Antiwar play topical but unpersuasive

Most conscientious objectors stay home. Imagine, though, what havoc one might wreak on the front lines, particularly in the current, chaotic Iraq embroilment.

Nicholas Kazan has, in his impassioned, maddeningly simplistic new antiwar play, “A Good Soldier.� With “Antigone� as an inspiration, Kazan gives us a willowy, quietly intense young Army private, Annie (Kaitlin Doubleday), who has turned on the U.S. occupation after witnessing a bloody scene of prison torture. As she tells a fellow female soldier (Ali Hillis), “It drove me a little crazy -- in a nice way, I hope.�

That quote crystallizes why “A Good Soldier� feels by turns bold, silly and pernicious. Putting the Iraq war debate into its very midst gives the arguments a bracing immediacy, but neither pro- nor antiwar positions are given persuasive voice. When the craven Gen. Creedon (Clancy Brown) invokes Saddam Hussein’s mass murders, Annie replies, “Yeah, OK -- but it was their mess.� Later she says of insurgents she’s been secretly supplying with food and medicine, “They’re not insurgents, they’re people!�

Brown has natural gravity, and Michael Anderson Brown, as his sneakily irreverent son, brings welcome nuance to his role. But under Scott Paulin’s workmanlike direction, these characters have all the military bearing of the cast of “Scrubs.�

Annie spends much of the show slouching and pacing, hands in pockets, with a righteous, needling pout that wouldn’t survive basic training.

Audiences starved for topicality might still salute “A Good Soldier.� Those looking for a stage tragedy worthy of the world’s tragic state will have to keep looking.

-- Rob Kendt

“A Good Soldier,� SK-Tribe at the Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends Aug. 7. $25. (310) 477-2055 or www.odysseytheatre.com. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.

*

‘Daylight’ needs time to develop

Admirable elements decorate “Pacific Daylight� at Theatre of NOTE. Cody Henderson’s play about Angeleno co-dependence gets smart work from director Albert Dayan and his fetching cast and designers.

It follows special-ed teacher Kerri (Alina Phelan), first seen explaining daylight saving time (a recurring theme). Next, driving-phobic Kerri informs boyfriend Steve (Jon Beauregard) that she escaped a commuter train crash because her teaching session ran late. “A car is the American dream. I don’t understand why you don’t want one,� says Steve. Kerri replies: “I have a different American dream.�

So does her friend, acerbic Cynthia (Lauren Letherer), Kerri’s perennial emergency chauffeur. During Cynthia’s first date with Ernie (Darrett Sanders), who is as laconic as Cynthia is sardonic, in comes a call from Kerri in crisis mode, and off Cynthia goes (another theme).

The climax finds both couples in a catalytic getaway at Ernie’s mountain cabin. Here, as elsewhere, the actors wholly inhabit their characters. As the ending’s trucker, Seth Bates isn’t an actor, but his sincerity is evident.

Barbara Lempel’s sculpted set is all papier-mache peaks, pop-ups and insets, a witty show in itself (Hugo Armstrong gets additional design credit). Lisa D. Katz expertly uses varied lighting sources. Dayan’s rambunctious staging serves the quirky plot.

Yet Henderson’s respectable script finally feels insubstantial. The compact outlines, resolutions and unsubtle symbols mainly suggest an Oxygen network pilot. Kerri’s process outweighs Cynthia’s, though their contrasted parallels seem the point. Moreover, for a comedy, even a serious one, laughs are limited. “Pacific Daylight� is promising, but its course in self-sufficiency needs expansion.

-- David C. Nichols

“Pacific Daylight,� Theatre of NOTE, 1517 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends Aug. 6. $18. (323) 856-8611. Running time: 1 hour.

