a plot that keeps people wondering whodunit until nearly the final curtain.

“Curtains” will continue at Hillbarn Theatre, 1285 E. Hillsdale Blvd., Foster City, through May 31. For tickets and information, call (650) 349-6411 or visit www.hillbarntheatre.org.

Originally a cartoon and then a popular TV series that ran from 1964 to 1966, “The Addams Family” has taken on a musical form presented by Palo Alto Players.

With music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa and a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, this bizarre show takes a page from “You Can’t Take It With You” for its plot.

Wednesday (Catherine Gloria), the daughter in this macabre family, has fallen in love with a normal young man, Lucas Beineke (Adam Cotugno), and wants to marry him. Therefore, she asks her parents, Gomez (Doug Santana) and Morticia (Betsy Kruse Craig), to invite his parents, Mal (Kennan Blehm) and Alice (Jen Wheatonfox), to their home for dinner. That’s when she and Lucas plan to tell everyone about their plans. Therefore, she wants her family to behave as “normally” as possible.

That’s not easy for a household that includes Wednesday’s younger, torture-loving brother, Pugsley (Leo Jergovic); green-faced Uncle Fester (Joey McDaniel); and potion-creating Grandma (Linda Piccone); along with their zombie-like butler, Lurch (David Murphy). Lurking in the background are a dozen Addams Ancestors who serve as the singing, dancing chorus.

Rather than playing Charades after dinner, this family’s game is Full Disclosure. Each person must reveal a secret unknown to anyone else. The results are predictably disastrous, leading to disharmony between both sets of parents as well as Wednesday and Lucas. In the end, though, all turns out well.

All forms of cartoonist Charles Addams’ “The Addams Family” focus on mordant subjects — albeit with a satirical edge. Thus this show is not to everyone’s taste. The first act is especially difficult to swallow because so much of the humor is sophomoric, but the second act is easier to take because it focuses on somewhat more realistic situations.

Nevertheless, the PAP cast, directed by Janie Scott, does its best with the material, and it seemed that most people in the opening night audience enjoyed it.

Under the baton of musical director Matthew Mattei, Lippa’s tuneful music is well sung by everyone, especially Gloria as Wednesday and Craig as Morticia.

Director Scott choreographed the show, creating interesting, well-executed dances.

The show is episodic, but set designer Ron Gasparinetti keeps it running smoothly with various devices. Kudos to costume designer Shannon Maxham, especially for the Ancestors’ outfits, which cover many centuries. The lighting is by Carolyn A. Foot, the sound by Grant Huberty.

The show runs 2 1/2 hours with one intermission. It can be fun for most viewers but a long night for others.

“The Addams Family” will continue through May 10 at the Lucie Stern Theater, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. For tickets and information, call (650) 329-0891 or visit www.paplayers.org.

In Lanford Wilson’s “Fifth of July,” presented by Aurora Theatre Company, college-age anti-war activists of the ’60s are more grown up.

Now that it’s 1977, much has changed. Ken Talley (Craig Marker) is living in the family home in Lebanon, Mo., with his supportive partner, Jed (Josh Schell), a botanist. Ken has lost both legs in Vietnam but is ambulatory thanks to prostheses. He’s supposed to resume his career teaching English in the local high school, but he’s frightened.

They’re joined by Ken’s single-mom sister, June (Jennifer Le Blanc); her 13-year-old bratty daughter, Shirley (Oceana Ortiz); and their 64-year-old aunt, Sally Friedman (Elizabeth Benedict). Sally is there to scatter the ashes of her late husband, Matt.

The story of their courtship 33 years earlier is told in “Talley’s Folly,” also being presented by Aurora as part of its Talley Trilogy project.

Some unexpected guests are John and Gwen Landis (John Girot and Nanci Zoppi), who were Ken and June’s fellow flower children at Cal. With them is Weston (Harold Pierce) a guitarist who’s involved in developing Gwen’s singing career.

Besides visiting his old friends and hometown, John has another motive. He wants to buy the Talley home and convert it into a recording studio for Gwen, who has fried her brain with drugs and still indulges.

Tensions rise over John’s proposal as well as his desire to have Shirley, who’s apparently his daughter, live with him and Gwen.

During the course of the play, which begins July 4 and continues the next morning, there are satisfying resolutions for the Talleys. Even young Shirley, an annoying drama queen, becomes more tolerable and mature.

Wilson has created some idiosyncratic characters well enacted by the Aurora cast under the direction of artistic director Tom Ross. Marker as Ken has the double challenge of not only developing his character but also walking like an amputee using crutches or a cane. Schell’s Jed is a quiet, scholarly man who keeps a sharp eye out for Ken’s welfare.

As the drug-addled Gwen, Zoppi provides much of the show’s comedy as well as some words of wisdom for Shirley. Pierce’s spacey Weston tells weird stories. The rest of the cast also is notable, especially Le Blanc as June, another character who’s ready to assume a more mature role.

Even though the cast of eight is somewhat large forAurora’s intimate stage, Ross stages the action well on the set designed by Richard Olmsted with lighting by Kurt Landisman and sound by Chris Houston. The ’70s costumes are by Heidi Leigh Hanson.

Despite the specific era, the play has a timelessness because it’s focused on the characters and their evolution.

“Fifth of July” will continue at Aurora Theatre Company, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley, through May 17. For tickets and information, call (510) 843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org.

In one way, “The Way West” is about the indomitable spirit that drove pioneers ever westward despite near-insurmountable odds.

In another way? Mona Mansour’s play, presented by Marin Theatre Company doesn’t seem sure where it wants to go.

It’s set in Central California, probably in StocktonorModesto during the recent recession. Mom (Anne Darragh) wants to declare bankruptcy after ignoring unpaid bills. The 62-year-old is also ignoring potentially serious health issues.

Her older daughter, Manda (Kathryn Zdan), is visiting from Chicago to try to organize Mom’s finances. She’s more or less assisted by her sister, Meesh (Rosie Hallett), who is living with Mom and whose finances are shaky, too.

Manda seems fairly OK financially, thinking nothing of paying $150 for a haircut, but she’s heavily reliant on credit cards.

One bit of bad news after another leaves the three women destitute, unable to pay even for a pizza delivery. Nevertheless, Mom remains relentlessly upbeat.

Stressing the pioneer theme, many scenes begin with a Mom monologue telling the story of some pioneer adventure that usually ends badly. Sometimes her daughters join her in song (music and musical direction by Sam Misner and Megan Pearl Smith).

What’s confounding is that no one does anything about Mom’s health issues. A possible rekindling of the romance between Manda and former boyfriend Luis (Hugo E. Carbajal) is left hanging. Some situations seem to come from theater of the absurd.

For example, a family friend, Tress (Stacy Ross), has invested thousands of Mom’s and her own money in a get-rich-quick, get-thin-quick scheme that’s nothing short of ludicrous.

Despite holes in the script, the production directed by Hayley Finn keeps moving thanks to outstanding performances, especially by Darragh as Mom and by Ross, who is underused but brilliant as Tress.

The set by Geoffrey M. Curley (lit by Masha Tsimring) captures Mom’s disorganization while evoking the pioneer theme with overhead arches reminiscent of a covered wagon. Costumes are by Christine Crook with sound by Brendan Aanes.

The two-act play runs about two hours with one intermission. Despite its basic premise and a fine cast, it goes too many different ways to be satisfying.

“The Way West” continues through May 10 at Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave., MillValley. For tickets and information, call (415) 388-5208 or visit www.marintheaatre.org.

People who live in the southernmost part of Louisiana have a precarious existence as three passages of the Mississippi River create swamps and cause the land to shift constantly.

Nevertheless, Shelah Reynolds (Cheryl Lynn Bruce), a longtime black resident, clings to her home even as it and her life literally and figuratively begin crashing in on her in “Head of Passes,” presented by Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Tarell Alvin McCraney named his play after this coastal area, which often experiences severe storms and hurricanes.

