A Moving, Musical ‘Club’ for Breast Cancer’s Victims

Susan Rubin’s musical about four breast cancer sufferers at the L.A. Theatre Center, titled “Club Termina,” could have been subtitled “Female Bonding in the Afterlife.” Set in a kind of limbo--with booze, no less--the story skitters surrealistically among topics such as cancer, abuse, discrimination, mysticism and the importance of family.

Old hands at this after-death stuff, Marilyn (Denise Dowse) and Trudy (Beverly Leech) rehearse a nightclub act in a murky cellar cabaret. Confused newcomer Lily (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) hurtles into the club in a hospital gown--and a panic. Smugly well-prepared Secret (Ana Gabriel) enters, all dressed up but with nowhere to go--at least for now. After some caustic chaffing, the gals get down to cases--figuring out the meaning of their lives--before moving on to the next one.

Club Termina, a way station for the dead, may not be the kind of place where the elite meet to eat. It is, however, where the deceased gather to find peace before their next lease--on a new life, that is.

Unwieldy lyrics such as “Pain in my soul, pulling me apart. My breasts have betrayed me. Yeah, they’ve broken my heart” must be a hard sell. However, Laural Meade’s authoritative staging, and especially the splendid performances of Dowse, Leech, Gabriel and Van Valkenburgh, render Rubin’s bizarre olio of comedy, camp and wrenching emotionalism ultimately arresting--and moving.

* “Club Termina,” Los Angeles Theatre Center, Theatre 4, 514 S. Spring St. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. $15. (213) 485-1681. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.