The Basement
Los Angeles Times - Calendar Live Review
by F. Kathleen Foley
July 25, 2003

It's 1969. Man has just walked on the moon, and America stands poised on the cusp of a new technological order. But for Sammy Fletcher and his fellow "old-timers" in the Los Angeles musician's union, technology means the advent of synthesized music, fewer jobs for their membership, and a loss of the tumultuous human core that has always made their discipline so precarious, and so thrilling.

In a world premiere at Theatre Shed in Studio City, Shari Doran and K.W. Miller's period drama "The Basement" takes place mostly in the basement of the union's Local 47 -- a milieu well-realized in Thomas A. Brown and Gregory Serrao Bach's appropriately shabby set.

Directed by Bach, the play riffs on a variety of themes including racism, the Vietnam War, and the loneliness of the artist who has sacrificed all for his or her craft. Some of those subjects are given short shrift, but the show's jazzy, impromptu quality is disarming.

As the world-weary Fletcher, Sam Ayers heads a winning cast, which features Doran as the sexy girl singer and Miller as the new kid who sees the wave of the future. Michael Gregory is particularly effective as the aging roué whose chicks will never come home to roost, as is Blumen Young as a hard-drinking jazz man who squires his grandkids around between gigs. Rashawn Underdue, who plays a troubled black musician and Vietnam vet, does his best to flesh out an underdeveloped character.

Theatre Shed is small and steamy, and the cast must compete with a noisy but necessary fan. Lines are swallowed and frequently lost. Within the context of these impressively naturalistic performances, the actors need to turn up the volume.

Through Aug. 10
Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.

Price: $14
Tickets: Box office: 818-785-4053.