An old story, nicely rendered An old story, nicely rendered (September 02, 2005)

Few surprises to this romance, but 'Intimate Apparel' is saved by acting

By Julie O'Shea

There are only so many times playwrights can use Cyrano de Bergerac as a muse before the tale starts to lose its charm.

While Lynn Nottage's "Intimate Apparel" doesn't have a creepy-looking man with a large nose, the drama's long-distance, love-letter romance still manages to conjure up feelings of deja vu. The storyline is so familiar, in fact, it won't take you long to figure out where things are headed.

Despite this, much of the show, which TheatreWorks is staging at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts under the direction of Anthony Haney, is rather enjoyable. Eric Sinkkonen's lovely sets give us plenty to look at, and the brilliant character acting by Tracey Conyer Lee as a nightclub prostitute and Lisa Anne Morrison as a high-society wife brings color -- and laughter -- to the script's monotony. It's almost like watching an old movie that you've seen a dozen times: You turn up the volume for the really good scenes and daydream the rest of the time.

Unfortunately, there are many scenes here that should have been condensed or axed altogether. As it is, "Apparel" drags on for a little longer than it should. The show's biggest hiccup is the pairing of the two leads -- Laiona Michelle as a homely seamstress who thinks romance has passed her by and Bryan Hicks as her knight in shining armor.

The problem isn't so much that the two lack chemistry, but that they lack presence. Michelle's Esther is very one-dimensional. We know she's sad because of the things she says, but it's hard to feel sorry for her because she rarely shows much emotion one way or the other. Hicks, on the other hand, shows way too much emotion. On top of this, Hicks gives his George such a thick accent it's sometimes difficult to follow what he's saying.

It's a little unclear how this relationship starts, but one day, seemingly out of the blue, Esther receives a letter from a George Armstrong, who says he's a worker down in Panama and is essentially looking for a female pen pal (among other things).

Esther, desperate for love at 35, laps up his words. But as we quickly find out, she can't write. Enter Mrs. Van Buren (Morrison) and Mayme (Lee), two of Esther's customers and closest confidants. The women agree to write to the steamy-sounding George on Esther's behalf. Naturally, Ester and George fall in love, and, having never laid eyes on one another, agree to marry.

The brightest spots of the show belong to Morrison and Lee.

Morrison has a way of turning on humor and sadness as if her face is a faucet. She does have to endure one awkward, misplaced moment with Michelle's character toward the end of the show where she sort of loses her Pollyanna vulnerability, but that's easily forgiven.

Lee is like a cross between Cruella DeVille, Fran Dresher and a Tenderloin hooker. There is something tantalizingly evil about the way she narrows her eyes and glides over the stage in breezy negligees. You won't be looking anywhere else while she's strutting around.

"Apparel" won the New York Drama Critic's Circle Award for Best Play last year. It's interesting to note that the action takes place in Manhattan in 1905. However, except for some of the dialects and a few passing comments, playwright Nottage never really does a good job of setting up the political and racial tone of the decade. Besides Van Buren and a mousy Jewish fabric seller played by Jackson Davis, all the characters are black. One can't help but think, after seeing how accepting everyone is of one another's ethnicity, that Nottage doesn't have a very good grasp of her U.S. history.
What: TheatreWorks presents "Intimate Apparel" by Lynn Nottage Where: Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St. When: Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m.; Wednesdays through Fridays 8 p.m. Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; "Visual Voice" audio-described performances are available Sept. 16 and 17 at 8 p.m. and Sept. 18 at 2 p.m.; show closes Sept. 18 Cost: $20-$54 Contact: (650) 903-6000 or visit www.theatreworks.org

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