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The First
Breeze of Summer
August 10, 2006
By Dink O'Neal
Thirty years ago, playwright Leslie Lee's flashback-driven story of a
multigenerational black family was a Tony nominee for best play. Based on
this revival, it's virtually impossible to tell why. Director Sam
Nickens' desire to celebrate the piece's anniversary is a misstep at
every turn. The production is embarrassing. Musical miscues abound, and
what passes for lighting (credited to Sandy Lee) is rudimentary at best.
Blackouts range from momentary power outages to one, following the lead
character's death, during which a cast member keened incessantly in the
darkness for well over a minute. Meanwhile a white-shirted assistant
stage manager wandered through the house, script in hand, even reaching
through a supposedly second-story window to put pillows on a bed for an
upcoming scene.
Lee's script relays the past and present of one Lucretia
Edwards, a black matriarch whose personal history consists of three
illegitimate children born of different fathers. Of her two surviving
progeny, son Milton is a construction subcontractor whose own children, Nate and Lou, are struggling to pursue better lives.
Regina Randolph as the elder Lucretia provides
sporadic moments of inspiration. Unfortunately, her youthful counterpart,
played by Nadjah M. Dabney,
occupies a stage-right elevated bedroom in which she and her trio of
suitors struggle futilely to lend credibility to this melodrama.
Supporting
players run the gamut from palatable to pointless. Only Peter M. Karlin
rises above Nickens' sluggish direction. Karlin's single appearance in Act II as a white housing developer negotiating for Milton's services is indeed the first breeze of fresh air to grace this stuffy venue. Conversely, in one
sequence, the family's minister, Reverend Mosely
(Mark Ridley), launches into a stereotypical living-room revival that
disintegrates into directionless cacophony under the weight of dropped
lines and off-key singing.
In the show's outlandish conclusion, Lucretia
gives deathbed endorsement to her life's worth of baser instincts.
Angered grandson Lou tries to strangle her. And everyone reminisces about
grandma while the title event finally transpires courtesy of an offstage
fan that sounds like a Cessna flying over Van Nuys.
Presented by Upward Bound Productions at the Stella Adler Theatre, 6773 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Thu.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3
p.m. Jul. 27-Sep. 3. (323) 960-7792.
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