‘Leaves’ gets a little better as it goes

Las Vegas Little Theatre's "House of Blue Leaves" reminded me of an important rule in play-going: Don't give up hope until you see the second act.

John Guare's 1971 dark comedy gives us a 1965 Queens household full of broken dreams.

Artie Shaughnessy (Stephen McMillan) is a third-rate songwriter bent on the big time. Bunny Flingus (Kathleen Etor) is his girlfriend, deluded into thinking he'll give her security and a wedding ring. He won't. At least not while his wife is around and living in the same apartment. Mrs. Shaughnessy (Valerie Carpenter-Bernstein) is loving and loony (she attempts to cook Brillo pads for lunch). Son Ronnie (Michael Blair) has gone AWOL and plans to commit a murderous act.

Their lives undergo an upheaval when the pope decides to visit New York. They feel the smell of miracles in the air.

The first act focuses on the married couple and Bunny, and it's unbearable to watch for a simple reason: Walter Niejadlik directs the humor so broadly that it quickly becomes stupid.

There's nothing particularly wrong with the actors. They've just been misguided. Etor as the dumb Bunny talks in such an exaggerated and false New York accent that she makes you want you to take cover. McMillan isn't playing the husband; he's playing a Catskills comic. And Carpenter-Bernstein is so shtick-ish as the nutty wife, that it's a shock to learn we're supposed to take her craziness seriously.

The second act isn't much better, but it does contain two brief, genuine performances. Blair makes the son an angry, obsessed psycho, and he's remarkable for his ability to get us to laugh at his farcical character while getting us to care. Nathan Ferrier makes the most out of a quick appearance as a Hollywood hotshot. He plays the kind of guy who knows all the right people and loves to say "Love ya." Ferrier gets inside the one-note role, so that we never catch him going for an effect.

Blair and Ferrier demonstrate how this show should be acted -- with an exaggerated but solidly grounded reality base. If only Niejadlik had been able to infuse the other characters with that sort of earnestness and fever! We might have, then, been moved by the poignant ending. But how can we be moved by anything when in lieu of relationships, this production is stuffed with jokes?

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.