[NEohioPAL] Review of "Skin Deep" at CVLT

[Bob Abelman]

'Skin Deep' at the CVLT lives up to its title 

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 6/7/13

 

 

There is a simple, golden rule about writing a half-hour TV sitcom:  Generate a joke every 15-30 seconds.  Damn the character development, plot progression and dramatic arc, man, full speed ahead.   

 

Relying on rapid-fire one-liners when writing a full-length comedy for the stage, however, is a formula for failure.  Aristophanes knew this.  So did Shakespeare, Moliere, Oscar Wilde, and Noel Coward.  Even Neil Simon, who wrote for TV before Broadway, understood that funny for the theater should not exclude the depiction of real people doing relevant things of genuine consequence.  Funny should come from these things.

 

 Playwright Jon Lonoff, who's "Skin Deep" is currently on stage at the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre, must not have gotten the memo.  Although the title of his play references the superficiality with which its main characters perceive themselves and those around them, it also foreshadows the quality of the play itself.

 

The story revolves around the woefully insecure Maureen (Jenny Barrett), whose entire self-perception is based on her excessive weight.  Every one-liner she utters, which is every line she utters, is self-deprecating.  

 

Maureen also operates under the assumption that others cannot see beyond her size.  With regard to her self-absorbed sister Sheila (Jaqueline Hummel), an affluent cosmetic surgery addict, and her sexually rambunctious, narcissistic brother-in-law, Squire (Bobby Thomas), she is absolutely correct.  In true sitcom fashion, Sheila and Squire are mere foils that set up every punch line, and typically do so with an insult and a smile.  

 

The scenes between Maureen, Sheila and Squire are rather painful affairs.  Although Barrett has superb comic timing and an endearing presence, the slow pace with which an otherwise fine Thomas delivers his set-up lines and the excessive pauses that exist before Hummel discovers hers keep many of the jokes from landing.  This is an odd occurrence in a Barbara Rhoades production, considering that her directorial bread and butter consists largely of lighthearted, small cast comedies like this.   

 

These scenes are also painful because the fat jokes that fill them have no redeeming value - no lesson is learned, no moral is instilled, and no greater good is served by their expression.  There's just the cheap laugh at someone else's expense as the payoff.   Although many of the one-liners are actually quite funny, most are cruel by 21st century standards. and the play was written in the 21st century.  

 

The show shifts gears when Joe Spinelli (Tim Walsh) - the fellow Sheila has set up as a blind date for Maureen - shows up at Maureen's messy one bedroom apartment.  On paper, Joe is just another one-dimensional foil whose primary function is to progress this play to its predictable happy ending.  We learn that Joe likes his women full-bodied, although it is clear from his astounding awkwardness and his own admission that he has had few women from which to choose. Flattered and desperate, Maureen falls for Joe.  Lonely and desperate, Joe falls for Maureen.

 

Surprisingly, the scenes between Maureen and Joe are magnificent.  This is due to what Walsh brings to the role, for he stretches the stereotype he has been handed beyond the playwright's conception, finds tenderness where none exists in the script, and embellishes those rare times when they do.  By fleshing out his character and turning him into someone interesting and likable, Walsh creates an opportunity for Barrett to do the same.  Her self-deprecation now becomes a defensive mechanism instead of a rote response, and comes across as bitter-sweet rather than self-destructive and implicitly cruel.

 

"Skin Deep" becomes a true romantic comedy during these moments rather than the made-for-TV version of one that precedes and follows them.  This will be a play worth seeing if whatever Welsh showed us on stage on opening Saturday night proves to be contagious. 

 

"Skin Deep" continues through June 22 at the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre, 40 River Street, Chagrin Falls.  For tickets, $12 to $16, call 440-247-8955 or visit www.cvlt.org.


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