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A CurtainUp Review
Boys' Life
By Elyse Sommer
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Why did you do this Don?— Don's girlfriend Lisa after finding another woman's underwear in his apartment. I wanted to see. . .if I could get away with it.—Don Why?—Lisa Because that's what a man would do. —Don. |
Michelle Federer & Jason Biggs in Boys' Life
(Photo: Joan Marcus) |
As for the direction. Annoying and distractingly visible as a scene stealing hammy actor as Michael Greif's and his design team's staging is, it does support the play's episodic structure. Cast members as well as stagehands move Mark Wendland's trailer style rooms on wheels hither and yon and scurry around the stage between scenes. It makes for a pungent visual symbol of the boys' moving in circles rather than forward into adulthood.
Having missed seeing both the Pulitzer nominated original or its tenth anniversary revival, I can only conjecture that the above mentioned episodic structure must surely have revealed the play's kinship to the lightweight sitcom world from the beginning, but that the Pulitzer committed considered Korder's skilled dialogue to make it worth considering. The lively staging and performances of the current production notwithstanding, the satirical edge that gained Korder a reputation as a playwright to be watched has been blunted by time and the plethora of similar buddy stories.
The three boys for whom the play is named apparently date back to college or earlier. While they seem to have graduated, we have only the vaguest idea of their erstwhile ambitions or how they make a living. Don (Scanavino) mentions a dream of being an astronaut but we haven't a clue about how he pays the rent on his messy apartment. Phil (Biggs) talks about having been given his own cubicle at some unspecific, obviously unsatisfying workplace. Jack (Coiro), who is the most immature of the three, though one would expect the contrary given that he's married and a father, is apparently being supported by his wife. But I suppose that's as it should be since the play's focus is on their time spent hanging out or on the prowl for sex.
The "boys'" present variations of their efforts to balance their conflicting yearning to grow up but also hang on to their schoolboy way of relating to each other and women. Phil's neediness and glass half-empty view of life (handled with delicious quirkiness by Biggs) is reminiscent of a younger George from the populr Seinfeld series. His sexual aggressiveness is sufficiently tinged with insecurity bordering on terror to translate into the sexual equivalent of attention deficit disorder. His encounter with an equally neurotic girl (Michelle Federer) at a party given by Jack and his wife is a hilarious mini bedroom farce.
Don, for all his nebbishy eagerness to please (a warmly appealing portrayal by Scanavino), turns out to be the boy most ready to be a man, even though he almost loses his chance to make the leap into manhood via a meaningless one-night stand. His explanation to his angry girlfriend ("I wanted to see. . .if I could get away with it") reminded me of the greed-is-good Michael Douglas character in Wall Street, explaining his destructive takeover a company even though he didn't need the money ("Because it was there!")
The married Jack who, despite his glib and often cruel sarcasm, is the wobbliest leg of this three-legged stool. He, even more than Don and Phil, has his feet deeply planted in adolescent fantasies of being a cool Don Juan. A scene with an attractive jogger he makes a move on while sitting on a park bench watching his little boy playing in a jungle gym is peppered with some of Korder's sharpest verbal exchanges.
Maggie (Stephanie March), the jogger Jack tries to seduce as well as his wife Carla (Paloma Guzman, in a very brief but savvy appearance) and Don's girlfriend Lisa (Betty Gilpin) are all smarter than these badly behaved Peter Pans. Gilpin is especially strong as the straight-talking, what-you- see-is-what you get Lisa, who refuses to pretend that her waitress job is a transient situation. As a feminine counterpoint to the boys' deep down insecurity, Michelle Federer is a hoot as the girl in the farcical bedroom scene with Phil.
Good as the actors are, the pleasures of the play itself are inconsistent. Some scenes, like some episodes in the many sitcoms it brings to mind, work better than others. Still, the Saturday night performance I attended was filled to the rafters with young people curious about life among people their age in the eighties; also a solid number of middle-aged Phils, vDons, Jacks, Maggies, Jills and Karens who have broadened their lives to become theater goers. And while many people will understandably leave the theater wondering why Boys' Life ever made such a stir and what, if anything, it was all about, noone will question that this cast knows how to make the most of it.
Links to reviews of Howard Korder productions:
10th Year Anniversary Production of Boys' Life
Sea of Tranquility Search and Destroy
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Boys' Life By Howard Korder Directed by Michael Greif Cast: Jason Biggs (Phil), Rhys Coiroand (Jack) Peter Scanavino (Don), Dan Colman (Man), Michelle Federer (Karen), Betty Gilpin (Lisa), Paloma Guzmán (Carla), Laura-Leigh (Girl), Stephanie March (Maggie) Scenic design: Mark Wendland Costume design by Clint Ramos Lighting design by Kevin Adams Sound design by Fitz Patton Stage Manager: Shanna Spinello Running Time: 90 minutes without intermission Second Stage 307 West 43rd Street (212) 246-4422 www.2ST.com Tuesday at 7 PM, Wednesday-Saturday at 8 PM with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2 PM and Sunday at 3 PM. All weekday evening performances the week of Oct. 27 will begin at 7 PM. Tickets, $70. From 10/02/08; opening 10/20/08; closing 11/09/08. Reviewed by Elyse Sommer 10/18/08 |
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