Humor Is Front and Center in "The Understudy"

"The Understudy"

Written by Theresa Rebeck; directed by Scott Ellis; sets by Alexander Dodge; costumes by Tom Broecker; lights by Kenneth Posner; original music and sound by Obadiah Eaves

Cast in order of appearance:
Reg Rogers as Harry; Bradley Cooper as Jake; Kristen Johnston as Roxanne

Performances: Williamstown Theatre Festival, 1000 Main Street (Route 2), Williamstown, Mass. – Mainstage, A Flea in Her Ear, through August 10; Home, August 13-24; Nikos Stage, Not Waving, August 6-17
Box Office: 413-597-3400 or www.wtfestival.org

Who would think to turn Kafka into comedy? Prolific playwright Theresa Rebeck (Bad Dates, Mauritius, The Scene), that's who. Her latest work, The Understudy, a 90-minute one acter that just ended its brief world premiere run at the Williamstown Theatre Festival under the direction of Scott Ellis, begs the hypothetical question: "If a 'lost' play by existential Czech novelist Franz Kafka were discovered and staged in the 21^st century, would it sell on Broadway without Hollywood stars on the marquee?"

The fictitious producers certainly don't think so, since the never seen but much talked about lead of Rebeck's play-within-the-play is a $22-million-per-picture aging action star named "Bruce." Bruce's understudy and less well known co-star, Jake, is a younger second tier movie actor who is also making his name in the action-adventure genre. On this day Jake is sharing a put-in rehearsal with his new understudy, Harry, a neurotic but very talented journeyman stage player who doesn't hide his disdain for the cerebrally challenged screenplay of Jake's last box office smash. "Okay, I am bitter," Harry soliloquizes to an imaginary audience prior to Jake's arrival. "But that doesn't mean the movies don't suck."

This type of scathing inside industry humor and broken fourth wall abounds in The Understudy, with Rebeck poking fun at method acting, stunt casting, short audience attention span, and even the parade of stage folks who get gigs on "Law and Order," the television franchise for which she serves as producer and consultant. What Rebeck also does surprisingly well in this three-person farce, however, is pay tribute to the unsung heroes of the theater who have to be ready to go on at a moment's notice but whose names people dread to see on little white slips of paper tucked inside their programs. As stage manager Roxanne barks in a moment of frustration during the put-in, "You have no rights. You're an actor. You're not even an actor. You're an understudy."

Playing Roxanne as if she were a hair's breadth away from shooting both Harry and Jake with the play's often brandished prop gun, Kristen Johnston is a dynamo of desperation. A former actress whose past with Harry has made her angry and bitter but whose present with Jake may hold promise, Johnston wears her heart on her sleeve despite her repeated attempts to blunt her disappointments with biting sarcasm. As stage manager she must corral two warring actors she describes as "babies" while coping with a stoner of a technical assistant who keeps setting up the wrong scenes and disappearing at the most inopportune moments. As a once promising actress, she shows great dramatic instincts when interpreting a pivotal scene with Jake. Instead of screaming accusations at his helpless defendant, she turns her male judge's dismissive rage into quiet feminine terror. In this one intimate scene, Johnston and Rebeck make a powerful statement about the challenges of being a woman in what is still a man's theatrical world.

As action hero Jake, stage, film and television actor Bradley Cooper (Wedding Crasher, Alias) is a nice combination of buff surfer dude and, on closer inspection, literate and thoughtful professional. At first protective of his popular catastrophe flicks but gradually becoming passionate about more complex art and insightful about Kafka's meaning of meaninglessness, Cooper plays Jake with a touch of humility beneath the Hollywood bravura. It's just a bit ironic, too, that his character is charged with defending stunt casting on Broadway. Two years ago he shared the stage with the biggest box office draw of the season when he co-starred with Julia Roberts in Three Days of Rain.

It is Reg Rogers as persona non grata Harry who sets off most of the comic sparks in The Understudy, however. A whirling dervish of artistic temperament, dramatic posturing, and absurd rationalizations, he is both a narcissist and idealist – and ultimately the side of this lopsided triangle who hasn't forgotten why he cares deeply about the work. Rogers' rants against the industry and snobbish criticisms over unmotivated stage business are pointed and hilarious, but he can be deeply affecting, too. When he is called upon to deliver the protagonist's climactic speech that epitomizes Kafka's penchant for pitting a powerless common man against a nightmarishly impersonal and bureaucratic world, Rogers brings a pained poignancy to his words. "How could I be nothing? I did what I was told to do," he says simply. It's as if he's speaking for every understudy – and every underling – throughout the ages.

Alexander Dodge's multiple sets transform from a bare rehearsal stage into the play-within-the-play's many Eastern European scenes. The never seen but always present technical assistant Laura is made very palpable as a castle interior decorated with mounted hunting trophies dissolves into a stark prison-like exterior and later an angular, surrealistic dungeon whose rear portal suggests some kind of existential eternity. Kenneth Posner's evocative quick-change lighting becomes a dynamic character on stage, as well.

The Understudy packs a lot of layers into 90 minutes. It garners a lot of bold laughs, too. It will be interesting to see what kind of life this clever work has beyond the summer stage at Williamstown.

PHOTOS: Bradley Cooper as Jake, Kristen Johnston as Roxanne, and Reg Rogers as Harry; Kristen Johnston; Reg Rogers and Bradley Cooper

 

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