Tuesday, October 1, 2002

Tacky excesses and excess silliness: Annex's 'Stage Door' is a hoot

 By JOE ADCOCK
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER THEATER CRITIC

Two wrongs can, under certain circumstances, make a right. Those circumstances prevail in the current Annex Theatre production of "Stage Door." It's a silly play. And director Ed Hawkins stages it in a silly style. And, voila! -- "Stage Door" is a reasonably engaging show that is fairly funny.

"Stage Door" played on Broadway in 1936. A movie version followed a year later (co-starring Kathryn Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, with Eve Arden, Ann Miller and Lucille Ball). The script is full of hackneyed ideas, implausible situations and stereotypical characters.

Hawkins maximizes every tacky contrivance. He adds zany tributes to 1930s Berlin cabaret, '50s Polynesian fleshpot movies and '60s wacky-teens-on-the-beach comedies. And then, making sure that ridiculousness goes beyond ordinary limits, he casts several unpretty men in allegedly glamorous female roles. As if that weren't enough, costume designer Heather S. Moore is unstinting in her use of appalling wigs.

Bret Fetzer, Chris Jeffries, Josh List, John Kaufmann and Brandon Whitehead all let loose with grandiose female excesses. Female females take charge of the elegant emoting. Lindsay Hunter is plucky as the much-tried leading lady. As a glamorous and talentless Hollywood beauty, Heather Hughes is fatuity personified.

Barbi Beckett, Kate Szajkowski, Christina Mastin, Pamala Mijatov, Stacey Plum, Sarah Rudinoff and Laurie Utterback illustrate the various forms of striving and frustration endured by women eager for Broadway careers. Frannie Pope is the inevitable burdened but sassy maid.

Chris Dietz plays mister awful, a supposed idealist who exploits his girlfriend. He is a Marxist playwright who is only too eager to be corrupted by Hollywood capitalism. Brad Cook plays mister wonderful, a gallant show biz insider who knows talent when he sees it and courageously backs excellence.

The action takes place in the Footlights Club, a boarding house for aspiring actresses. You never saw so many entrances and exits as when the ladies rush in and out to meet beaus, celebrate or bemoan career ups and downs, gossip, commit suicide -- that sort of thing.

Wigs aside, Heather S. Moore's costumes do right by '30s styles, both elegant and dowdy. Marian Williams' set includes a spectacular display of theater posters. Her stage wears a collage frame of intimate accessories and apparel. Lighting designer Jason Meininger further embellishes the frame with dozens and dozens of light bulbs that flash on and even crawl when the mood calls for intense glamour.

nnex productions are noted for their serious attention to silly material. "Stage Door" continues that 14-year tradition. It is ridiculous and entertaining, tacky and elegant.