A tart, tangy ‘Marmalade’

The 3KO Broadway Theatre deserves hearty approbation for sheer tenacity in the face of hardship. Braving the subterranean squalor of Hollywood’s funky Gardner Stages, this intrepid company delivers a spirited rendition of “Mr. Marmalade,” Noah Haidle’s quirky comedy about a 4-year-old girl’s relationship with an abusive imaginary playmate.

Ignore the flamenco-like thumping from the busy restaurant overhead, and you’ll find much to enjoy in this entertaining, offbeat production.

When first produced a few years back, the play engendered considerable controversy over its comedic treatment of child sexuality. The shock value is part of the point. Little Lucy (Heather Ann Smith), the play’s tot protagonist, is abandoned for hours on end by her mother (Deborah D’Ottavio), a promiscuous waitress who places Lucy very low on her list of priorities.

As a hedge against her loneliness and isolation, Lucy conjures up Mr. Marmalade (very scary, very funny Scott Brady), an imaginary suitor who takes time out of his busy executive schedule to “play house” with her. But their play, rooted in sordid reality, recapitulates the depressingly familiar cycle of a pathological relationship.

The play is a creepy, hilarious send-up of the nuclear family -- in this case, a shattered microcosm out of a nightmare. Director Stephen Ferguson keeps the action compellingly realistic. The talented cast includes David Jay Barry as Mr. Marmalade’s battered assistant and Michael Wilson in a variety of roles. Walter A. Lutz Jr. is absolutely hilarious as Larry, Lucy’s suicidal 5-year-old admirer, whose bond with Lucy just may help both recover their sadly lost childhoods.

-- F. Kathleen Foley

“Mr. Marmalade,” Gardner Stage 1, 1501 N. Gardner St., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Ends March 29. $15. (818) 685-9939. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

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Of George and Lennie

It will probably take you less time to read John Steinbeck’s classic “Of Mice and Men” than to sit through the stage version playing at the Theatre Banshee in Burbank. But don’t let that dissuade you from catching this solid production, which features several exceptional performances of laconic beauty and smoldering emotion.

Using a script that Steinbeck adapted from his own book, the production adheres to the original story line, which should be familiar to anyone who has passed eighth-grade literature. George (Andrew Leman) is a migrant farmworker traveling through the Depression-era Salinas River Valley with his constant companion, Lennie (Sean Branney), a mentally impaired giant who has a fondness for petting soft things like mice, rabbits and, fatally, women’s hair.

The odd pair finds work on a farm populated by about 10 flavors of tragic masculinity. Curley (Josh Thoemke) is the arrogant boss who pushes around George and Lennie, while Slim (Mark Colson) serves as the calm voice of reason. Meanwhile, Candy (Barry Lynch) befriends the recent arrivals, and the three of them make plans to buy their own farm.

“Of Mice and Men” tells a simple story about dreams deferred and the necessity of friendship in pitiless times. The cast, which also includes Gary Appel and Tomas Boykin, brings a lean efficiency to the play. There’s hardly a wasted movement in the production, which makes the emotional intensity of the later scenes feel that much more honest and sincere.

Directed by Rebecca Marcotte, the play can feel rather conventional and unadventurous at times. If there’s something new to be said about Steinbeck’s story after nearly 70 years, you won’t find it here. This production is interested in faithfully re-creating the author’s words and characters, not breaking new ground.

The play climaxes with a conversation between Lennie and Curley’s lonely wife (Annie Abrams) that goes horribly wrong, resulting in an inevitable chain of violence. The brutality is powerfully ambiguous -- a gunshot in the dark that can be interpreted as an act of cruel justice or perhaps an expression of merciful compassion.

-- David Ng

“Of Mice and Men,” Theatre Banshee, 3453 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends April 13. $15-$18. (818) 846-5323. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.

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When Marlene met Maurice

“Dietrich & Chevalier, the Musical” at the Santa Monica Playhouse is an agreeable, spruced-up revival of screenwriter-playwright Jerry Mayer’s “Falling in Love Again,” which premiered in the same venue 10 years ago.

