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A CurtainUp Review
In the Wings
By Elyse Sommer
Marilyn Sokol & Peter Solari
(Photo: Carol Rosegg) |
What's amazing about In the Wings is that its author, Stewart F. Lane, is a successful producer of numerous Broadway hits. Wearing that hat, he would undoubtedly have pulled the plug on this either after reading this script, or at the very least, during an early rehearsal. But apparently there was no one at PRF Productions to tell Lane, the playwright, to not expect audiences to find his play funny, entertaining -- and certainly not worth $65. This isn't too surprising, given that the chief producer, Bonnie Comley, starred in Mr. Lane's previous playwriting effort, an ungrammatical disaster called If It Was Easy. At any rate, with no one to stop In the Wings from taking flight, this is a case the smart women/foolish choices principles translated into smart producer/foolish playwright.
Undoubtedly, Lane's reputation as a producer enabled him to attract an able director, Jeremy Dobrish, to take on the thankless task of trying to turn this threadbare concept into a smart silk purse. But Dobrish is a director, not a magician, and it's evident from the moment the lights go up that neither his best efforts or the comedic talents of Marilyn Sokol and Peter Scolari could save In the Wings from a crash landing.
Like If It Was Easy (my review), the new play tells a familiar backstage story: Steve (Josh Prince) and Melinda (Lisa Datz) are two wannabe actors whose love is unaffected by his being Jewish, and her being what his mother refers to as his "Goy Toy." (Marilyn Sokol, an actress whose name quickly springs to mind when casting about for someone to play the stereotypical Jewish mom to the hilt, is a riot mainly thanks to the orange print dress Mattie Ullrich has found for her to wear under her de rigueur mink coat). Steve and Mel's guru, Bernardo (a scenery chewing Peter Scolari), arrives after we listen to him panting his way up to their fifth floor walkup (a sound gag guaranteed to be repeated) and gives them their big chance -- to appear in a showcase musical version of I Married A Communist. Shades of The Producers (which playwright Lane also tried to ape in If It Was Easy), the show finds a backer and becomes Broadway bound -- the only trouble for our young lovers being that Melinda is asked to move with the show and Steve is not.
Will love survive? Can I Married a Communist really succeed and make further hard-breathing climbs up a walkup flat unnecessary? To be honest, who Cares? Considering the approximately 80% empty house at the matinee I attended, this should not be a hard to get ticket.
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IN THE WINGS
Written by Stewart F. Lane Directed by Jeremy Dobrish Songs by Michael Garin. Cast: Lisa Datz, Josh Prince, Marilyn Sokol, Brian Henderson, and Peter Scolari Set Design: William Barclay Costume Design: Mattie Ullrich Lighting Design: Phil Monat Sound Design: Jill B. C DuBoff Running time: 1 hour and 50 minutes, includes one intermission Promenade Theatre 2162 Broadway (At West 76th Street) 212/239-6200 www.InTheWings.biz. From 9/09/05 to 11/20/05--with uniformly bad reviews prompting early closing, 10/16/05; opening 9/28/05 Tues through Sat @ 8:00PM, Wed & Sat @ 2:00PM, Sun @ 3:00PM Tickets: $66.25 Reviewed by Elyse Sommer based on October 1st matinee performance |
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