`RICKEY' A THOUGHTFUL TAKE ON ROBINSON STORY.

Byline: Reed Johnson Daily News Staff Writer

The Jackie Robinson of American myth was a graceful, dignified hero whose courageous integrity opened the door for an entire race.

The Jackie Robinson of ``Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting,'' the unsurprising yet explosive new drama now at the Pasadena Playhouse, cuts a more complex and troubling profile.

The year is 1947. Smart and ambitious, Robinson (Sterling R. Macer Jr.) has gained favor with white America by keeping his mouth shut and his eyes on the prize. He covets a spot with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and he's been willing to play by the rules set by Branch Rickey (Robert Walden), the Dodgers' scheming, all-powerful general manager, in order to reach his dream.

After years of second-class sports citizenship, the 28-year-old ballplayer is ready to claim a spot at the table, for himself and, by extension, for all African-Americans. All that remains is to procure the official blessing of three pre-eminent African-American cultural icons: boxer Joe Louis, showman Bill ``Bojangles'' Robinson, and Paul Robeson, the magisterial actor, singer and leftist scourge of the nation's white conscience - and the play's hectoring catalyst.

By imagining the conversation that might have taken place among these historical figures, ``Mr. Rickey'' revives a debate about whether African-Americans benefit more by assimilating with white society or by retaining a degree of isolation and self-sufficiency.

First produced in 1995 at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, ``Mr. Rickey'' is a fitting choice for the Playhouse. Robinson was a Pasadena native, and the city this year is marking the 50th anniversary of his ascension into the major leagues, which broke the color barrier for all of professional sports.

Director Sheldon Epps and a compelling seven-man cast have given ``Mr. Rickey'' a passionate, intelligent interpretation that can't quite overcome the play's static locale or its tendency to belabor its arguments.

Set in a New York City hotel room with a sweeping view of the Manhattan skyline, handsomely designed by Gary Wissman, ``Mr. Rickey'' investigates the trade-off between individual success and a community's greater good. The action is somewhat weakly framed as a single, intermissionless flashback by an elderly African-American man named Clancy Hope (David Downing), who as a teen-ager worked as a bellhop at the hotel where the momentous meeting occurs (Rugg Williams does a sly, ingratiating turn as the younger Clancy).

Playwright Ed Schmidt sketches his characters with incisive strokes, and the principals - apart from the caricatured, cigar-chomping Rickey - ring with authenticity. Shashawnee Hall does an impressively slow burn as the glowering Joe Louis, punch-drunk with debts and marital woes. As Bojangles Robinson, Harrison Page masks an inner desperation and a crushing sense of failure with wisecracking geniality. And Macer's handsome, broad-faced portrayal of Robinson radiates wily charisma.

Yet the play doesn't really get rolling until Robeson (the regal, laconic Willie C. Carpenter) seizes control of the discussion and attempts to persuade the other men that, by signing up with the white folks, Robinson will be dooming the Negro leagues to a speedy demise. In the process, he brutally demolishes his cohorts' illusions about fame, heroism and themselves.

Once the battle lines are drawn, the play's dramatic arc evolves along fairly predictable lines, although ``Mr. Rickey'' contrives at one point to have a distressed Bojangles pull a gun on Robeson, as the tensions in the crowded hotel suite boil over into furniture-tossing and expletive-hurling. At Tuesday night's performance, the largely white audience giggled at every wild-eyed tirade and violent cuss word. Whether they were reacting out of awkwardness, amusement or both, the effect was uncomfortable.

``Mr. Rickey'' treads similar ground as another play about the co-opting of African-American culture, August Wilson's ``Ma Rainey's Black Bottom,'' though without ``Ma Rainey's'' feeling of angry futility. ``Mr. Rickey'' ultimately leaves unresolved the question of whether Robinson was a savior, a stooge or something in between. Altogether, it's a solid, thoughtful take on a great subject.

THE FACTS

What: ``Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting.''

Where: Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays; 5 and 9 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays; through Feb. 23.

Tickets: $13.50 to $42.50. Call [phone].

Our rating: Three Stars.

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Photo

Photo: Sterling R. Macer Jr. portrays baseball legend Jackie Robinson in ``Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting,'' at the Pasadena Playhouse.