THEATER REVIEW : Rich Emotional Layering in ‘Bitter Earth’

Honesty is the word that keeps coming to mind during “This Bitter Earth” at Marla’s nightclub. Honesty in the warts-and-all depiction of blues/jazz singer Dinah Washington near the end of her life, and honesty in writer S. John Daniels’ and director Rai Tasco’s determination to stage the theater piece in an environment that candidly displays the rough and raunchy nightclub world of the early ‘60s.

The play, which unfolds via free-floating staging in and around the audience, should not be confused with a number of recent works describing the same era in high camp, satirical fashion. Daniels’ work, with its rich emotional layering and carefully defined characterizations, attempts--and largely accomplishes--the far more difficult task of both representing and reflecting upon Washington and her times.

In doing so, it often uses language that might have made Lenny Bruce or George Carlin wince. But the language, clearly part of the patois of the setting, flows easily and appropriately. Not to have used it would have meant omitting a vital element in the persistent integrity of the play’s dramatic texture.

The events take place on an imagined evening a few months before Washington’s death in 1963. On the down side of her career, plagued by addictions, she accepts a booking in a cheap nightclub as an effort to find a kind of personal epiphany in a return to her roots. What she encounters instead is an awareness that hypocrisy reaches into every level of show business, and that, for her, the closing of the circle simply means more of the same unhappiness.

At the center of the action, Renita Thomas as Washington captured much of the duality between the singer’s hard-as-nails, confrontational exterior and her alcohol- and pill-drenched inner vulnerabilities. Thomas’ vocal renderings of such classics as “Manhattan,” “What a Difference a Day Makes” and “Teach Me, Tonight” were a bit more uneven, however, ranging from firm, brassy Washington-styled blues phrases to occasional lapses of pitch and musical focus.

Other standouts in a generally excellent cast include Vince Isaacs as the frustrated club owner; Willie Walton in a hilariously over-the-top sendup of Slappy White; Dwayne Stephenson in a strong portrayal of the sexually ambiguous bartender Francis; Angela Heard as a feisty, in-your-face hooker; and Larry Sorrentino in a fascinating cameo as Washington’s first producer (and the composer of several of her biggest hits), Leonard Feather.

* “This Bitter Earth,” Marla’s, 2323 W. King Blvd. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends May 6. (213) 294-8430. $25. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.