DAILY BREEZE
Torrance, California
Sunday, October 11, 1998

'RITA' EDUCATING EXPERIENCE IN HERMOSA
By KATHRYN MARTIN

Something was definitely happening in Hermosa Beach on Friday night.

Hollywood-style searchlights raked the sky. Cars crawled past the Hermosa Beach Civic Center searching for parking while a gaggle of decidedly upscale pedestrians converged on the facility from all directions.

Inside, champagne was chilling, buffet tables stood ready, a grand piano, complete with candelabra, graced the Civic Theatre lobby where politicians and other movers and shakers casually worked the room.

It was opening night for the first performance of the first season of the South Bay Playhouse, and James A. Blackman III, consummate showman as well as executive director of the Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities and the newly-minted Playhouse, was showing the locals what a real opening night was all about.

After so much glitz, the production itself -- Wily Russell's low-key comedy, "Educating Rita" -- was downright anticlimactic.

That's not to say it wasn't a fine performance, which it was -- in keeping with Blackman's reputation for strong artistic values and a painstaking attention to detail.

Start with Nicholas Dorr's set, which beautifully re-creates the innards of a British university dean's office, from its sky-high pseudo-Gothic stained glass windows to the dusty heaps of books stacked on the floors.

The next thing you notice is a much superior sound system than previously appeared at the Hermosa Civic.

Theatergoers are treated to crystal-clear dialogue throughout the play as well as some enjoyable music (a mix of classical and Beatles tunes) between scenes.

Even harder to miss is director Calvin Remsberg's superb casting and direction.

Alexandra Boyd is marvelous as Rita, the spunky working-class woman who decides to expand her mind by pursuing a university extension course in English literature, despite the restraints of husband, family and social pressure.

Boyd's Rita is unself-consciously brash, even crass; but she's also passionate, playful, tenaciously determined and remarkably humble -- occasionally, all at the same time. And Boyd's cockney accent, though perhaps not the genuine article, is plenty convincing.

Mark Capri is both charming and exasperating as Frank, the cranky, burned-out and boozed-out university professor assigned as her tutor.

Part teddy bear and part pompous intellectual with a disillusioned romantic soul underneath, Capri's Frank is a tragic portrait of squandered talent. And Capri offers a striking portrayal of his character's intellectual and emotional degeneration over the course of the play.

The one thing you don't see is Remsberg's artful stage management. With its dozens of brief fast-paced scenes, this is a deceptively simple-looking piece.

Remsburg pulled it off almost flawlessly, a major achievement in a new production at a new venue.

All together, they make for a polished production. If "Rita" is the shape of things to come, the new Playhouse will be a terrific addition to the South Bay theatre scene.

EDUCATING RITA
By JOSEPH SIROTA

The Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities has expanded from musicals into straight theater, and from Redondo Beach to Hermosa. Educating Rita, their inaugural production in the 500-seat Hermosa Civic Theatre, is both a fine choice and well done.

The play was a success on both sides of the Atlantic and was adapted into a film version that starred Michael Caine. Playwright Willy Russell's story is both touching and wildly funny. In a manner reminiscent of classic Lina Wertmueller films, you find yourself laughing and smiling while you watch, only to realize at the close that you've experienced the unfolding of a tender, even sad story.

Wanting more knowledge of life, of herself and her choices, 26-year-old Rita comes to study with the scholarly, alcoholic Professor Frank in an Open University program. As a result, their lives are altered. While there are elements of Shaw's Pygmalion/My Fair Lady in this tale of a spunky young woman's transformation through education, Rita and Frank's relationship is more modern, more realistic, more vulnerable to life's weaknesses and heartaches.

Unlike the film version, the play is a two-character piece in a single set, Frank's university office. Nicholas Dorr's set is a perfect collaboration of academic clutter and dark old English wood and glass. Within this limited world, actors Alexandra Boyd and Mark Capri take us on a magical journey that interweaves their hopes, insecurities, and their frailties. Alexandra Boyd is an unforgettable Rita, sexy, brazen, and fragile. Mark Capri is a memorable Professor, radiating a controlled, emotionless exterior while revealing that there's a warm, lonely, and needy man inside the shell. He has dreams and sentimentalities although he decries such foolishness in others. It's hard not to care for Capri's Frank, seeing him becoming more and more vulnerable. Director Calvin Remsberg pulls together these fine performances and achieves good, solid storytelling with a minimum of artificial theatrics.