Great acting tops 'The Cake' at LA's Geffen Playhouse

Do you prefer cake that’s moist and substantial? Or do you like a light, airy cake? Or do you just not care for it at all? Surely that’s just a matter of taste, and it has nothing to do with the merits of the cake.

And do you subscribe to marriage equality? And whether or not you do, would you see Bekah Brunstetter’s “The Cake,” which centers on a Christian baker asked to make the wedding confection for the young woman she helped raise.

Geffen Playhouse presents the Echo Theater Company production of the play, wisely importing director Jennifer Chambers, her designers and most of the cast from last year’s run at Atwater Village Theatre.

Debra Jo Rupp, left, and Shannon Lucio in “The Cake” (Photo by Chris Whitaker)

Della (Debra Jo Rupp) is the finest dessert baker in Winston-Salem, N.C., making old-time cakes the old-fashioned way. Her luscious lineup includes carrot, red velvet and pink lemonade, and she claims each is a cake you could take a nap in.

Indeed, she’s about to be a contestant on “The Great American Baking Show,” and she’s thrilled. She’s also devoutly Christian. Into her sweet shop walks Macy (Carolyn Ratteray), a woman from Brooklyn. Which of these characters will be the most stubborn, most broadly drawn, and with whom will theatergoers side?

Macy is engaged to Jen, whom Della helped raise from girlhood. Jen (Shannon Lucio) asks Della to bake their wedding cake. Macy begs Jen to dispense with a big hometown wedding. Della’s husband, Tim (Rod McLachlan, replacing Echo’s Joe Hart), rather sagely points out that Jen has put Della in this “unfair situation.”

Each couple has couple problems. Macy and Jen argue toxically. Della and Tim argue constructively. All take their arguments into their bedrooms, which flank scenic designer Pete Hickok’s utterly charming bakery, its counters and display cases laden with treats the lucky actors sample throughout the play.

Why might an audience not want Jen and Macy to go through with marriage? Though Jen is Caucasian and Macy is African-American, race is so far down the list, if even on it at all, that one might imagine same-sex issues likewise dissolving into history as society moves forward.

However, the fact that Macy is meddling irreparably in Jen’s familial issues but failing to speak with her own father might raise one’s eyebrows.

Moreover, Macy is writing an article about Della, which for a spurious reason she posts, and which, oops, goes viral. How and why would Jen ever trust Macy again?

In a magnificent performance by Rupp, Della is the face of ambivalence. We see every thought and feeling as divinity and humanity swirl through her consciousness. Rupp is at times hilarious, at times heart-shredding, as she imagines herself on national television, as she begs Tim for sexual contact (ticket-buyers note: the show combines sugar and spice).

Rupp is paired with a fine cast — particularly Ratteray, who is asked to make the seemingly immovable Macy not appear villainous. Lucio makes Jen light enough to keep our sympathy for her when all around Jen are losing theirs. McLachlan is huggable as the unwavering husband who has quietly borne his own insecurities while Della lavished attention on her cakes.

Offstage, Morrison Keddie creates the godly voice of the baking-show judge who embodies Della’s lifelong dreams.

So, thankfully, none of the characters is too outrageous, too broad. No one is mocked, no position is disparaged.

Still, any way you slice it, “The Cake” should be seen for Rupp’s performance as a woman struggling to reconcile what we as a society have learned with what we need to be learning. The rest is the icing.

Dany Margolies is a Los Angeles-based writer.

“The Cake”

Rating: 3.5 stars

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday, through Oct. 21

Where: Gil Cates Theater at Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Los Angeles

Length: 1 hour and 45 minutes, no intermission

Suitability: Teens and adults

Tickets: $30-$120 ($10 students with ID)

Information: 310-208-25454, www.geffenplayhouse.com

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