Chance Theater opens its new venue with West Coast premiere of the 2011 Broadway musical.

BY ERIC MARCHESE / CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Chance Theater saw obvious merit in the 2011 Broadway show “Lysistrata Jones,” in which Douglas Carter Beane (book) and Lewis Flinn (music and lyrics) take an ancient Greek comic play by Aristophanes and transplant it to the college scene of contemporary America.

In the source play, Lysistrata persuades the women of Athens to cease all sexual activity with their men until the men put an end to the seemingly eternal Peloponnesian War.

In the update, Lysistrata Jones (Devon Hadsell), a cheerleader at Athens University, urges her peers to do the same until their boyfriends, the starting five of the college basketball team, win a game – something the school’s team has failed to do for 33 years.

Were that premise all that “Lysistrata Jones” had going for it, and were the outcome a predictable reuniting of each young lady with her current beau, the generally comedic musical wouldn’t have much to recommend it.

But Beane, known for plays like “The Little Dog Laughed,” and Flinn have a lot more on their minds than something so cut and dried. At its core, “Lysistrata Jones” examines the importance of one’s self-image – and of choices made early in life.

Making a college sports team’s success or failure the moral equivalent of war may seem somewhat lame and perhaps even offensive. The play addresses that view when Mick (J.D. Driskill), the team’s captain, tells girlfriend cheerleader Lysistrata that “It’s just a stupid game” – and she replies “It may start out that way, but then it becomes your life.”

Reflecting this fact is Beane and Flinn’s MO, which uses the emotional power of song to ratchet up the stakes in a story that’s deeply moving while also triggering laughs and nods of recognition via its witty dialogue and lyrics. The idealism of one’s college days is evoked via the musical’s style.

Thanks to Kari Hayter’s superb direction, Kelly Todd’s imaginative choreography and Rod Bagheri’s deft music direction, Chance’s production is completely and perfectly in synch with the show’s sassy, saucy, urban look and feel.

Hayter’s dozen performers are solid musical theater triple-threats capable of sharpening the play’s satirical and emotional edges. Todd ensures that the dance scenes flow easily while exploding with kinetic energy. From the onstage piano, Bagheri and his band (guitarist Guy James, bassist James McHale, drummer Jorge Zuniga) express the bright energy of an essentially rock ’n’ roll score that incorporates rap, house and other urban styles.

The casting of Hadsell in the title role is canny in that she’s fair and curvy while the cast’s other five women are dark-haired and more angular. It’s just one of several ways in which the girl known as “Lyssie J” stands apart from her four peers on the cheerleading squad – and from Hetaira (Camryn Zelinger), the ancient Greek goddess who goads Lyssie on while also taking the basketball squad’s would-be macho starting five to school.

Hadsell has a powerful vocal style. In some dozen songs, including several solos and duets, she’s got the necessary pipes, and then some. With their potent vocals, the rest of Hayter’s cast isn’t far behind, and Flinn’s score lets ’em belt.

Driskill beautifully depicts Mick’s hiding his true nature, that of a brainy, passionate dreamer, behind the image of a boastful jock. Ashely Arlene Nelson shows that it’s the idealistic, equally passionate Robin, who loves art and philosophy, who really understands Mick, even despite their initial antagonism.

Beane and Flinn likewise establish Xander, known as the school’s “resident liberal,” as having a personality and temperament better suited to Lysistrata than is Mick. In Robert Wallace, this production has a goofy-funny Xander who’s idealistic and who supports and encourages Lyssie even when the chips are down.

Zelinger’s no-nonsense, worldy-wise Hetaira cuts through the self-deception of this story’s teen characters, using reverse psychology and a masterful understanding of human nature to get these often misguided kids to see the light.

Despite CT’s spanking-new digs, the company’s staging of “Lysistrata Jones” is aptly low-tech – slick, but not overly so. Christopher Scott Murillo’s scenic design takes themes and ideas from ancient Greece and attractively grafts them onto a contemporary college sports setting, including a scaled-down, wholly functional basketball court.

Bradley Lock’s costumes and Matt Schleicher’s lighting are bold and bright. Like Murillo’s set, they reflect the essential optimism that burns at the show’s core.

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