[NEohioPAL] Review of "[title of show]" at Beck Center for the Arts

[Bob Abelman via NEohioPAL]

'[title of show]' proves there's no business like show business

 

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the CJN on 10/24/14

 

 

Broadway is currently abuzz with the star-studded backstage comedy "It's Only a Play," by four-time Tony Award winner Terrence McNally.  The play ran Off-Off-Broadway in 1982 and Off-Broadway in 1986 before finally landing in the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on W. 45th St. earlier this year.

 

In it, it's the opening night of Peter Austin's (Tony Award winner Matthew Broderick) new play and he anxiously awaits the New York Times review by Ben Brantley.  

 

With his career on the line, Austin shares his big night with his best friend, a television star (Tony Award winner Nathan Lane), his fledgling producer (Emmy Award winner Megan Mullally), his erratic leading lady (Tony Award winner Stockard Channing), his wunderkind director (international film sensation Rupert Grint), an infamous drama critic (Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham), and a coat check attendant on his first night in Manhattan (newcomer Micah Stock).  

 

While doing so, they exchange industry gossip and drop the names of dozens of celebrities who were in attendance.  And because this is a comedy, the reviews for the fictitious show are hysterically abysmal.  

 

As for the actual reviews for "It's Only a Play". they're just as abysmal but not so funny.  

 

David Cote, Time Out NY:  "Mostly plotless and spun from the sketchiest of stereotypes and hoariest of showbiz prejudices, this insider trifle is too long, too shallow and not nearly funny enough."

 

Mark Kennedy, Associated Press:  "Some people might call 'It's Only a Play' a valentine to the theater, but. [it's] not so much a love letter from a shy, smitten admirer as a mash note sent by a stalker who's smeared it with what may be bodily fluids." 

 

And from Ben Brantley, The New York Times:  "Spending two and a half hours in the company of 'It's Only a Play' (which is roughly an hour too long) tends to leave you speaking in boldface."

 

Do you see what I just did?  

 

This is a review of Beck Center for the Arts' production of "[title of show]," but I have yet to actually review "[title of show]."  Instead, I reviewed a production you will not be seeing.  And I offered industry insider information you may not be interested in.  And I dropped more celebrity names than a malfunctioning marquee.  And I just told a joke, which I knew was a bad joke, but figured that at this point in the review I needed to offer a joke.

 

Do you see what I am doing now? 

 

I am writing about my writing of a review.  And now I am writing about my writing of my writing of a review.  

 

If you are at all amused by this, you will love Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell's meta-musical "[title of show]."  It is about Bowen (Pat Miller) and Bell (Will Sandborn) writing a play about them writing a play that is to be performed by them and their two best female friends (Amiee Collier and Caitlin Elizabeth Reilly), which is being performed for us as they write it.  It is loaded with self-aware banter, self-indulgent theater industry-insider self-referrals and, because it was first produced in 2006, out-dated celebrity references. 

 

For those less amused and not a fan of all things Broadway, re-read the reviews received by "It's Only a Play" and apply here.

 

Still, you may actually find yourself loving "[title of show]"on the merits of the four performers alone.  Miller, Sandborn, Collier and Reilly are superb.  They milk the script for all its worth and reveal its warmth, whit and very smart exchanges.  And all four performers offer rich, full-throttled solo and shared vocal performances.  They are charming as all get-up as well, if neurotic New Yorker is your idea of charming.  

 

And because director Scott Spence gets satire and lighting designer Trad A Burns knows how to illuminate it, everything is very well presented.  

 

In "[title of show]," it is particularly important that you love the performers because there is nothing else to look at on the barren stage during its 90-minute production, save for some Playbill posters and a delightfully deadpan Larry Goodpaster accompanying the cast on keyboard.   

 

If you look at Goodpaster, and it is hard not to since he is center stage, he does not seem to be enjoying what is taking place before him during the course of the show.  You'll have to decide for yourself whether this is comic relief (which has my vote) or foreshadowing.  

 

WHAT:           "[title of show]"

WHERE:        Beck Center for the Arts, 17801 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood

WHEN:           Through November 16

TICKETS:      $12 - $29, call 216-521-2540 or go to beckcenter.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.neohiopal.org/pipermail/neohiopal-neohiopal.org/attachments/20141018/880cb2b9/attachment-0001.htm>