Review: Dezart's MOTHERHOOD OUT LOUD is a Sweet, Funny, Well-Acted Winner.

The final production of Dezart Performs' 10th anniversary season, MOTHERHOOD OUT LOUD, is an anthology of sketches and monologues by different writers about the trials and tribulations of motherhood, with a few fatherhood ideas mixed in. The writing is funny and touching, and Susan R. Rose and Joan Stein, who conceived the show, which ran off Broadway, wisely avoided anything truly upsetting. Michael Shaw's expert direction and the charismatic ensemble cast's top-notch performances contribute to a laugh-out-loud, feel good couple of hours, that will have audience members nodding in recognition; director Shaw and all of the cast members successfully deliver the pacing and timing that are key ingredients in a production like this.

The production contains informal costumes (by Frank Cazares) and a minimalist set (by Thomas L. Valach) - a colorful group of wooden boxes and a few upstage doors. The cheerful lighting (designed by Phil Murphy) and upbeat music between scenes (sound design by Clark Dugger) telegraph to audience members that they are not intended to think too hard or to shed tears, except, maybe in some of the sentimental sketches.

The writing is a bit pretentious in spots, and the hour and 45 minute long show could have used an intermission. However, the ability of the cast members (four women and one man) to hold the audience members' attention mostly overcomes those problems. The stories that Susan Rose and Joan Stein selected will seem familiar even if not everyone has experienced the exact scenarios - a new mother anxious to be alone with her husband and baby until her own domineering mother actually departs for the airport to go home, an adoptive mother of a little girl from China tired of intrusive questions and rude comments, a Muslim immigrant mother dealing with her youngest child's PMS, and other stories that everyone, male and female, has heard about, even if they have not lived through them. My favorites were the stories about the mother taking her Disney princess clad child portraying Queen Esther to the synagogue Purim party - a common occurrence in Jewish households, except that this child is a boy; a gay man and his partner unsure how to treat their surrogate; and the mother of a young autistic teen driving her son to and from the date from Hell.

When everything in a production clicks, it can be difficult to find a lot to say about it; theatre reviews frequently owe their length to flaws. This is one of those shows where everything goes right. Unless you are a heartless brute, you will want these fine actors to take you along for a familiar, funny, and sentimental ride.

The cast members are Melanie Blue, Desiree Clarke, Theresa Jewett, James Owens, and Leanna Rodgers. The rest of the crew consists of Diane McClure (stage manager); Cecilia Orosco (prop master); and Sierra Barrick, Kaley Doherty, and Sierra Johnson (Palm Springs High School interns).

MOTHERHOOD OUT LOUD will run through Sunday, April 8th, at the Pearl McManus Theater in the Palm Springs Woman's Club, 314 S. Cahuilla Road, (two blocks south of Palm Canyon Blvd.), in Palm Springs, California. Friday and Saturday evening performances start at 7:30 p.m. and cost $32. Saturday and Sunday matinees start at 2 p.m. and cost $28. Tickets are available at www.dezartperforms.org/ .

PHOTO CREDIT: Clark Dugger

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