Judy Richter

By Judy Richter

Versatile acting and inventive staging are the hallmarks of Aurora Theatre Company’s production of “Wilder Times,” a collection of four short plays by Thornton Wilder. Aurora chose the plays and titled the show as a tribute to one of the nation’s greatest playwrights. According to artistic director Tom Ross, the title reflects “the concept of time and how we human beings move through it (as) major themes in Wilder’s work.”

The show is divided into two acts, starting with the first two plays from a series, “Seven Ages of Man,” that Wilder never finished. These two, “Infancy” and “Childhood” premiered in 1962. “The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden” and “The Long Christmas Dinner,” which comprise the second half, were written in 1931, but both are considered Wilder’s best known short works.

The cast features six actors — Heather Gordon, Soren Oliver, Marcia Pizzo, Stacy Ross, Patrick Russell and Brian Trybom. Focused direction by Barbara Oliver, Aurora’s co-founder and retired artistic director, lends unity. Before each act, for example, the actors sing simple songs like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” as they move set pieces into place. Eric Sinkkonen’s mostly unadorned set, Maggi Yule’s color-coordinated costumes and Jim Cave’s lighting also unify the show.

In terms of writing, the first half is the weaker. “Infancy” is set in an urban park where a nanny (Gordon) and mother (Ross) tend to infants (Russell and Trybom) in baby carriages. While the women talk, the babies alternate between napping and being frustrated that they can’t understand the adults. Oliver (son of the director) adds some comic moments as a cop. Only good acting and directing keep the show moving.

The next part, “Childhood,” is more interesting. Ross and Trybom portray parents who are trying to figure out what their children do when they’re not around. The children are played by Pizzo as the eldest and leader, Gordon as the middle child and Russell as the youngest.

In “The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden,” a family is on it way to visit the eldest daughter, who is married. Again Pizzo plays that daughter, while Gordon and Russell are the other two kids. Ross is the mother again, while Oliver is the father. In a technique developed more fully in Wilder’s “Our Town,” Trybom is the stage manager.

By far the most satisfying and intriguing work is the last, “The Long Christmas Dinner,” which depicts a family gathered for Christmas dinner over the course of several generations. It starts with Oliver and Pizzo as a newlywed couple joined by her mother (Ross), who recalls Christmases past. From there the action smoothly segues to births and deaths (signified as some musical notes in musical director Chris Houston’s sound design) as family dynamics change and one generation gives way to the next. It’s a touching depiction of the importance of family and family rituals.

Playing roles that vary in age and personality, the actors are outstanding. Except for the last act, however, the show doesn’t have the heft of Wilder’s most successful plays, “Our Town” and “The Skin of Our Teeth.”

“Wilder Times” will continue at the Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley, though Dec. 9. For tickets and information, call (510) 843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org.

By Judy Richter

Revisiting the Vanderhof household is like getting together with old friends after years apart and finding them just as delightful as ever despite their eccentricities. That’s what happens in Palo Alto Players’ production of the Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman chestnut, “You Can’t Take It With You.”

It opened on Broadway in December 1936 and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama. And even though that was 76 years ago, the warm comedy’s basic philosophy still rings true: Good health, happiness and family are more important than fame or fortune even in the midst of the Depression.

Hence we meet an engagingly innocent New York City family whose genial patriarch, Grandpa Vanderhof (Tom Caldecott) quit his office job some 29 years ago and never looked back. His daughter, Penny Sycamore (Debi Durst), has been blithely trying to write plays for eight years, ever since a typewriter was mistakenly delivered to the house. Her husband, Paul (John Watson), plays with an Erector Set and manufactures fireworks in the basement.

One of their daughters, Essie Carmichael) (Kim Saunders, the show’s choreographer), has been studying ballet for eight years without much success. Her husband, Ed (Keith Sullivan), plays the xylophone, delivers candy that he and Essie make, and prints just about anything from tonight’s dinner menu (almost always corn flakes and tomatoes) to communist slogans.

