Kaleidoscopic Sketches With a Feminist View

Fertile feminist insight enlivens “Parallel Lives,� ending this weekend at the Edison Theatre in Long Beach. This loud *R* mouth Theatre Company staging of Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffney’s 1989 Obie-winning “The Kathy and Mo Show� is potently entertaining, textual cellulite notwithstanding.

Originally a virtuoso duologue, the material here is divided among eight splendid comediennes under Laura Marchant’s efficient direction. The kaleidoscopic sketch comedy trajectory is overseen by two “Supreme Beings� (Lisa May and Andrea Poma, divinely campy) perched atop Darla K. Davis’ cotton-flocked unit set.

The estrogenic proceedings feature leitmotifs ranging from the vagaries of relationships to the codification of feminine hygiene products. What passes for through-line originates with those angels, their unity at the opening Genesis subtly devolving to altered stances by the multiple-character finale.

Favorites are tough to call, but Meredith Bronner and Hillary Calvert’s devastating Sapphic performance artists and Emily Duval and Jessica Variz’s graphically endowed mock Shakespeareans are contenders. Geri Logan’s deadpan drollery tickles throughout, and breakout star Ellen Williams’ breakneck mime of ablutions to Bizet’s Symphony in C is shriekingly funny, alone worth admission.

The one glaring liability is overload of content, the ballast creating repetitions of point, erratic tempos and unnecessary length.

David C. Nichols

“Parallel Lives,� Edison Theatre, 213 E. Broadway, Long Beach. Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends Sunday. $15. (562) 972-3593. Mature audiences. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.

*

‘Communicating Doors’ Plays With Time Travel

Perhaps only Einstein played around with time and space more than Alan Ayckbourn has.

In his more than 60 plays, the British playwright has made a habit of mucking about with reality by, for instance, superimposing the action in two households onto the same performing area (“How the Other Half Loves�).

For “Communicating Doors,� Ayckbourn mingled elements of science fiction, murder mystery and sex farce to come up with a complex time-travel tale. First produced in 1994, the comedy has been finding its way into America’s regional theaters and is being given its Los Angeles premiere by the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble.

Although the premise seems like a lot of fun, the action is rarely as funny as it could be, and the storytelling flags in the second act. Still, a lively staging and engaging performances make the Odyssey presentation worth the brain ache of trying to follow the plot.

Events unfold in a high-end London hotel suite that has been given a look of timeless elegance by designer Andrew Deppen.

The action begins in 2022 as a call girl, Poopay (Amy Chaffee), arrives for an appointment with an elderly businessman, Reece (Alan Brooks), arranged by his business partner, Julian (Michael Carr). Before Poopay quite understands what is happening, sensitive information has been entrusted to her, and she must flee for her life. She rushes through a connecting door into what she thinks is the next suite.

But the door works like a time-travel device. When she emerges, she is in the same room, in 2002. The suite is occupied by Reece’s second wife, Ruella (Lisa Pelikan), who is about to be killed. Together, Poopay and Ruella try to save Reece’s first wife, Jessica (Rachael Lyerla), from the same fate in 1982, while outfoxing a blustery but well-meaning security officer (Ron Bottitta).

Director Barry Philips emphasizes the physical humor where he can, coming up with some especially funny business involving a dead body. But the greatest enjoyment comes from watching Chaffee’s Poopay bloom from empty-headed sex object to strong, selfless woman under the guidance of Pelikan’s sisterly, shrewd Ruella.

Daryl H. Miller

“Communicating Doors,� Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. (except Aug. 25 and Sept. 8, 2 p.m.). Ends Sept. 29. $20.50-$25. (310) 477-2055. Running time: 2 hours, 38 minutes.

*

Raunchy ‘Veronica!’ Zings TV Talk Shows

For sheer parody, it’s hard to outdo the sleaze-mongering antics of daytime TV talk shows in their native habitats. Yet playwright Tony Jerris’ New York cult hit, “Tell Veronica!,� managed to give the broadcast burlesques a run for their money with a raucous send-up of Oprah, Sally Jesse and Ricki rolled into one hot pink hot flash of a show.

