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When I read Kent Haruf's 1999 novel "Plainsong," I remember smiling now and then. When I saw Book-It Repertory Theatre's stage adaptation of "Plainsong," I laughed quite a lot.
Director Myra Platt's cast transforms Haruf's muted world into a gallery of vivid individuals.
"Plainsong" has a meandering quality. Humor derives from character and situation. Kevin McKeon's dramatization of Haruf's unhurried tale of life in and around a small town on the high plains of eastern Colorado is as deliberate as Anton Chekov's representations of life in 19th-century rural Russia. The feelings are deep but not spectacular.
Though slack at times and marred by uneven acting, the Book-It production is absorbing and touching.
There are three male pairs: the innocent Guthrie brothers, 10 and 11; a couple of teenage louts; and the crusty and comical McPheron brothers, elderly bachelor farmers. There are three women who at one time or another were impregnated and abandoned: Victoria, a teen; Victoria's bitter, hateful mother; and Mrs. Stearns, an amiable old woman who smokes and watches TV in her apartment above a store.
Two relationships decompose. The Guthrie brothers' mother is too depressed to cope. She abandons the boys and their father, Tom, a high school history teacher. She goes off to live with a sister in Denver. Victoria's seducer comes back to town to whisk her off to Denver -- a misbegotten non-reconciliation.
Not surprisingly, "Plainsong" evokes a lot of poignancy and compassion. What is surprising is the way that Clark Standford, Wesley Rice and Jody McCoy find such a lot of humor in the elderly characters, the McPheron brothers and Mrs. Stearns. Rice also plays a spluttering old fellow who makes up in vehemence what he lacks in clarity. Sketching in a familiar but funny vignette is Ken Holmes as a high school principal who advocates giving passing grades to obnoxious unteachables just to get rid of them.
Both plaintive and plucky are Joy Anuhea Medeiros as Victoria and Evan Jayne and Kellan Larson as the Guthrie brothers. Adapter McKeon plays Tom Guthrie. McKeon portrays an appealing stalwart incapable of spontaneity but full of warmth -- which comes out in both tenderness and in anger.
Giving a clear sense of place is a beautiful cyclorama by scenic designer Bill Forrester. The foreground is parched prairie. Way off in the distance are pale Rocky Mountains.
"Plainsong" runs at the Center House Theatre, Seattle Center, through March 5. Tickets: $15-$30, discounts for seniors, book clubs and groups; 206-216-0833 or www.book-it.org
COWGIRL PLAY
In "Plainsong," The West is essentially sober and serious. In Macha Monkey's new musical "Cowgirl Play," The West is a joke.
Playwrights Desiree Prewitt and Kristina Sutherland appropriate and spoof standard horse opera fixtures: the prissy Eastern schoolmarm beset by savage men, fallen women and sour church folk; the corrupt sheriff and his klutzy lackey; and the noble bandit and the whore with a heart of gold. The year is 1884. The West is Wild.
Adding novelty is a three-woman chorus mounted on hobbyhorses. They prance and sing, setting the scene, foreseeing dire outcomes and helping to set things to rights. Also novel are interpolated songs by Rick Miller, who accompanies and provides sound effects. The music is peculiar and intriguing, never more so than in "Tiny Wounds," a sinister song that narrates a smallpox epidemic.
The acting is unabashedly cartoonish with Melissa Brown as the beset schoolmarm, Ben Laurance as the noble gunman and Kate Jaiger, Shawnmarie Yates and Desiree Prewitt as a dozen additional characters. Adding to the cartoon style are backlit shadow scenes projected onto framed screens.
Once-epic lore of the American frontier exists now mostly as a target for ridicule and parody. "The Cowgirl Play" is a hit and miss assemblage of potshot target practice.
"The Cowgirl Play" runs at Freehold Theater on the second floor of the Odd Fellows Hall at 1525 10th Ave. through March 11. Tickets $15; www.brownpapertickets.com Students and seniors $12 at the door.
-- Joe Adcock
LAST YEAR'S KISSES
Decked out in red velvet and pink stilettos, backed by a versatile four-woman band, the phenomenal Sarah Rudinoff leads a musical tour of the raptures -- and pitfalls -- of romance. The selections range from R&B (Robert Johnson, Ray Charles) to rock (Liz Phair, Fiona Apple) to classics such as "Send My Baby Back to Me."
Rudinoff has the pipes -- and the megawatt charisma -- to pull it off. She's by turns sassy and soulful, kicking it with Loretta Lynn's "Fist City" one minute, breaking hearts with Apple's "Shadowboxer" the next. Like any diva worth her rhinestones, she makes it look effortless.
In between numbers, Rudinoff dishes some painfully funny dating anecdotes, and banters easily with the audience. Don't expect a strong story line -- these are lighthearted vignettes that loosely string the songs together.
Director Nick Garrison gives Rudinoff plenty of room to strut her stuff, but keeps the show moving at a crisp pace. Musical director Gretta Harley is a triple threat on guitar, piano and musical arrangements. She's worked a minor miracle with her vastly improved version of Sonny Bono's "I Got You Babe."
Whether or not you have a valentine to share it with, "Last Year's Kisses" is a satisfying musical treat.
"Last Year's Kisses" plays through March 11 at the Theatre Off Jackson, 409 Seventh Ave. S. Tickets: $14-$20, 206-325-6500, www.ticketwindowonline.com.
-- Kelly Huffman
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