Don't miss DOUBT in L.A.: closes April 10! Here's my rave review.

[eslgr8]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 2:03am

AS IN MANY REVIEWS, THERE ARE SOME POSSIBLE SPOILERS HERE:
Well, I take back my doubts (no pun intended) as to the reasoning behind the Pasadena Playhouse's use of New York quotes in its recent email to subscribers promoting the West Coast production of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt. I'd assumed it was because they couldn't find enough good reviews in the local press. Wrong! After returning tonight from a remarkable performance of this excellent and thought-provoking new play, I went online and found half a dozen rave reviews from the local media. Perhaps the Playhouse was simply using the quotes it had in its original ad campaign, because there were certainly enough local ones it could have used. In any case, I was thoroughly impressed by this powerful and engrossing new work by John Patrick Shanley. Just as the title implies about its characters, the play itself inspires Doubt on the part of the audience. Is Father Flynn guilty? Has Sister Aloysius gone a bit crazy in her zeal? What truly happened when the boy and Father Flynn were alone? Even at the end of the play, one reviewer came to a completely different conclusion from my own. Shanley repeatedly defies the audience's expectations, most especially when the allegedly abused boy's mother appears and not only condones what the priest may have done to her boy but also reveals a perhaps anachronistic but still touching understanding and acceptance of her 12-year-old's nascent homosexuality. I read a New York review of Cherry Jones' "towering presence" on stage. Los Angeles has the diminutive Linda Hunt opposite the 6-foot-plus hunk-of-priest Jonathan Cake, David vs Goliath, and the size difference only adds to the impact of their battle. Hunt does seem to fumble a bit with her lines, but if there's an actress who can convey flint-like resolve, it's Linda Hunt. And Jonathan Cake is so charsimatic and sexy and yes, believeable in his denials, that some doubt can persist, even after the lights have gone down. The radiant Patrice Pitman Quinn as the boy's compassionate lioness of a mother also towers over Miss Hunt, to good effect. What a beautiful performance! Mandy Freund is sweet yet feisty as the young nun recruited by Sister Aloyisius as her ally. There are powerful themes to be discussed in this play, but what I found most interesting was the notion that even in a priest's possible misconduct with a young student, there may not be black and white distinctions between good and evil. Kudos also to the gorgeous revolving set, designed by Gary L. Wissmann, and to Jeremy Pivnick's lighting and Alex Jagger's costumes, and Steven Cahill's music. (Aparently the set is very different from the one in New York.) The play runs a concise 90 minutes and feels like it's even shorter, it's that compelling. Doubt closes on the 10th, so if you live in L.A. and haven't seen it yet, DO!!! If it wins the Tony, you can say you saw it without having to leave the West Coast!
RAVE REVIEWS FROM L.A. MEDIA

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/05/18/theater-mikulan.php

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/reviews/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000838711

http://u.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,212~23500~2767580,00.html

http://reviewplays.com/doubt.htm

http://www.frontiersnewsmagazine.com/arts/theatre.html

Updated On: 3/30/05 at 02:03 AM