The Sycamores’ other daughter, Alice (Lorie Goulart), is the only seemingly normal family member. She is a secretary in a Wall Street firm where she has become romantically involved with its vice president, Tony Kirby (Adam Cotugno), the boss’s son.

Another member of the household is Mr. De Pinna (Ronald Feichtmeir), who showed up a few years ago, stayed for dinner and never left. He’s Paul’s partner in fireworks-making. The family’s cook, Rheba (Rene M. Banks), also lives there. She’s frequently joined by her boyfriend, Donald (Max Williams). Another regular visitor is Essie’s ballet teacher, Boris Kolenkhov (Brandon Silberstein), a fiery Russian who fled his country after the revolution.

Everyone gets along famously and has a lot of fun until one night when Tony, by now engaged to Alice, and his parents (Beverly Griffith and Ron Talbot), show up for dinner on the wrong night.

Mix in a drunken actress, Gay Wellington (Diane Tasca), brought home by Penny, and an imperious Russian duchess, Olga Katrina (Celia Maurice), a friend of Kolenkhov and now a waitress, and the differences between the two families become starkly clear. And then there are the federal agents (Clint Andrew Hall and Evan Michael Schumacher) who show up with their own agenda. Thus, Alice breaks the engagement, much to the consternation of everyone except the elder Kirbys.

As directed by Cornelia Burdick Thompson, it’s all a lot of fun, but it also brings home its message about the importance of doing something you love even if you don’t get rich. Running about two hours and 10 minutes with two 10-minute intermissions, the show starts slowly but soon picks up, delivering one laugh after another.

Patrick Klein’s two-level living room set, lighted by Rick Amerson, is appropriately cluttered with items reflecting the family’s varied interests. Before the show and between acts, George Mauro’s sound design features popular songs and snatches of radio programs from the ’30s. The period costumes are by Mary Cravens, but Rheba’s outfits seem too dressy for a cook.

Overall, this production serves the classic comedy well as Palo Alto Players continues its 82nd season.

“You Can’t Take It With You” will continue through Nov. 18 at the Lucie Stern Theater, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. For ticketsand information call (650) 329-0891 or visit www.paplayers.org.

By Judy Richter

Echoes of the Trojan War and the generation-to-generation woes of Greece’s House of Atreus reverberate in Sophocles’ “Elektra,” presented by American Conservatory Theater in a translation and adaptation by playwright-scholar Timberlake Wertenbaker.

In brief, the title character, played by René Augesen, is still lamenting the murder of her father by her mother and her mother’s lover several years earlier. Elektra is hoping that her brother will return to Mycenae to avenge their father’s death. Because of her loud, unending mourning, Elektra has become something of an outcast in her own home and may be teetering on the brink of insanity.

In a tense confrontation between mother and daughter, the steely Clytemnestra (Caroline Lagerfelt) tells Elektra that she had killed Agamemnon to avenge his sacrificial murder of Elektra’s sister Iphigenia. Therefore, Clytemnestra felt her actions had been justified. ACT program notes go into further detail about all of the background leading up to this play, but Wertenbaker’s accessible translation provides basic background information clearly and simply.

Running 90 minutes without intermission, ACT’s production is directed by artistic director Carey Perloff, now in her 20th season with the company. Unlike many other classical Greek dramas, which use a Chorus of several people to comment on the action and serve as a kind of jury, this adaptation uses only one person, Olympia Dukakis, 81, to fill that role. With her silvery hair and dignified stage presence, Dukakis’s Chorus Leader serves as a voice of reason and a welcome counterpoint to Elektra’s rage. The Chorus Leader also helps the audience to explore the play’s key questions about the nature of justice.

Augesen, an ACT associate artist, has the daunting challenge of sustaining Elektra’s rage, grief and the frustration of being a powerless woman. She meets that challenge successfully even though her character’s extremes can be a bit much to take at times.

Lagerfelt’s Clytemnestra evokes little sympathy in her treatment of Elektra, yet she makes a persuasive argument for why she was so aggrieved by her husband. Nick Steen as Orestes, Elektra’s brother, brings an aura of strength, resolve and heroism as he returns and fulfills what he and Elektra see as his duty to avenge their father’s death.