“Head of Passes” takes place during a heavy rainstorm as Shelah’s family and friends gather to celebrate her birthday. The party was arranged by her sons, Aubrey (Francois Battiste) and Spencer (Brian Tyree Henry). Joining them are old friends Mae (Kimberly Scott) and Creaker (Michael A. Shepperd), along with Creaker’s teenage son, Crier (Jonathan Burke). Their good-natured banter reflects their long friendships as well as their love for Shelah.

Her stepdaughter, the edgy, troubled Cookie (Nikkole Salter), makes a brief appearance before rushing off.

A surprise guest is her white physician, Dr. Anderson (James Carpenter). He’s the only one who knows she’s seriously ill, but she wants to be the one to tell the others.

The only other character is the Angel (Sullivan Jones), whom only Shelah can see because he’s the angel of death. He, like the other actors, does well in a challenging role.

Symbolically, the living room sprouts one leak after another as more is revealed about Shelah’s situation. Much of the house collapses at the end of Act 1.

Act 2 begins the next morning, when Shelah’s friends arrive and deliver one piece of tragic news after another. After she orders them to leave, she launches into a lengthy prayer-monologue bewailing her sorrows and regrets.

It’s an astonishing performance that holds the audience rapt. Under Tina Landau’s direction, Bruce paces this scene well, building Shelah’s lamentations, then easing off before going too far.

Also astonishing is the set designed by G.W. Skip Mercier and built by a Berkeley Rep crew that had to incorporate not only water but also beams and other structural elements that could collapse without injuring anyone.

Credit for the other designs goes to Scott Zielinski for lighting, Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen for sound and Toni-Leslie James for costumes.

Running about two hours with one intermission, “Head of Passes” is the work of a most promising young playwright and an engrossing theatrical experience.

It runs through May 24 on Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. For tickets and information, call (510- 647-2949 or visit www.berkeleyrep.org.

A sick, bitter old black man has one last love in life, Lillie, his radiogram, or combination radio and record player, on which he plays Nat King Cole records.

Otherwise, Alfred (Carl Lumbly) is estranged from everything and everyone in Kwame Kwei-Armah’s “Let There Be Love,” presented by American Conservatory Theater. His life begins to change for the better when his two adult daughters arrange for a young home health aide, Maria (Greta Wohlrabe), to look in on him and try to help him.

Like Alfred, Maria is an immigrant. She recently arrived  in London from Poland, while he emigrated from the West Indies several decades earlier. Among the people he dislikes are immigrants who arrived later than he. Therefore, he doesn’t take kindly to this white woman at first, but her persistence and genuine interest in him break the ice.

Alfred has a prickly relationship with his younger daughter, Gemma (Donnetta Lavinia Grays). He’s downright nasty to her, and she reciprocates. She becomes even more angry with him when he allows Maria to move into his home after learning that her unfaithful boyfriend abuses her.

As Alfred’s health continues to deteriorate, Maria engineers a plan that allows him to reconnect with his roots, apologize to his ex-wife and reconcile with Gemma while finding renewed energy and a more optimistic outlook.

Playwright Kwei-Armah raises thorny issues like racism, family relations, medical care, homophobia and death with dignity while also creating three believable characters.

As directed by Maria Mileaf, all three actors successfully navigate their characters’ emotional journeys. Lumbly is especially effective as Alfred.

Lighting by Russell H. Champa reflects Alfred’s changing outlook and Maria’s influence as his living room (set by Daniel Ostling) becomes progressively brighter. Costumes by Lydia Tanji and sound by Bart Fasbender add to the ambience. The choreography is by Stephen Buescher.

Taking place in the present, the two-act play runs about two hours with one intermission. It’s a challenging yet rewarding experience.

“Let There Be Love” runs through May 3 at ACT’s Geary Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco. For tickets and information, call (415) 749-2228 or visit www.act-sf.org.