Small moments add up in UNLV’s ‘Hot L Baltimore’

Nevada Conservatory Theatre's "The Hot L Baltimore" (the "e" in "hotel" has faded away) is one of those comedy/dramas in which nothing much seems to be happening until all the loose threads come together.

Director Robert Brewer has crafted a potpourri of misfits who find themselves in the lobby of a seedy, about-to-be-demolished residential hotel. It's a minor script, but Brewer's strength is in the play's many seemingly inconsequential moments.

When Susan Breene, as the distraught Mrs. Belotti, begs the hotel owner (Taylor Hanes) to not evict her middle-aged alcoholic son, you see the despair in her eyes. Breene lets you know that this is a woman who is used to dealing with life's rough edges. She and Brewer don't push the pathos. They just allow it to unfold.

Sherri Brewer is a sweet, slightly demented Millie, an elderly woman who needs to believe in the positive things in life. She makes you want to hug her and tell her everything's going to be all right.

Dhyanna Dahl is the seen-it-all-done-that hooker April who, of course, gets the best lines. And Dahl knows how to temper her toughness with vulnerability.

Hanes is an authoritative, no-nonsense but not unkind hotel boss. He communicates a variety of professional attitudes that allow you to understand why he's in management. And it's fun to watch him try to keep order when the loonies lose control.

Best of all, there's Dale Perry as Mr. Morse, an elderly man who considers every disorder in his day a major catastrophe. It would have been easy to kid this role, but Perry gets so inside his character that when he throws a board of checkers across the room in anger, you feel his entire soul is consumed by rage. It's a great, heartfelt performance.

The action and all that hysterically overlapping dialogue is rooted in a stunning set by Jason Myron Wright, who manages to capture not just the hotel's run-down quality, but its former elegance. It's rare to see such detail in such a small space.

Brewer stumbles when he tries to go for the climaxes. The end of act one is mechanically staged for laughs, and the end of acts two and three have layers of mawkishness that the play doesn't need.

But the stumbles add up to only minutes in an evening full of earned goodwill.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at vegastheaterchat @aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.