Two of the smartest young companies in town have taken up residence at the Barrow Street Theater for the summer. The Civilians have revived their worldwide hit, “Gone Missing” and Waterwell premieres their company’s latest piece, “The Last Year in the Life of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. as Devised by Waterwell: A Rock Operetta.”  The latter closes in mid-August, while "Gone Missing" will run through early September. But you should really try and check out this pairing back-to-back, if you can.

With more experience behind them, the Civilians’ show is more consistent. The company has a simple M.O.: Civvies interview ordinary Joes on a given subject, then re-enact the unexpected responses. Most of the interviewees are eccentrics who can’t help spilling their unconscious thoughts, but what they say is as compelling as it is colorful.

The subject of "Gone Missing" is lost objects: keys, jewelry, a shoe, a stuffed animal, a husband or a job, an inheritance, a war, a memory, even the continent of Atlantis. But part of what makes the show so affecting is the undercurrent of self-recrimination and guilt. Adding to its delight is the company’s astonishingly rich performances. Though they’re dressed uniformly in gray suits (looking like some forgotten new wave band), their postures and accents sketch out specific personalities. In between the comical monologues are witty songs that range across genres – folk rock, torch songs, even a mariachi number.

Where the Civilians seem to hide behind their subjects, the five members of Waterwell look like they relish the audience’s attention. And the crowd responds to their attitude of raw authenticity. This sensibility works best during King’s music numbers, which have the grittiness of late ’60s rock, blues, and funk. When Rodney Gardiner acts out King’s speeches, he provides them with a soul that no transcript could.

But although the music is uniformly thrilling, several of the scenes feel like they should’ve been left in the rehearsal room. A nighttime conversation between King and Joan Didion is full of insight and subtext, but an Oval Office meeting between LBJ and J. Edgar Hoover offers only caricatures and laffs. Still, the anarchic exuberance of the troupe detonates more often than it misfires. Seen through a prism of songs and scenes, the portrait is of a good man exhausted by an America that’s stubborn and afraid. Together, the Barrow Street double-bill is a sort of 21st-century vaudeville, breezy but inspiring, perfect entertainment for a summer evening.

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