It's called What to Wear, but it could easily be titled "What Is It?" Most viewers will likely describe the 65-minute piece, with music by Michael Gordon, and with avant-garde artist Richard Foreman supplying direction, overall design, and odd libretto, as a modern opera. It's closer to a living, abstract, visually arresting art installation that is amusing and runs out of steam only in the last segment. Fans of Foreman, like those of Robert Wilson, are likely to salivate over the nuanced staccato movement made by the characters at this Mad Hatter's tea party. And lovers of Gordon's compositions will probably enjoy his layered, dissonant, pulsating fusion of classical, rock, techno, and children's genres. It is hard to say who else will like it, because the piece asks audiences to let go of the lack of plot or coherency and to simply experience the nightmare asylum run by Madeleine X and her companion inmates.
The lead role is performed by a quartet wearing identical beige utilitarian dresses. Sarah Chalfy, Harmony Jiroudek, Marja-Liisa Kay, and, in drag, Marc Lowenstein, are accompanied by a six-member chorus and about a dozen movement artists, all wearing plaid skirts and hats with tiny colored balls on them. The eight-piece orchestra — consisting of keyboards, violins, bass, guitar, and percussion — is located stage left, inside a large cage. The quartet sings the tale, such as it is, of Madeleine X and of the lives of ugly ducks. Each musical movement consists of no more than one or two lines of text, such as "So sad/But I reject you," and "When a duck enters a fine restaurant/In such a bad, bad world/that duck is eaten." Much of the action takes place around a duck, which looks much like Jack from the commercials for Jack in the Box restaurant. The duck also has a large toy tank. The walls are flooded with trippy murals, designed by Kate Manheim, giving the entire show a dreamlike quality.
It's difficult to assess the performances, other than to say the quartet, sopranos Chalfy and Kay in particular, have fine voices. Their wry smiles and demonic, unblinking stares into the audience fit the music's tone. The movement artists' marches are sharp and concise, as well. But the performers are merely Foreman's props, which, working in unison with the music and inanimate visual elements, create a wholly original state of being. What it all means doesn't seem important. For the most part, it's interesting, and that's enough.
Presented by the Center of New Performance at CalArts, in conjunction with New Century Players at REDCAT, Walt Disney Concert Hall, 631 W. Second St., L.A. Tue.-Sun. 8:30 p.m. (Also Sat.-Sun. 3 p.m. Sep. 30-Oct. 1. Dark Sun. 8:30 p.m. Oct. 1.) Sep. 20-Oct. 1. (213) 237-2800. www.redcat.org.