Review: ALL IN THE TIMING at Zephyr Theatre

I've only lived in LA for a little over a year and am still trying to find my footing reviewing in this town. When I received an invitation to review David Ives' collection of one act plays, All in the Timing with Patrick Warburton and his son Talon given top billing, it sounded like an evening of theatre I might be into. I like the fast-paced wit of Ives' scripts and of course am familiar with Warburton the Elder's voice work. Turns out, I was being invited by a press contact to review what was more or less an acting class showcase featuring a parental cameo. It is an experience which adds further depth to the theatrical tapestry I am beginning to piece together of LA. So many productions (if we want to call them that) seem so desperate to be something they are not-- a pitch for a pilot, a chance to book an agent or catch the eye of a TV producer-- that they totally gloss over their own potential to be a solid piece of theatre. In opening a program in LA, you are guaranteed to learn an actress uttered two lines to Laurie Metcalf as the waitress in some straight-to-Netflix rom-com before you read a word about her portrayal of characters by Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Stoppard. A director may list personal industry connections before listing their previous ventures. At times, it seems the only serious thing about too many theatre artists in LA is that they are serious about hobnobbing with the rich and famous in a desperate ploy to show the folks back home they've made it. This obsessive focus on proximity to fame seems to harbor some of the most unremarkable theatre being produced in the United States. To find passion for the form, one might be better to mine community theatres and school groups in remote corners of the country than try to unearth it on the stages of this metropolis of culture.

The performance at hand has its moments, and they are all while Patrick Warburton is on stage. He is a funny actor performing funny roles in funny scripts. Happy to have seen him. I wish this group had just performed the texts as written. There are sound cues, animations, deadly pauses, and unexplainable impersonations which weigh down the tempos of the plays. The whole thing becomes a desperately west-coast attempt at a New Yorker's game-- and the New Yorker's uninhibited speed and unencumbered wit wins against a team who is simply doing too much to really be funny.

There are plenty of pedantic critiques I could make about the show, but I really don't feel like that is what anyone is after here. I am still trying to find my footing as a reviewer in this city after reviewing for two years in Boston, and this performance of All in the Timing is just another anecdotal gem I will clutch as I try to understand the theatre in America's most famous non-theatre city.