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A CurtainUp New Jersey Review
The Little Dog Laughed
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You shouldn't be calling like rent boys when you're not sober. — Alex
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Liz Zazzi as Diane
(Photo: Warren Westura)
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There is no denying that the success of Beane's comedy was largely due to the awesome/breathless/bravura performance given by Julie White (winner of the 2006 Tony for Best Actress). She created the kind of rapturous buzz that is reserved for very few actors in any season. Given this, there is still the question of whether the play's subject and its treatment assure it a place in certain regional theatres that may not be able to find a cast able to do it justice. Justice is not being served at The Bickford Theatre at the Morris Museum where it is having its New Jersey professional premiere.
Even devoid of the full-frontal male nudity that graced the play during its New York runs, the text still unapologetically panders to a gay and/or showbiz savvy audiences. Unfortunately this production is seriously affected by an actor, although I can see he is a fine one, who doesn't have the charismatic presence for the key role of a macho Hollywood dreamboat with a secreted homosexual life. Mark Irish, whose many regional credits attest to his versatility, is so far from being a perfect fit for the young hunk cut from the same mold as those legendary A-list gays of filmdom Rock Hudson or Tab Hunter that it is laughable.
In the course of the play, Mitchell's sexual dalliances, those that would necessitate clever managerial machinations, have a tendency to thwart the ambitions of Diane, (Liz Zazzi) the motor-mouthed wheeling and dealing lesbian career manager who will stop at nothing to secure a movie deal for her "occasionally" gay client Mitchell.
Evidently Eric Haven's direction was insufficient to prompt the kind of manic, comically idiosyncratic performance from Zazzi that the role demands. The play, therefore, loses the main rush of adrenalin that it needs to keep us amused. Zazzi, who has acquired a good reputation as a New Jersey-based actor, presumably does her best with a realistically agitated delivery as a self-mocking manipulator, but confirms my feeling that the role will not suit an actor who can't appear and sound both bigger and more absurd than life.
The entire play actually rests upon her shoulders, more specifically upon her often digressive and abstracted monologues that punctuate each scene and also serve as bridges. But Zazzi is barely able to survive the manic attack of a key scene that puts her in a power meeting with a playwright (unseen) whom she wants to alter his hit New York play about homosexual lovers into a Hollywood screenplay about heterosexual lovers.
Scott Tyler is more acceptable as Alex, the conflicted, bi-sexual, high-priced male prostitute, although his transition from a callous hustler to a guy with heart affects the most interesting dramatic turn in the plot: Alex is trying to sustain an intimate relationship with his naive girlfriend Ellen, played with verve by Cynthia Fernandez. Of course, the (im) perfect solution comes after everyone has had their say and their sex, and we have had plenty of time to yawn through the whole satiric charade of people forced to re-invent their lives in an industry that is all about invented lives.
As I said earlier, this foray into the world of Hollywood sharks and the bait they feed on was evidently meant to serve as a complimentary bi-coastal bookend to Bees. . . The source of the title is the nursery rhyme that begins "Hey diddle diddle. . ." etc. The silliness of that rhyme that ends with the phrase, "The little dog laughed to see such sport, and the dish ran away with the spoon," also informs the play with its seemingly preposterous alliances and allusions.
The whole notion that gay actors should have to live straight public lives is unquestionably the issue that DCB tackles with straight-forward (no pun intended) insight. Designer Jim Bazewicz's nicely abstracted setting consisted of some transparent panels and frames, plus the obligatory bed, chairs and small bar. In the end, although the cow doesn't jump over the moon, you may wonder why The Little Dog Laughed and the rest of us just sat there.
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The Little Dog Laughed By Douglas Carter Beane Directed by Eric Hafen Cast: Liz Zazzi (Diane), Mark Irish (Mitchell), Scott tyler (Alex), Cynthia Fernandez (Ellen) Scenic Designer: Jim Bazewicz Costume Designer: Andy Elliot Lighting Designer: Abby Hoke-Brady Running Time: 2 hours 15 minutes including intermission The Bickford Theatre at The Morris Museum 6 Normandy Parkway, Morristown, NJ (973) 971 - 3706 Tickets ($40; $36 seniors; $20 students) Performances Thursdays at 2 PM and 7:30 PM, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM; Sundays at 2 PM. Opened 01/21/11 Ends 02/13/11 Review by Simon Saltzman based on performance 01/22/11 |
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