Don't wait to catch this 'Bus Stop'

By Lisa Millegan
lmillegan@modbee.com

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SONORA -- It's cold and snowy, the roads are closed and a bus can't get through.

The passengers must spend the night in a Kansas diner entertaining themselves as best they can. Flirtations and romances bloom.

Sierra Repertory Theatre's "Bus Stop" is one of the best productions in the region this year, with compelling characters, an impressively detailed set and an engaging story about the different forms love can take.

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Sierra Rep pulls into 'Bus Stop'
'Bus Stop' at the Sierra Rep

RATING: Four stars (excellent)

WHERE: Sierra Repertory Theatre, 13891 Mono Way, Sonora

WHEN: Through Sept. 27. 7 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays and some Wednesdays. Audience can talk with director, cast and crew after the Sept. 17 performance.

RUNNING TIME: 2 hours, including two intermissions

TICKETS: $18 to $28

INFORMATION: 532-3120 or www.sierrarep.org

Director Dennis Jones makes sure we enjoy the characters so much that we're sad when the roads open and the bus pulls away.

Written by William Inge, a leading U.S. playwright in the 1950s, the romantic comedy debuted in 1955 on Broadway. The film version appeared the following year with Marilyn Monroe starring as nightclub singer Cherie.

Jones, who also serves as designer, goes all-out with the set, creating a realistic diner complete with a jukebox, maps and magazines, retro ads and more. We see the snow falling outside the window and hear the wind blow.

Most of the show centers around the sparring between Cherie (Marian Sorensen) and cowboy Bo Decker (Jarred Kjack), who wants to marry her and bring her to his ranch in Montana.

Sorensen is alternately repelled and attracted to Bo. She desperately wants love and respect from a mate, but at age 19, she already is afraid that it won't be possible. Kjack is brash, insensitive and at times almost scary in his dominance of Cherie. But we come to see that his cockiness is just a cover for deep insecurities.

Mary Kate Wiles is a standout as bright, kind high school student Elma, who works as a waitress in the diner. She compassionately questions each of the passengers about their lives, eager to learn more. She has one of the funniest scenes in the show when she plays Juliet in the balcony scene from "Romeo and Juliet" in an impromptu talent show at the diner.

Wiles has great chemistry with her Romeo, a 50-something professor with a shady past named Gerald Lyman. Ty Smith plays Lyman as a depressed alcoholic who is inspired by Elma's sweet nature.

Jaded about love, waitress Grace (Alison Coutts-

Jordan) and bus driver Carl (William "Frank" Silva) get together only to satisfy their physical needs. They have no illusions about lasting romance but are content to get some affection in their lonely lives.

Broadway veteran Scott Wakefield ("Ring of Fire") is another standout as Virgil Blessing, who raised Bo since age 10. He speaks slowly and infrequently, but when he talks, we listen to every word he says. He has a calming presence, just like Gary Holman, who plays Sheriff Will Masters.

"Bus Stop" is a moving look at the need for human connection and the different ways people try and fail to get it.

For more of Millegan's commentary on local arts, read her blog at thehive.modbee.com/artsbeat or follow her at www.twitter.com/lisamillegan.