Their sister, Chrysothemis, well played by Allegra Rose Edwards, has curried favor with their mother as a way of going along to get along, but Elektra wins her over. Among the other supporting characters, Anthony Fusco as Orestes’ Tutor has a standout scene when he gives a vivid (but fictional) description of Orestes’ death in a chariot race. Steven Anthony Jones as Aegisthus, Clytemnestra’s lover, and Titus Tompkins as Pylades, Orestes’ cousin and companion, complete the cast.

Ralph Funicello’s set foreshadows the play’s mood as the audience enters and sees a chain link fence topped by barbed wire stretching across the stage. Lighting by Nancy Schertler reveals the grimly black palace behind the fence and later uses red to symbolize the bloodshed within.

Costumes by Candice Donnelly run the gamut from, as Perloff says, ancient Greece to haute couture. The latter is seen in Chrysothemis, whose prissy white outfit evokes the mod mode of the late ’60s or early ’70s. Sound by Cliff Caruthers completes the play’s design components..

Another key element in this production is provided by composer David Lang’s haunting score, played and sometimes sung by cellist Theresa Wong, who sits on one side of the stage.

Because of its near-unrelenting keening, “Elektra” may be hard for some observers to take, but the acting and design elements are all outstanding.

“Elektra” will continue at American Conservatory Theater, 415 Mason St., San Francisco, through Nov. 18. For tickets and information call (415) 749-2228 or visit www.act-sf.org.

By Judy Richter

It was 8 1/2 years ago that TheatreWorks presented the world premiere of “Memphis” in Mountain View. My review at the time concluded, “The show does need some work, … but it’s very close to being ready to move on to bigger venues, especially with this dynamite cast, exciting music and first-rate creative team. It’s a feel-good show that casts light on a little-known aspect of American musical history.”

After becoming a smash on Broadway with several of its TheatreWorks cast members, a touring production of the show has returned to its Silicon Valley roots to open Broadway San Jose’s fourth season. With it comes an array of 2010 awards, including Tonys for Best Musical, Best Original Score (David Bryan and Joe DiPietro), Best Book (DiPietro) and Best Orchestrations (Bryan and Daryl Waters). The cast and designers are totally different from the original, and the show has undergone substantial revisions. Only about half of its original songs remain, but the basic story, based on a concept by Geroge W. George, is the same.

As implied by the title, the show is set in Memphis during the 1950s, when segregation was still deeply embedded in the South. The central character, Huey Calhoun (Bryan Fenkart), is based on DJ Dewey Phillips, who is credited with introducing rock ‘n’ roll to the American mainstream.

Huey, a white high school dropout who can’t read, happens to hear the music emanating from a downstairs black nightclub on Beale Street in Memphis. He’s so taken with it that he decides it needs wider exposure. The story takes him from the record counter of a department store to a radio station where he manages to play so-called race music. At each place, his bosses are ready to fire him, but the public response, especially from white teenagers, is so great that he goes on to become one of the city’s most popular DJs.

Along the way, he also falls in love with the nightclub’s star singer, Felicia Farrell (Felicia Boswell), sister of its owner, Delray Jones (Horace V. Rogers). Neither the protective Delray nor Huey’s mother, Gladys Calhoun (Julie Johnson), approves of their relationship. Neither do some rednecks who see them together in public and attack them. Still, thanks in large part to Huey, Felicia becomes a famous singer in her own right, leading to a chance to go to New York. She wants Huey to join her, but he’s too tied to Memphis to leave.

The music and the singing, especially by Boswell, are terrific. Director Christopher Ashley keeps the action flowing smoothly. The choreography by Sergio Trujillo is both inventive and energetic, well executed by the ensemble cast, starting with the opening number, “Underground.” The onstage band is led by Darryl Archibald on keyboard. The sets are by David Gallo, with costumes by Paul Tazewell, lighting by Howard Binkley and sound by Ken Travis.

