LaMaMa presented, in June, a new music-theater work by the Talking Band company called Bitterroot, which offers a clever play-within-a play. The frame: after Lincoln's assassination closed the theaters, the company that had been performing My American Cousin at Ford's Theatre (Abe was shot during a performance) goes on tour with an historical play about the Lewis and Clark expedition. They never get more than fifty miles from Washington, but we're always rooting for them.
Bitterroot swings between its frame and The Garden of the West deftly, if predictably. It's at its best when keeping separate its contrasting tones. The frame has low comedy, with a remarkably deadpan Asian and the usual hammy drunkard. The play-within-a-play has Grotowskyesque movement and moments of awe.
The cast is led by Jeffery Reynolds as the company's actor-manager-playwright. He's right for the part, and a skilled actor-singer, but he doesn't manage the separation of tones other cast members create. Paul Zimet, the writer of Bitterroot and its director, is only to be applauded. He's taken an inspired concept and successfully staged it on La MaMa's miniature stage. He's even included musical interludes in Garden of the West. The convention is in period, and even if Peter Gordon's music strays into to the twentieth century from time to time, lyrics are clever and the forms are recognizable and specific. It's good to see LaMaMa continuing to exhibit work like this. Viva!
