Los Angeles Theatre Review: Room 105 (at the MACHA Theatre)

MACHA Theatre/Films offers balcony seats in a venue that is reminiscent of the Troubadour down the street (which is actually referenced in the performance). I’m not sure there is a bad seat in this charming space. The stage looks like a bedroom full of trunks draped in feathered boas and bathed in orange, purples, and pinks, but we’re warned, “Enter at your own risk! This play takes place inside the mind of Janis Joplin.” The band (Josh Sklair, Corey Coverstone, Ed Roth, Daniel Pearson), veiled by a diaphanous black curtain, takes the stage and Jimi Hendrix’ version of the “Star Spangled Banner” pulsates every fiber of the Macha while a couple of monitors flash images of Woodstock. Then, Writer/director Gigi Gaston smartly takes a page out of Melissa Etheridge’s memorable Grammy performance from almost a decade ago and presents “Piece of My Heart” with Sophie B. Hawkins exploding onto stage as Joplin, as that is what the rock standard demands.

Gaston’s Room 105 (The Highs and Lows of Janis Joplin)--Joplin's place of death at the Hollywood Landmark Motor Hotel--is set in the 21st-century and has the singer waking up as if she finished a long hibernation rather than died of an overdose. Regardless, the tiny, fit Hawkins doesn’t look unlike Joplin’s 27 years when she passed. She has a hot mess of dirty blonde hair and traipses around stage barefoot in velvet bellbottoms, swigging Southern Comfort. Supported by a small cast, this rock musical or concert-play hybrid (in the vein of Jersey Boys or Hedwig & the Angry Inch) offers biographical sketches of ghosts from Joplin’s past paying her visits between breaking into song, touching on various highlights of Joplin’s short life including Woodstock, her high school reunion, and her relationship with Peggy Caserta. Joplin is portrayed as a woman who was ostracized as an unattractive kid, so when her talent and hard work afforded her success, she became an unrepentant hedonist. Yet, never figuring out how to deal with her insecurities in the face of fame, Joplin dulled her pain with hard drugs, leaving her demons unreconciled in a world which only revolved around her. There are some comical moments. When Joplin brings up Anna Nicole, she asks, “Where was my Nancy Grace when I needed her?”

Sometimes touching, other times a bit wonky, the acting scenes may be in need of some minor retooling, but, man, when Hawkins starts singing, she sings the shit out of those songs. And, even with Joplin’s unmistakably, distinctive voice, Hawkins’ heart colors each note and vocal gymnastic. She really outdoes herself here. Additional songs include “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Summertime,” “Ball ‘n’ Chain, “Try (Just a Little Bit Harder),” “Get It While You Can,” “Little Girl Blue,” “A Woman Left Lonely,” “Down on Me,” and “To Love Somebody.” As well, members of the cast perform the sultry choreography of Bonnie McMahan to an instrumental.  You can find tickets here.