The acting also is noteworthy, especially by Boswell, George and Johnson. Fenkart’s Huey is more problematic. Even though Huey is supposed to a bit of a wild man, Fenkart’s portrayal is too manic, making him less sympathetic than he should be.

Still, there’s no denying the overall power of this show, thanks in large part to its music and dancing.

“Memphis” will continue at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts through Oct. 28. Call (408) 792-4111 or visit www.broadwaysanjose.com.

By Judy Richter

Despite the rotary dial phone and manual typewriter, Ira Levin’s “Deathtrap” remains as fresh and surprising as it was when it became a Broadway smash in 1978. Celebrating its 72nd season, Hillbarn Theatre makes this point abundantly clear in its production of the classic thriller.

The play is set in the comfortable Westport, Conn., home of Sidney Bruhl (Paul Stout) and his wife, Myra (Paige Cook ), who has health problems. Sidney is a well-known playwright who has written a number of wildly successful thrillers, but his recent works have flopped. Moreover, his finances are running low.

We meet him as he sits at his desk reading a play sent to him by a young man who attended one of Sidney’s playwriting seminars. Sidney immediately realizes that this play could be a sure-fire Broadway hit. He’s also quite jealous.

Thus the central question of “Deathtrap” emerges: How far will Sidney go for this script? To say any more would spoil the fun as the plot takes one unexpected, sometimes shocking, twist after another.

As directed by Karen Byrnes, this production works well on the surprise level, but the acting is uneven. Stout’s portrayal of Sidney is so smug that it’s off-putting right from the start. He also tends to overact. Cook’s Myra is one-dimensional, resorting to too much hand-wringing as she becomes more nervous about Sidney’s intentions.

On the other hand, Adam Magill is convincing as the young playwright, Clifford Anderson, who’s in awe of Sidney. Monica Cappuccini has fun with the play’s most outsized character, Helga Ten Dorp, a famous Dutch psychic who is temporarily living next door and who comes by to warn the Bruhls of dire doings. Richard Albert completes the cast as Porter Milgrim, Sidney’s level-headed friend and attorney.

The handsome set is by R. Dutch Fritz, while the effective sound and lighting are by Valerie Clear. The costumes are by Mae Matos. Durand Garcia served as fight choreographer.

Although this isn’t a perfect production, the play itself is so well written that the audience is in for a big treat.

“Deathtrap” will continue at Hillbarn Theatre, 1285 E. Hillsdale Blvd., Foster City, through Nov. 4. Call (650) 349-6411 or visit www.hillbarntheatre.org.

By Judy Richter
Two of the 20th century’s greatest intellects converse in London on Sept. 3, 1939, the day that Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany to begin World War II. As air raid sirens wail and British bombers roar overhead, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and author-professor C.S. Lewis meet in Freud’s study in “Freud’s Last Session” by Mark St. Germain.

Presented by San Jose Repertory Theatre in a co-production with Arizona Theatre Company, this one-act, two-man play features J. Michael Flynn as Freud and Benjamin Evett as Lewis. Although the play clocks in at less than 90 minutes, it covers a range of philosophical territory focusing on the existence of God but delving into other topics such as love, sex and the meaning of life.

At first the 40-year-old Lewis doesn’t know why the 83-year-old Freud wants to meet. Lewis assumes that it’s because he recently satirized Freud. However, Freud explains that he wants to understand why Lewis, who was an atheist like Freud, has recently become a Christian. Hence much of their discussion focuses on religious ideas.

Along the way, both men talk about their upbringings, Freud as a Jew in Vienna and Lewis as a Protestant in England. Lewis also talks about his traumatic experiences as a soldier in World War I, while Freud explains that he moved to London because of Hitler’s persecution of Jews in Vienna and elsewhere. His daughter Anna, who followed in her father’s professional footsteps, is an unseen third character in the play.

Also figuring prominently in the drama is the fact that Freud is suffering from inoperable oral cancer and plans to end his life when he can’t stand the pain anymore. Lewis tells him that suicide would be a selfish act, but Freud died only 20 days later from fatal doses of morphine.

