A PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

A Picture Of Dorian Gray, Michael Michetti’s spectacular take on the Oscar Wilde classic, is back, twelve years after its Theatre @ Boston Court debut, stunningly restaged by its director-adapter and easily the most provocative, boundary-pushing production ever to ignite the A Noise Within stage.

 The Picture Of Dorian Gray first shocked, offended, and tantalized readers back in 1890 with its Faustian tale of a young man who, unable to bear the inevitable loss of his youth and beauty, makes a satanic pact to stay forever young.

While adhering almost entirely to Wilde’s original text and maintaining the novel’s original late 19th-century setting, Michetti’s adaptation makes for contemporary theater at its most contemporary and theatrical, integrating movement, dance, and an extended scene of full-frontal male nudity that is surely an A Noise Within first.

 Looking every bit Wilde’s “young Adonis made of ivory and rose leaves” whether clothed or undressed for the titular painting, Colin Bates proves a pitch-perfect choice to bring Dorian to life, convincing us from the get-go in the 20ish Londoner’s beauty, both outer and inner, that is until per his devil’s pact exterior and interior no longer match.

 A chance encounter first introduces painter Basil Hallward (Amin El Gamal) to the young man he is convinced will “absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself.”

 Unable to prevent his friend Lord Henry (Harry) Wotton (Frederick Stuart) from making Dorian’s acquaintance, Basil soon finds his young model agreeing with hedonist Harry that “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it,” heading off in search of one new sensation after another, and not aging a day even as his portrait grows “old, horrible, and dreadful” in his stead.

 Along the way, Dorian’s life touches and destroys those of young actress Sibyl Vane (Chelsea Kurtz), her sailor brother James (José Angel Donado), and a couple of male lovers (Justin Lawrence Barnes as Adrian Singleton and Abe Martell as Alan Campbell) to name just a few, though none of this should come as a surprise to anyone who’s read Wilde’s novel.

 What will astonish Wildeans is the utter theatricality of Michetti’s adaptation, from its Greek chorus of black-clad supporting players to dance-and-movement sequences dramatically choreographed by John Pennington, most particularly a fifteen-minute-long Act Two opener that employs interpretive dance to illustrate Dorian’s eighteen-year-long descent into depravity as Daniel Lench (Lord George Fermor, Thornton) narrates directly from Wilde’s prose.

 Not only is Julliard grad Bates everything Dorian Gray should be, A Noise Within treasures Stuart and El Gamal do some of their finest work ever as the pleasure-seeing Harry and the hopelessly besotted Basil, with featured cast members Barnes, Donado, Kurtz, Lench, Abe Martell (Alan Campbell), Dale Sandlin (“Romeo,” Sir Geoffrey Clouston), Deborah Strang (Lady Brandon, Lady Narborough), Amy Tolsky (Mrs. Vane, Prostitute), and Tania Verafield (Lady Henry, Gladys) not only delivering finely-hewn featured performances and cameos but executing intricate blocking every step of the way. (Dance captain Kurtz merits special mention for her heartbreaking Sibyl, and for a May-September Romeo and Juliet scene opposite Sandlin that provides welcome comic relief).

A Picture Of Dorian Gray 2.0 benefits from multiple Boston Court returnees including scenic designer Michetti (this time collaborating with James Maloof), employing an empty-frame motif that asks the audience to imagine the paintings within.

 Sound designer Robert Oriol’s almost nonstop musical underscoring once again dazzles as does Pennington’s choreography, with new creatives Garry Lennon’s gorgeous period costumes, Rose Malone’s stunning lighting design, Erin Walley’s just-right 1890s props, and Shannon Hutchins’s spot-on wig and makeup design adding to the stage magic.

Meriting additional kudos are assistant director Rhonda Kohl and dialect coach Tracy Winters.

Rhonda Kohl is assistant director. Anne M. Jude is stage manager and Grace Gaither is assistant stage manager. Select casting is by Victoria Hoffman. Jonathan Bray, Jonathan Fisher, Rafael Goldstein, Jill Hill, Marc Leclerc, Katie Rodriguez, Brandon Ruiter, and Taleen Shrikian are understudies.

Rare is the 99-seat theater production granted a big-stage transfer, and rarer still is one revived a dozen years after its World Premiere. Los Angeles theatergoers can count themselves fortunate indeed that Michael Michetti’s audacious, intoxicating A Picture Of Dorian Gray is back.

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A Noise Within, 3352 East Foothill Blvd, Pasadena. Through November 16. See website for detailed schedule. Reservations: 626 356-3100 ext. 1.
www.ANoiseWithin.org

–Steven Stanley
September 29, 2018
Photos: Craig Schwartz

 

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