A Song at Twilightat the Odyssey TheatreReviewed by
Dany Margolies
January 21, 2010
Orson Bean has the task of playing prominent writer Sir Hugo Latymer—reputedly based on Max Beerbohm and W. Somerset Maugham but more obviously based on Coward—toward the end of Sir Hugo's life. Laurie O'Brien plays Carlotta, a star with whom Sir Hugo had a two-year romance before his current marriage began. Bean and O'Brien occasionally catch fire in Coward's repartee, and each delivers a particularly delightful zinger or two. But, on the whole, neither was listening at the performance reviewed. Playing Lady Latymer, however, Alley Mills gives a deep, warm, flawless performance. This wife is strong, loyal, clever, but oh so polite, and when Mills is onstage, she paints vivid pictures that take our minds off the stagecraft and into the story. David Rogge plays the Italian-Austrian waiter as charming, efficient, mildly flirtatious, and dangerously just bordering on cartoonish. James Glossman directs, giving a uniform style and quippy pace to the evening. However, too may distractions mar our complete immersion in the storytelling. Characters imbibe throughout the night but show no signs of it. Carlotta's mid-Atlantic accent leaves us confused about her background. She comments about the view of twinkling lights on the lake, but she is looking through a relatively opaque curtain. But perhaps most unforgivable are the middle-class manners Bean and O'Brien bring to their characters; irrespective of the class and locales of birth, the two would have long been affecting upper-class behaviors. Presented by and at the Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A. Jan. 16–Mar. 7. Thu.–Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m. (Except Sun. 7 p.m. only Jan. 17 and Feb. 21. Additional performances Wed., 8 p.m., Feb. 3–17.) (310) 477-2055. www.odysseytheatre.com. |
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