Although the play is mostly all conversation on weighty subjects, it has some elements of humor, and director Stephen Wrentmore keeps the action flowing smoothly. The handsome set and complementary lighting are by Kent Dorsey, while the costumes are by Annie Smart. Sound designer Steve Schoenbeck deserves special praise for effects ranging from a barking dog to scary air raid sirens, overhead planes and snatches of radio speeches by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and King George VI.

Both actors are outstanding in this Bay Area premiere. Evett as Lewis goes through a range of emotions as the conversation veers from areas where he’s comfortable to personal topics he’d rather not discuss.

Flynn successfully masters the greater challenge in portraying Freud as a stooped, stiff, sometimes pain-wracked man whose mind and powers of observation remain sharp. It’s a bravura performance in this talky, intellectual play about an imagined meeting.

“Freud’s Last Session” will continue at San Jose Repertory Theatre in downtown San Jose through Nov. 4. Call (408) 367-7255 or visit www.SJRep.com.

By Judy Richter

Most Americans like to think of themselves as nonracist — at least in public — but the dirty little secret is that racism is still woven into the fabric of our society whether intentionally or not. Playwright David Mamet brings this issue to the forefront in “Race,” the 90-minute, one-act drama being staged by San Jose Stage Company. Sexism and ageism also figure into this provocative 2009 work.

The action takes place in the law office (set and lights by Michael Palumbo) of Jack Lawson (artistic director Randall King), who is white, and Henry Brown (L. Peter Callender), who is black. A wealthy, white, married man, Charles Strickland (David Arrow), comes to their office saying he has been falsely accused of rape and asking them to defend him. His alleged victim is a much younger black woman, who says the attack took place in a hotel room.

Although the attorneys aren’t necessarily interested in whether or not he’s guilty, they know that taking the case to a jury trial could be tricky because jurors will probably assume that he’s guilty, but they also don’t want to appear to be prejudiced against him. Also figuring into the attorneys’ discussions is their attractive, young, black associate, Susan (ZZ Moor). She has her own opinions about the case and about the ways black women view white men and vice versa.

Like so many of Mamet’s plays, such as “Oleanna,” “Speed-the-Plow,” the Pulitzer-winning “Glengarry Glen Ross” and others, there are no clear-cut answers or resolutions. Ambiguity and anger reign as the two partners and Susan explore the ramifications of race in their own situation as well as their client’s.

Director Tony Kelly keeps the action flowing smoothly. The costumes (kudos for Susan’s outfits) are by Jean Cardinale. The sound design by John Koss features songs played too loud before the play starts and between scenes.

All four actors handle their roles well in this tense, topical drama that gets the company’s 30th season off to a strong start.

“Race” will continue at San Jose Stage Company through Oct. 28. For tickets and information, call (408) 283-7142 or visit www.thestage.org.

By Judy Richter

One of the enduring mysteries of classical music is why the great Ludwig van Beethoven devoted so much time and energy into composing his “Diabelli Variations.” Playwright Moises Kaufman comes up with his own possible answer in “33 Variations” a two-act drama being given its regional premiere by TheatreWorks.

In the play, Kaufman has a prominent musicologist, Dr. Katherine Brandt (Rosina Reynolds), exploring the mystery by delving into original scores and other documents at the Beethoven archive in Bonn, Germany, where the composer was born in 1770. The play alternates between the present in Bonn and New York City and between the years 1819 and 1823 in Vienna, where he spent most of his 56 years. Despite deteriorating health, Katherine insists on going to Bonn for her research. While there, she becomes friends with the archivist, Dr. Gertrude Ladenburger (Marie Shell).

As Katherine’s condition worsens — she has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease — her adult daughter, Clara (Jennifer Le Blanc), goes to Bonn to help her. Clara is accompanied by her boyfriend, Mike Clark (Chad Deverman), a nurse she had met during one of her mother’s medical appointments in New York.

