Breast cancer just got funny. Nalsey Tinberg’s world premiere play, "Musical Chairs," lets in on the secret that there’s comedy to be found in malady. Tinberg takes a refreshingly direct approach toward a topic usually circumvented. Three women meet in a group session for people with breast cancer, and their instant camaraderie leads them to splinter off and find the answers on their own. Meeting instead in a local restaurant, they are free to dissect their trials in their own manner.

Rose (Bunok Kravitz) is the leader of the pack in her flagrant conviction to combat the disease. She hates that any of the women allow the disease to define them, but the play confronts people's inclinations to use any single concept to define themselves. Perhaps equally limiting in their scope, these definitions of character are mostly exposed here through sometimes wrenching monologues. Winnie (Michele Hart) encapsulates her life by a pride in her "flowing penmanship, like the waves of an ocean," as she fiercely defends that "No one can take that from me. No one." There is a quiet discomfort in Winnie, a potpourri of brittle reserve, mixed with heart and an awareness of others. Hart winningly examines a woman who has lived alone, never had a martini, never opened up to anyone before and who eventually erupts like a pent-up volcano.

   Rose, wearing her lesbianism as her statement, on the reverse had never experienced anything as staid as drinking chamomile tea until she met Winnie. Kravitz, boldly portrays Rose with an overcompensating strength based on insecure bravado. Ellen is defined by her relationships. Dina Rosenmeier as Ellen strides comfortably into the role, wide-eyed and naïve, yet learning with every baby step as she speaks directly and without pretense. Her dialect (the actor is from Denmark) is well-utilized to give credibility to her vulnerability.

Director Kate Randolph makes a lovely, loving statement, especially when seating the women at their vanities. The effect of three beauties reflecting on their lives is powerful in its clarity. Throughout the play, the music plays a part as the characters circle around each other, hoping to find themselves near a free chair when the music stops. Here, they not only want the music to continue forever but the game is escalated by the fact that there is one open chair no one wants to sit in. Randolph emphasizes the musical chairs theme during the set changes. The chairs, and thus the set, are rearranged as if prepping the restaurant for a new shift while the waiter Rick (Patrick Tully) tinkles the ivories in a mesmerizing fashion. (Not only is he a highly skilled pianist, but Tully tackles his character’s confounding transitions.) Anne Dettmer (Scenic Designer) neatly uses the expansive stage to advantage with mere suggestions of décor rather than clutter.

You leave the show knowing the inner workings of those living with cancer, and of people in general, without being subjected to graphic or disconcerting images. You are given a chance to laugh with the characters while you feel their pain. But "Musical Chairs" is a frustrating script, because it is saddled with the overuse of character names throughout the dialogue, resulting in an unnatural effect amidst freshly natural writing.

World Premiere by Nalsey Tinberg

At the Stella Adler Theatre (Studio Theatre)

6773 Hollywood Blvd., 2^nd Floor

Hollywood

Through Sunday, December 19, 2004

Thurs. – Sat. at 8PM, Sun. at 7PM

Tickets: $20, SAG/AFTRA/AEA/ALAP members, students and seniors $15

Parking discounted in Prestige Lot behind theater, entrance off Highland