About Face's 'Little Dog' is a Trendy Treat Lacking Levels

The Little Dog Laughed currently playing the Hoover-Leppen Theatre at the Center on Halsted, and presented by About Face Theatre is a clever dissection of the celebrity haze currently cast over America.  Douglas Carter Bean (most known for the screenplay To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar) does an excellent job of weaving relationships, pop-culture references and the United States' fascination with the spotlight and who is in it. The script is the true star of this sharply produced production. With a sexy, Queer as Folk-esque set, fittingly underscored house beats, a witty script and a gorgeous cast of four, all signs pointed to an insightful night of theatre, but Director Eric Rosen fails to show us the love between any of these characters and the production reads as flat as an issue of US Weekly. Granted, US Weekly is always good, fun and flippant entertainment for those of us into that sort of thing.

The story focuses on Mitchell who, as his agent Diane refers, has a "reoccurring case of homosexuality". When Mitchell begins to fall for gigolo boy-toy Alex, Diane does damage control and tries to spin her client and friend's mishaps into good career choices. Our fourth character is the trendy, Soho girl Ellen who is the "girlfriend" of Alex, the gigolo. When problems arise between Mitchell, Alex and Ellen, Diane swoops in and saves them all from themselves and the tabloids.

Mary Beth Fischer soars as the ever-trendy, always deal-making Diane. Her energy is refreshing, light and brings the audience into the story through her multiple monologues directed towards us. Taking us from LA to NYC and back and forth again, Fischer plays the role of an industry know-it-all with great confidence, panache and energy, the only thing lacking is seeing the sexual side of this quick-talking lesbian.

Lea Coco plays Mitchell, our focal point of this twisted tale. Although Coco looks the part (all the way down to the shirtless and pantsless scenes), his acting lacks levels and most of it comes across as casual and contrived. This is very appropriate for the scenes when he is schmoozing with Diane but when we get to the intimate scenes between Mitchell and Alex, we as an audience fail to see his love or care for Alex, therefore making the audience incapable of gaining care and love for him. He lacks the fight and drive of a man coming to terms with being a homosexual.

Levi Holloway suffers from the same pitfalls as former Coco. This gigolo fails to let us see the sexuality of this sex-worker. His wittily, slyly written Alex comes across as uncomfortable, high school student at a sleepover. Holloway relies too much on what he says and forgets to let his actions define who he is as a character as well.

Heather Prete as Ellen (the fag-hag fashionista) looks the part as a mix between Carrie Bradshaw and Paris Hilton but lacks the 'Legally Blonde" charm to make us empathize for her hardships and just plain smile. She has some of the better written dialogue in the script but Prete flies through it and doesn't give the audience a chance to develop feelings for, what is written as, a victim in the play. Her move from  chic chick to Olsen-twin, bag lady is hardly as dramatic of a change as it could have been had she slowed down a bit and thought more about what she was actually saying.

By and large, the play was lacking direction. This play is about the relationships between four people. The heart of this play is the relationships, but it seems Rosen is more focused on pop-culture references, cute costumes and half-naked boys to allow the love these characters have for each other to come alive. The staging seemed very lifeless at times and we as an audience grew tired of watching two people sit on a bed and wax sexuality. We want this play to jump off the stage but it stays fairly one-dimensional.

All that being said, this was a very enjoyable night of theatre, mainly due to Beane's modern script and Fischer's wit and charisma as Diane. Going between LA and NYC, this play balances on a thin line between cliché and insightful (presented in Midwest Chicago) but luckily leaves you with the latter. Sound design and music composition is nicely executed by Mikhail Fiksel and Tom Burch's set makes us want to jump in the over-sized bed and become street-walkers and movie stars ourselves. For anyone looking to giggle, grin and not think too much, A Little Dog Laughed is right up your alley, or shall we say dog-house.

A Little Dog Laughed is playing at the Hoover-Leppen Theatre at the Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted. Show runs January 20 – February 17,  Wed-Fri at 730PM, Sat at 230PM and 730PM,  and Sun at 730PM. Showtimes do vary slightly so check schedule at www.aboutfacetheatre.com. Tickets can be purchased at the website or by calling 866.811.4111.

Photo by Michael Brosilow

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