In 'Herringbone,' Ben Dibble does it all

Flashpoint Theatre does it again: Herringbone, the second show of its summer season - following the The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington - is another knockout, with Ben Dibble giving a performance of stunning virtuosity in a musical that's strange and compelling by any standard.

Everyone who attends Philadelphia theater regularly knows Dibble's range, from Shakespeare to children's shows; he sings, he dances, he acts in comedies and tragedies. But in Herringbone, he does it all at once, playing multiple characters - dead and alive, male and female, old and young- while narrating the story.

The plot: Eight-year-old George is tutored in show biz by Chicken Mosley, a has-been who murdered a midget named Lou, his partner in their vaudeville act. George seems possessed by his new talent, dancing obsessively, unable to stop to eat or go to school. But he also is possessed by the ghost of Lou, trapped by this man who wants to live through his body. (Lou wants women as well as revenge.)

George's parents, desperate during the Depression, decide he should make their fortune, so he is further trapped by their frantic ambition. Dibble plays every character: the terrified mother with her flutey voice and fluttery hand; vulgar, raspy-voiced Lou; a tailor; a lawyer; a gum-chewing hotel clerk. Sometimes the characters argue, and he snaps back and forth between them.

At the start of Act Two we watch him apply the slightest bit of eye makeup, and suddenly his open, smiling face is transformed into something sinister, both terrifying and terrified. This, folks, is show business, and transformations are the name of the game.

With a complicated book by Tom Cone, startling music - some atonal, some parodic - by Skip Kennon, and clever lyrics by Ellen Fitzhugh, Herringbone is both entertaining and thought-provoking. It's a ghost story, but it's also an allegory: of the passion of a performer who cannot not perform? Or of stage parents who drive their children to fame? Or, as B.D. Wong (who performed this show years ago) suggested, an allegory of growing up, a little boy becoming a man, accepting life on sometimes ugly adult terms.

Onstage is a small band led by the thrilling pianist Dan Kazemi, whose dramatic presence creates two more characters; he is joined by Joshua Neale on bass and Lee Morrison on drums. Thom Weaver's lighting weaves wonderfully disturbing shadows on walls and faces, and Jenn Rose's choreography creates big effects in a small space. Bill Fennelly's direction manages to keep this wild show under superb control.

Herringbone

Presented by at Flashpoint Theatre Company at Off-Broad Street Theatre at First Baptist Church, 1636 Sansom St., through July 27. Tickets: $25. 267-997-3312 www.flashpointtheatre.orgEndText