*

Heavenly will have to wait

First produced in the late 1930s, Harry Segall’s play “Heaven Can Wait� has given rise to several film adaptations, including 1941’s “Here Comes Mr. Jordan,� starring a stunningly miscast Robert Montgomery as a champion pugilist, and the Oscar-winning 1978 film, which featured a long-in-the-tooth Warren Beatty as a professional football player. Even Chris Rock got into the act in 2001’s loose adaptation “Down to Earth,� a stinker by anybody’s standards. (As a point of interest, the 1943 Lubitsch film “Heaven Can Wait,� starring Don Ameche, had nothing to do with Segall’s play.)

In the Hollywood vernacular, one might say that Segall’s perennially popular supernatural comedy has “legs.� However, Woodland Hills Theatre’s current production of Segall’s play at the West Valley Playhouse stumbles badly in almost every particular.

The story revolves around street-savvy but pure-hearted Joe Pendleton (Alexander Lvovsky), a talented boxer who is spirited up to heaven some 60 years before his scheduled time. When Joe’s body is cremated by his boxing manager Max (Roscoe Gaines), Joe must find another body to occupy. Escorted back to Earth by heavenly emissary Mr. Jordan (Tim Holtwick), Joe inhabits the body of a ruthless millionaire who has been targeted for murder by his scheming wife and her lover. But before he meets with his predictable fate, Joe first finds true love.

Under Jon Berry’s ham-handed direction, the cast seems ill-prepared and uneven. Lvovsky looks the part, but his one-note portrayal lacks comic depth. The 1930s ambience is only rudely suggested by Charles W. Hall’s monotonous set and Don Nelson’s unattractive costumes, of which one ensemble appears, at first glance, to be constructed entirely of Hefty bags. Of the performers, only Gaines succeeds in crafting a convincing period character. However, even his crisply professional performance cannot lift this disappointing enterprise above a community theater standard.

-- F. Kathleen Foley

“Heaven Can Wait,� West Valley Playhouse, 7242 Owensmouth Ave., Canoga Park. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Ends July 24. $22. (818) 884-1907. Running time: 2 hours.

*

‘Into the Woods’ hits thorny patch

Once upon a time in 1987, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine stirred some beloved storybook characters into a family-friendly musical. Since then, “Into the Woods� has become the most performed title in Sondheim’s canon.

Sondheim’s ingenious score and Lapine’s insightful libretto drive this Grimm deconstruction. Lapine pits an anachronistic Baker (Doug Bilitch) and his Wife (Nicole Wessel-Bilitch) against their fairy-tale counterparts. The baking pair’s spell-driven quest for parenthood upends everyone else, reaching faux-resolution as Act 1 closes. Act 2 moves into morality play, the self-interested choices threatening collective existence

I wish that the Knightsbridge revival had the musical and stylistic finesse to match its wholehearted ambitions. Unfortunately, director Rene Guerrero overstresses subtext while losing frolicsome humor, with a valiant but variable cast. Kyle Nudo’s pert Jack scores, and Bilitch and Wessel-Bilitch, married in real life, succeed through sheer commitment. Kelly Boczek plays Little Red as an aggressive nymphet rather than deadpan kid, and Leslie Spencer Smith’s Cinderella is more satirical than affecting. Her stepmother (Stacey James) recalls Joan Crawford; the two princes (Kyle Puccia and Donal Thoms-Cappello) are fey “Zorro� transplants, and Susan Brindley’s determined Witch is misused at her transformation.

Musical director Michael Collum’s yeoman accompaniment permits countless liberties with tempos, notes and intonation. Set designer Joseph Stachura, costumer Vicki Conrad and multiple lighting designers do impressive work, but their decor is less magical than Kafkaesque. The absence of Little Red’s post-wolf furs and the giant’s crash typify the missed details. An obvious Knightsbridge labor of love, “Woods� is regrettably inconclusive, though devotees may brave the tonal snarls and casting pitfalls for the emotional journey.

-- David C. Nichols

“Into the Woods,� Knightsbridge Theatre Los Angeles, 1944 Riverside Drive, L.A. 5 p.m. Saturdays, 6 p.m. Sundays. Ends Aug. 13. $25. (323) 667-0955. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.