Making its West Coast premiere at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre, this newly revised version sports Charlene Tilton as the titular hostess of humiliation who, abetted by Brad (Brian Kimmet), her smarmy production assistant and audience fluffer, gleefully pours salt on the psychic wounds of her witless guests as she gets them to confess their tawdriest secrets.

Not that this takes much coaxing, as the exhibitionistic ensemble flings itself at a corny cornucopia of combatants from the shallow end of the gene pool.

The role of raunchy ringmaster Veronica affords a fine opportunity for Tilton to extend her range beyond her “Dallas� days persona. Her characterization is frighteningly convincing as she eggs her guests on with lewd innuendos to new heights of embarrassment, only to drop them when fresh meat beckons (“You’ve had your 15 minutes!� she sneers).

The first “segment� reunites a trailer-trash mother (Kathlyn Miles, substituting for Lin Shaye) with the trio of daughters she had abandoned in their infancy--nun-turned-stripper April (Tilton’s daughter Cherish Lee), gargantuan May (Shannon K. Dunn) and mustachioed lesbian June (Shea Alexander)--with predictable fireworks.

The more inventive follow-up pits a gum-chomping, crotch-scratching Jewish princess (hilarious Donna Cherry), formerly “married to the mob� and now a police informant, against her murderous ex-husband (Bruno Amato) and his acerbic mother (spot-on Lynda Lenet). In between segments, Tilton fearlessly accosts audience members with male-bashing “Guess that Goon� quizzes and hands out tacky prizes.

Playwright Jerris clearly doesn’t lavish enormous amounts of energy polishing the dialogue to sophisticated luster--understandable, because the show’s evolving script introduces new characters and stories every three weeks. Instead, the show relies on the cast’s edgy, semi-improv energy to spray gags like buckshot. More than enough of them hit their mark.

Philip Brandes

“Tell Veronica!� Hudson Mainstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Aug. 25. $20. (323) 856-4200. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

*

In Millay’s Poems, the Drama of a Life

Edna St. Vincent Millay could wax poetic about most anything, from the vegetables in her garden to the tortured emotions accompanying an impossible romance. She saw the world with eyes wide open, and each of her poems provided a little lesson in how her readers might do the same.

These lessons illuminate “A Lovely Light,� the one-woman overview of Millay’s life that Marion Ross is performing at the Falcon Theatre.

Ross--best known for her long run as Mrs. Cunningham on the sitcom “Happy Days�--has been performing this piece for years, honing her characterization of Millay (1892-1950; Pulitzer Prize, 1923) and teasing out the nuances in the poetry. Eyes flashing with mischief, Ross renders Millay as a woman of fierce intelligence, quick wit and ever-playful spirit--a woman who, at just 19, could write a phrase like: “And all at once the heavy night / Fell from my eyes and I could see.�

Such complexity helps to compensate for the hands-off hagiography of the play itself. Even after nearly two hours of poems, letters and snippets of biographical information, it’s hard to get a feel for the real Millay--the outspokenly political, bravely feminist, openly bisexual woman whose ideas seized the minds of her readers.

As written by the late actress Dorothy Stickney, “A Lovely Light� feels narrowly focused on how two loves seemed to shape Millay’s life: a complicated one with the already-married poet Arthur Davison Ficke and a happier one with the importer Eugen Boissevain.

But Millay’s writing tells us much of what we need to know. Under Norman Cohen’s direction, Ross treats each poem as a mini-play, churning with emotion and bursting with life.

D.H.M.

“A Lovely Light,� Falcon Theatre, 4252 Riverside Drive, Burbank. Sundays, 7:30 p.m. Ends Aug. 25. $25. (818) 955-8101. Running time: 1 hour, 59 minutes.