These scenes are interspersed with 19th century events in Vienna, where a music publisher, Anton Diabelli (Michael Gene Sullivan), asked 50 composers to each create a variation on a short, apparently mediocre piano waltz he had written. Although denying the request at first, Beethoven (Howard Swain), took up the challenge and went on to compose 33 (including the original) over the course of several years.

Like Katherine, Beethoven had health problems, including his deafness. Also like Katherine, he was obsessed with his mission to the point where he sometimes was oblivious to other people’s feelings. In his case, the most immediate victim was his loyal aide, Anton Schindler (Jackson Davis), who became his biographer. In Katherine’s case, the victim was Clara, who felt that her mother was disappointed in the way she was living her life.

TheatreWorks artistic director Robert Kelley guides his talented cast through Kaufman’s shifting times and places and their characters’ emotional journeys with sensitivity. Andrea Bechert’s set, Fumiko Bielefeldt’s costumes, Steven B. Mannshardt’s lighting, Brendan Aanes’s sound and Jim Gross’s projections also help.

Onstage pianist William Liberatore plays all or parts of the variations, each of which requires virtuosity. The program gives special thanks to musical and medical experts from nearby universities, including Stanford and San Jose State, for what one would assume was valuable information and insights as the director and actors developed the characters.

All of the actors are fine. However, Reynolds, who has a strong stage presence, is superb as Katherine loses muscular control, affecting her mobility and eventually her speech. Likewise, Swain is outstanding as the often capricious or eccentric Beethoven is enraptured with his musical challenge, which he calls “transfigurating.” Besides the “Diabelli Variations,” the totally deaf Beethoven composed his great Missa Solemnis and Ninth Symphony during the years covered by the play. Snatches of the Mass are played, and parts of its Kyrie movement are movingly sung by the cast.

Although a few scenes seem superfluous or too long, they can’t detract from the play’s inherent power and fascination intermingled with some humorous moments.

The play will continue through Oct. 28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. For tickets and information, call (650) 463-1960 or visit www.theatreworks.org.

By Judy Richter

When the Marin Theatre Company production of Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog” reached its wrenching conclusion on opening night, it was greeted by a stunned silence before the applause and shouts of “Bravo” erupted. That sequence signaled that something really special had just happened onstage.

There is much that’s special about the play, for which Parks won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the first and so far only Pulitzer of its kind awarded to an African American woman. There’s also something special about the production of this two-hander so ably directed by Timothy Douglas.

For one thing, the two actors must take themselves and the audience through a roller coaster of emotions as an underlying struggle between the two characters sometimes changes the balance of power between them.

The two-act play is set in the here and now and focuses on black two brothers who are sharing a cramped one-room apartment with no running water and a community bathroom down the hall. Scenic designer Mikiko Uesugi sets the tone right away with the dingy apartment’s water-stained walls, a rumpled, unmade single bed with clothing strewn all around it, a beat-up reclining chair, a couple of straight-back chairs and not much else.

The brothers are named Booth (Biko Eisen-Martin) and Lincoln (Bowman Wright) — their father’s idea of a joke. Booth, the younger brother, had been living there alone until Lincoln’s wife kicked him out of their home. Booth gets the bed, Lincoln gets the recliner.

Booth is quite talented at shoplifting, a skill that provides the men with, among other things, a nice set of clothing. Booth also aspires to become an expert in three-card monte, a street gambling game that invariably soaks the poor sucker who succumbs to the lure of playing it, thus losing his money and enriching the con man manipulating the cards.

Lincoln was a master at the game until one of his colleagues was shot to death. He quit the con and got a legitimate job in a shabby arcade. He portrays President Abraham Lincoln on the night he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at the Ford Theatre in Washington. Arcade patrons pay to use a cap gun and pull the trigger while Lincoln, wearing white-face makeup, pretends to have been fatally shot. It’s hardly a great job, but it give Lincoln weekly pay that he and Booth use to pay the rent and other expenses.