Mayer’s show chronicles the passionate affair and subsequent enduring friendship between these cinema icons during the 1930s and ‘40s within the broader context of World War II. In Chris DeCarlo’s sparse but well-paced staging, dramatic scenes alternate with 15 songs culled from their respective popular hits.

This time, script refinements sharpen the focus on the centerpiece of Mayer’s narrative: Maurice Chevalier’s ignominious fall from his perch as the toast of French society to his postwar infamy as a Nazi-collaborator suspect. A new opening set in the middle of the story finds Chevalier (Ray Baker) treading a fine line as he performs in occupied France for a mixed audience of his compatriots and German soldiers, before we flash back to 1932 Hollywood, where Chevalier and Marlene Dietrich (Cissy Conner) first meet on the Paramount lot.

During the war, Chevalier’s real-life song-and-dance routine was trickier than any he attempted on stage or screen -- balancing his passion to perform against the Nazi regime’s attempt to exploit him as a propaganda tool. Avoiding easy judgment, Mayer insightfully explores the moral complications of Chevalier’s predicament.

Dietrich’s wartime challenges are traced in parallel: to avoid a forced repatriation to Nazi Germany, she changes citizenship and becomes a loyal USO entertainer, a path that leads to her dramatic surprise testimony at Chevalier’s trial.

Versatile Zack Medway supplies eight cleanly differentiated supporting characters. Of the leads, Baker’s Chevalier more convincingly evokes the requisite European sensibilities. That neither of their real-life counterparts was distinguished for singing on key relieves some of the pressure as they gamely tackle some signature numbers.

The show’s new title labels it a musical, and although the songs complement the dramatic action, they do not further the story or characters -- a play with songs is a more apt description.

-- Philip Brandes

“Dietrich & Chevalier, the Musical,” the Other Space at Santa Monica Playhouse, 1211 4th St., Santa Monica. 3 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends May 4. $25. (800) 838-3006. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

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Tolins’ ‘Secrets’ divulges little

Jonathan Tolins’ “Secrets of the Trade,” now in its world premiere at the https://http//: www.thedahlia.com “> www.thedahlia.com , is one of those plays so charmingly presented it takes a while to realize what a hodgepodge it actually is.

Tolins, author of “The Twilight of the Golds,” crafts entertaining and sympathetic characters in his story about the uneven relationship between an aging theatrical titan and his youthful protege. Despite Matt Shakman’s typically lucid direction, Tolins’ play is overly discursive and under-plotted.

For indeterminate reasons, Tolins has set his tale between 1980 and 1990, but aside from a few undeveloped references to the AIDS epidemic, the time could just as well be present day. Tony winner John Glover (“Love! Valour! Compassion!”) plays Martin Kerner, a legendary theater director who becomes a mentor of sorts to aspiring theater hopeful Andy Lipman (Edward Tournier), the cosseted only child of Peter (Mark L. Taylor), a successful architect, and Joanne (Amy Aquino), a professional dancer turned English teacher.

Tolins’ snarled story treats Andy’s emerging homosexuality, Kerner’s waning creative powers and Joanne’s resentment at being supplanted as Andy’s advisor. More problematic than the haphazard narrative, however, are the characters’ elusive motivations. Initially affable, Andy segues into sudden brattiness, Joanne wavers between the enlightened and the overbearing, and Kerner veers from benevolence to salacity, with scant rationale for the shifts.

There are moments of inspired humor as well occasionally biting exchanges that the talented performers, including Bill Brochtrup as Kerner’s jaded yet kindly assistant, readily sink their teeth into. Glover is unfailingly compelling as the casually destructive Kerner. Yet Tolins’ desultory chat-fest of a play leaves us grasping for a reason, a rhyme or just a recognizable through-line -- something that will make these incoherently whispered “Secrets” more intelligible.

-- F.K.F.

“Secrets of the Trade,” Black Dahlia Theatre, 5453 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays. Call for exceptions. Ends April 20. $25. (800) 838-3006. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.