THEATER REVIEW

The infamous libertine woos audiences again at Glendale's A Noise Within.

By David Ng, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Theater history can claim no shortage of sexually promiscuous male protagonists -- Vicomte de Valmont, Henry II, Falstaff, the Earl of Rochester as well as the modern-day misogynists who populate the collected works of Neil LaBute.

Yet none compares in terms of sheer braggadocio to Don Juan Tenorio, the 17th century Spanish nobleman who remains a paragon of masculine debauchery. A serial adulterer, Don Juan allegedly racked up thousands of conquests.

ADVERTISEMENT

Written in 1665, Molière's comedy "Don Juan" tells the story of the infamous libertine and his refusal to change his womanizing ways, which leads to his precipitous downfall. A Noise Within has mounted a rollicking revival, featuring a physically imposing and attractively hirsute Elijah Alexander in the title role.

But the real source of dramatic fire in this fitfully arousing production isn't Don Juan or any of his mistresses; it's his lowly valet, Sganarelle, who's played by the scene-stealing JD Cullum. This long-suffering servant is the story's smartest character, an articulate and bitter man who deploys sarcasm as a prophylactic against his master's toxic machismo.

Using an adaptation by Richard Nelson, the production team strikes a breezy and vernacular tone that's accented with bits of anachronistic costuming -- a pair of Chuck Taylor sneakers here, a pair of designer sunglasses there. Don Juan arrives in a small town having freed himself from his clingy wife (Libby West). "What sort of aspiration is fidelity?" he asks, then sets about wooing two peasant girls.

The play's portrayal of women can be summarized in three words -- "shrew," "slattern" or "saint." You could justifiably accuse Molière of identifying too closely with his hero's chauvinistic attitudes, and this production makes little effort to update the inherent sexism. Director Michael Michetti stages the seduction scenes as pure slapstick, but he can't quite find the rhythm that would make it all feel effortless.

By far the best scenes are between Don Juan and Sganarelle, whose relationship has the lived-in quality of a bickering old couple's. The more brazenly hypocritical Don Juan becomes in his sexual indiscretions, the more insolent his servant grows, deflating his master's engorged ego with perfectly timed insults.

The eye-rolling Cullum plays Sganarelle with a carefully controlled relish that elevates the role beyond a comic-relief sidekick. After the play's hellfire climax, it's not Don Juan's plight that we remember most but his poor servant's. "My wages!" cries Sganarelle in the final scene. As miserable as working for the Don was, the pragmatic jokester realizes too late that unemployment could be far worse.

david.ng@latimes.com

'Don Juan'

Where: A Noise Within, 234 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale

When: See anoisewithin.org for full schedule.

Ends: May 24

Price: $36 to $40

Contact: (818) 240-0910, Ext. 1

Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes