A leader in alternative theater,
Shipping Dock chose an offbeat gay Christmas comedy for the holidays. But The Crumple Zone by Buddy Thomas is slight and uneven and needs all the theatrical help it can
get. On opening night it didn’t get much. Under the pressure of a major case of
amateur actors’ opening-night panic, the rattled cast had a rough time.
Playing Terry, the central
character in the three gay young men’s Staten Island apartment, Erik Libey had
a tough assignment anyway: A hyper, interfering friend who complains constantly
that he hasn’t had a love life or any recent sex life, Terry is annoying unless
played with quirky charm. Libey, a well-known local gay writer and
drag-performer, though clearly not an actor, was reportedly appealing in
rehearsals. But with no vocal modulation he overprojected each line in what
sounded like an angry goose honking, accompanied by florid over-the-top
gestures.
Sammy Urzetta, a talented,
experienced actor, seemed to play to Libey with diminishing but always-audible
volume, as though trying to send a message to calm down. But Billy
DeMetsenaere, also usually capable, initially joined Libey in overacting. A
short, heavy man, DeMetsenaere may have been uncomfortable about being miscast
as Alex, the love/lust object whom the two best-looking men in the cast fight
over.
Recovering, he later
delivered the play’s funniest lines with winning comic timing. Alex works as a
department store Santa, and his morose description of the cause for his
dismissal, his incredibly disastrous encounter with horrible children and worse
parents, is a hoot.
A waiter in a restaurant,
Terry is also fired at Christmas time for skipping work with an outrageously
wrong-headed excuse. And apparently Alex’s lover, Matt, may lose his job
touring in an awful musical. Mark D’Annunzio is pleasing as Matt, who is distressed
to find that Alex is now sleeping with handsome Buck (Urzetta), but Matt is
onstage only briefly toward the end.
In an amusingly unlikely
bit of casting as Roger, the drunken outsider who intrudes into the apartment
twice to try to have sex with the mostly unwilling Terry, Ken Klamm provides
bright relief with a gamely enthusiastic performance.
So there is material here
for sporadically funny, peculiar Christmas entertainment. The plot includes an
unfortunate Christmas gift and a bad-looking Christmas tree, which Terry knocks
over and falls under. Libey did effectively perform a supposedly impromptu
“seductive” dance aimed at Urzetta’s Buck, who is put off but then moved to
laughter.
And the troubles of these
four gay men and their married visitor, however contrived and frantic, are
potentially laugh-getting. Director Maureen Mines seems to be in smart control
when her actors are. And P. Gibson Ralph’s set and the uncredited costumes and
props are appropriately tacky.
The only thing wrong with Ira Levin’s Deathtrap at JCC’s CenterStage is that it seems nervous about the plot’s being partly
gay. A slight emphasis is needed to establish a motivation that the script
doesn’t make forcefully. Otherwise, secure in an excellent cast smartly
directed by Kerry Young, the production is solidly accomplished.
This
long-successful, much-revived thriller is neatly constructed enough to be a
wind-up toy anyway. Like Sleuth, the
similar audience favorite that it refers to several times, Deathtrap is not only exciting and amusing, rejoicing in its own
cleverness and endless plot-twists, but also self-mocking. Its major motivation
for most of its characters is the lust for a sure-fire theatrical moneymaker:
“2 acts, 5 characters, A Perfect Thriller.” So they are all trying to create or
act out what this play actually is, smirk, giggle!
The master
playwright whose career is going dry, Sidney Bruhl, is appropriately affected
in Ken Bordner’s authoritative performance, though he hasn’t got all his lines
down yet. His nervous, supportive wife is warmly played by Vicki Casarett. Carl
Krickmire is very attractive and adroit as Bruhl’s young hotshot student who
has written a terrific play worth killing for. And Darrell Lance suavely plays
Bruhl’s lawyer.
As directed by
Ms Young and quaintly costumed by Karen Hall, Pamela Good makes the exotic
neighbor Helga Ten Dorp, a noted psychic, less the imposing creature she has
been in earlier versions and more like Noel Coward’s Madame Arcati, a slightly
goofy, lovably comic character. This larger-than-life Helga is more fun.
And all this
carrying-on takes place in a huge, ideally rich and creepy set, its walls
covered with collectible weapons like cross-bows, its furniture eventually
including a stunning antique desk for two. Handsomely lit by Ted Mancini, the
scenic design by Ethan Sinnott may be the most impressive artistic work in this
fine production.ย
The Crumple Zone by Buddy Thomas, directed by Maureen Mines, plays at Shipping Dock Theatre at
Visual Studies Workshop, 31 Prince Street, 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays
and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays through December 19. Special New
Years Eve gala performance at 9 pm costs $25. Tickets for general admission $12
to $22. 232-2250, www.shippingdocktheatre.org
Deathtrap,by Ira Levin, directed by Kerry Young, plays at JCCenterStage of the Jewish
Community Center, 1200 Edgewood Avenue, December 9, 11, 16, 18 at 8 p.m.,
December 12 at 2 p.m. Tickets $20 to $22. 461-2000, extension 235,
www.jccrochester.org
This article appears in Dec 8-14, 2004.