For the most part, the brothers get along well. They often talk about their childhood and wonder why their philandering parents deserted them while they were still in school. Though emotionally scarred, the brothers managed to survive and to avoid social workers.
The tension rises, however, as Lincoln loses his job and Booth’s girlfriend dumps him. With no money coming in, Lincoln considers returning to the card scam during the long, well delivered monologue that ends Act 1.

The profanity-laden play is a searing examination of fraternal love and rivalry that inevitably leads to tragedy for both men. Wright and Eisen-Martin are both brilliant in their ability to reveal both the subtleties of their characters and their relationship. Wright’s Lincoln is the more low-key of the two, reflecting his greater maturity and life experience. Eisen-Martin’s Booth is far more volatile and impulsive.

The production benefits from Callie Floor’s costumes (such as the ragged black coat worn by Lincoln for his job), as well as Kurt Landisman’s lighting and Chris Houston’s music and sound. They make solid contributions to a provocative play that hasn’t a Bay Area professional production since the national touring production came to San Francisco in 2003. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival staged a memorable production of it in 2004. This Marin production surely will remain in its audience’s memory for a long time to come.

“Topdog/Underdog” will continue at Marin Theatre Company through Oct. 21. For tickets and information, call (415) 388-5208 or visit www.marintheatre.org.

By Judy Richter

It’s a tribute to the genius of the late Michael Bennett and his artistic colleagues that “A Chorus Line” is still impressive and relevant 37 years after it opened on Broadway. The latest evidence of its power is the Broadway By the Bay production now playing at the Fox Theatre in Redwood City.

It’s relevant because — like the dancers auditioning for a Broadway show — most people still have to put themselves on the line to get a job, especially one in a profession they’re passionate about. It’s impressive because the story, characters, staging, music, choreography and sets all make for a classic of the American musical theater.

The setting (from Cabrillo Stage) is simple — a bare stage where more than 20 dancers, and then 17, are auditioning for eight chorus parts in the show. But for some of the featured numbers, the black back panels revolve to reveal full-length mirrors on the other side, allowing the auditioners to see themselves and allowing the audience to experience a heightened effect from dancers dancing in unison.

The crux of the story by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, though, comes through the director, Zach (Tim Reynolds), who wants them to do more than sing and dance. He wants them to talk about themselves and how they came to be dancers. Thus the individual tales unfold, leading to such memorable songs as “At the Ballet,” “One” and “What I Did for Love” — all by Marvin Hamlisch with lyrics by Edward Kleban.

Although the performers in BBB’s non-Equity production seem to have been chosen more for their dancing than for their singing, a few stand out. Chief among them are Michelle Cabinian as Diana, who’s featured in “Nothing” and “What I Did for Love”; and Mary Theresa Capriles as Cassie, who sings and dances in the show-stopping “The Music and Mirror.” Brian Conway is touching as Paul, who got his start in show biz by performing in a drag show when he was 16. Mary Kalita’s Val is spunky in “…And…” and “Dance: 10; Looks: Three,” informally known as the T&A song.

Unlike the original production, which garnered multiple Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize, this one has an intermission. Otherwise, the set, costumes (from The Theatre Company) and lighting by Michael Ramsaur are based on the original. The sound design by Delicate is inconsistent, with some performers more audible and comprehensible than others. (Diction is part of this problem.)

Bennett conceived and originally directed and choreographed the show. BBB’s Robyn Tribuzi recreates his choreography, with some additional choreography by Alex Acevedo, who also plays Mike, for “I Can Do That.” Likewise Jeffrey Bracco’s direction is inspired by the original. Musical director Sean Kana directs the excellent orchestra.

BBB has made the Fox Theatre its home while its former venue, the San Mateo Performing Arts Center, is being renovated. The Fox is a vintage 1929 movie house right in the middle of downtown Redwood City. It had fallen on hard times in the past, but the new owners, Eric and Lori Lochtefeld, and BBB are making some welcome improvements, such as new seats in the lower balcony. More new seats are in the offing.

In the meantime, the BBB production of “A Chorus Line” is most enjoyable. It continues through Oct. 7. For tickets and information call (650) 369-7770 or visit www.broadwaybythebay.org.