STAGE REVIEWS : ‘The Climate’ Changes for the Worse

It wouldn’t be out of order for Jonathan Tolins to insert a reference to the Earth’s changing climate into his nine-scene work, “The Climate,� which has moved from a healthy, six-month run at Theatre/Theater’s tiny rear space to the larger Heliotrope Theatre.

After all, the climate --meteorological, cultural, political--is referred to more than once by Tolins’ gallery of characters, who are mostly in their 20s. His topical comedy, too, is driven by an acute, sometimes painful awareness of how fast things are changing, faster than any of us realize.

Alas, like the climate outside our window, “The Climate� has changed, and not all for the better. (One improvement: 20 minutes have been shaved.) Like our fairly unsubtle times, the problems are immediately evident.

Devin Meadows’ set, for instance. He turned Theatre/Theater’s confines to his advantage, employing only a funny backdrop-collage of late-’80s and ‘90s images--matching the play’s structure. We were close, and actors Tolins and Dyanne DiRosario owned the stage.

Now, the stage owns the actors. Meadows crams many mini-set pieces into an unwieldy, two-level space, giving it the look of a stuffed furniture warehouse. It ruins the mood of the scene in which Tolins’ fired Drexel Burnham yuppie is trying to pick up DiRosario’s Mother Jones magazine editor. And what is a living room TV set doing in a singles bar?

Which leads us to another, much knottier problem with the current “Climate.� What were sharp, funny remarks in February (when we first reviewed the show) have lost their juice--not because DiRosario and Tolins have lost a beat or two, but because the lines have passed their expiration date. The Drexel Burnham-Michael Milken escapade, though big at the time, has faded. DiRosario’s now-successful, L.A.-based sitcom actress tells her still-struggling former theater comrade that she’s up for a “Love Letters� gig with Jason Bateman. Uh, folks, “Love Letters� has closed.

For the many universally comic and emotionally true moments in “The Climate,� things couldn’t be better: A middle-aged couple at the opera exhibit the travails of today’s parents, and Yalies Peter and Joy are emblematic of youth getting old before its time.

What made “The Climate� so winning in February was its attuned sensibility: It was probably the first theater piece to really get a handle on what’s bugging the generation coming of age in the ‘90s, from unsafe sex to the general tough exterior people seem to be adopting like the season’s new look. Only that was that season; Tolins, along with director Susan Snyder, has to start plugging into what’s happening now.

“The Climate,� Heliotrope Theatre, 660 N. Heliotrope Ave., Hollywood, Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends Sept. 1. $13-$15; (213) 660-8587. Running time: 2 hours.