‘Sylvie’ shines light on its charismatic actress

Gillian Brashear is blessed with a young Julianne Moore-style vulnerability and sensuality, and you keep thinking during "Sylvie" that she's on the verge of a great performance.

She plays an insatiably needy 1970s woman who looks to three men to fulfill her emotional demands. Naturally, she's heading toward disaster.

The strength of this John Stark Productions show, imported from Los Angeles' Odyssey Theatre, is in Brashear's ability to fascinate us with her thoughts. We're always wondering what's spinning in her character's loony head. But the script prevents her from ever taking off.

The story begins with our pregnant heroine in a hospital suffering a serious gunshot wound. Three older men who have been involved with her -- a stiff of an attorney (Jaret Sacrey), a self-absorbed sculptor (Brian Knudson) and a well-meaning, loud-mouthed linen salesman (John Combs) -- pace the waiting room.

As they get to know one another, they get to know a lot more about their former girlfriend. A fourth young man (Danny Dolan) -- who has been responsible for bringing everyone together but whose relationship to Sylvie isn't made clear till the end -- confronts the others for what he feels is their responsibility for the current crisis.

There are possibilities in this premise, but the characters and dialogue tend toward the pedestrian. Brashear suggests all kinds of entertaining mystery. But the more the plot unravels, the more we see how little mystery there really is to Sylvie and her whining entourage.

The male performers are capable and always enjoyable to watch. When Dolan as the young man first enters, he's ignited with rage, and gives the evening a jolt it badly needs. Combs is a tad over-the-top, but manages to be both likable and pathetic.

Director Stark doesn't find much nuance in the material, but I'm in total sympathy with what he was up against.

Sacrey's waiting-room set is intriguingly cold and pleasing to the eye. Zale Morris' costumes for Sylvie surprise you with their colors and sleekness, which are in sharp contrast to the somber tone of the rest of this world.

At the very least, the show is likely to make you a serious Brashear fan. This charismatic actress deserves a major career.

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