By Tom Scanlon
Seattle Rep
Dec. 7-Jan. 7
tickets:
(206) 443-2222 (877) 900-9285
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The Freed-Ott team, which was so sizzling on the Shakespearean spoof The Beard of Avon, gets off to a brilliant start again, with a gloriously funny and fresh first act. Act II, however, thuds resoundingly, with grating anachronisms, awful gay jokes, a reliance on unappealing secondary characters and a generally low bar.
Shame, as the Amy Freed script is so formidable -- early on.
Perhaps director (and former Rep head) Sharon Ott should have just dropped the curtain after Act I.
Stephen Caffrey, as philandering husband John Loveless, shines throughout the play, despite the pothole-laden Act II. Caralyn Kozlowski is his comic match as John's long-suffering wife, who must pretend to be someone else (a wig to change her appearance would have been nice . . .) to win her husband back.
With strong supporting comedy from Neil Maffin and Seattle rising-star Gabriel Baron, it all works spendidly, with terrific sight gags (fun with fans) and pithy, double-entrendre-laced dialouge.
Leave at intermission, and you'll see a great play.
Stay for the end, and be deeply abused.
The second act contains: a fashion show that reduces talented young actor Garlyn Punao to a Chippendale's chippie, an older gay character who woofs at the younger men, an overdone set gag, boring side stories, way over-the-top acting, excruciating campiness and a general lack of inspired writing.
In various roles, Seattle veteran Laurence Ballard ranges from wonderfully funny to ouch-I-wish-he-woudn't-do-that awful. No fault of his, it's the steamless script that puts the actor in precarious positions.
