Review: THE PITCH at Odyssey Theatre

The Pitch is a bold, captivating new production at the Odyssey Theatre in West Los Angeles through August 4th.  Based on playwright and lead actor Tom Alper’s real life experiences, this is a boiler room tale of telemarketing and desperation.  For something that is fiercely realistic and edgy, with a New York fighter’s indie heart, The Pitch is also hilarious, life-affirming, and an insanely good time.  It’s a sold-out smash hit at the Odyssey Theatre.

In my review of The Pitch at the Madnani Theater in Hollywood in 2023, I called it Mamet's Glengarry, Glen Ross for a new generation.  It is hard for me, this time around, to find a better way to describe this lighting-in-a-bottle, smash hit play.  As a dark workplace comedy, The Pitch also feels like an edgier take on classics like The Office, Dilbert, and one of my personal favorite films of all time, Mike Judge’s 1999 black comedy Office Space, which I could happily watch over and over again on loop.  Newer entries in this space might include Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Silicon Valley, Superstore, and Abbott Elementary.  The workplace comedy is a timeless and enduring universal genre, since there are few humans on earth who cannot relate to the vicissitudes, tribalistic rituals, and family-like bonding of the shitty job.   But there is something truly brilliant and unique in the way that Tom Alper has captured his real life experience on stage.  The Pitch is a deeply thoughtful, intelligent, and timeless play, not to mention laugh-out-loud funny, with twists and turns that jolt you from your seat.  Tom Alper is the heir to Mamet, an essential new voice in the theatre.

Among many things that elevate Alper’s dazzling writing are his nuanced compassion and real affection for his motley crew of hype salesmen and desperados.  This is the rare satire with both real bite and profound heart.  The performances in this play, with incisive direction by ER star Louie Liberti, are powerhouses.

Ricky Ray is a post divorce wreck, drinking and gambling away the money he borrows from Skunk for his kids, but he is imbued with a rich humanity by Tom Alper’s writing and a layered, nuanced, brilliant performance by Chris Cox that makes his character lovable and human.  The Skunk is a show-off bully with zero qualms about abandoning the truth to make the sale, and who is known around the office for his weekly wank-off sessions at the local massage parlor, but even he is strangely endearing.  Monty Renfrow’s youthful, golden boy vibe is a bit of an odd fit for Skunk, in a role that seems destined for someone in meaty, paunchy, regret-marinated mid-life.  Yet Renfrow’s superb performance is a powder keg of dynamic energy and comedic fireworks, proving that by sheer willpower he can morph into this role. The Kid is the office’s rock and conscience, with a richly drawn, grounding, beautifully understated performance of vibrant realism by Conner Killeen.  I was so delighted to see Conner Killeen reprising his role as The Kid.

Another beloved cast member returning for this production at Odyssey Theatre is William Warren as a deliciously demonic IRS agent.  William Warren is sublime, and in my review for the 2023 production at Madnani Theater, I described his performance as “nothing short of genius.”  It’s true, Warren is an absolute, total joy to watch on stage, and I loved every second of watching him toy with Tom Alper again. 

Tom Alper plays the lead role as a lost guy in mid-life Alice, falling down the rabbit hole into a Wonderland of sketchy sales and bottom-feeding racketeering.  But unlike many entry point characters who bring us into a world, Alper is far from blank.  Tom Alper is a ferocious talent.  Alper’s performance is deeply generous, allowing other performers to shine in the spotlight, but also fiercely realistic, poignant, and truthful.  I loved Alper’s gut-punching monologue about the predestined futility of parents looking for second chances and exceptionalism in their children, needing to believe their children are special, able to finally grasp all those tantalizing things that eluded them in life.  There is an audible hush in the theatre as the audience takes in this profound moment.  Joseph Lorenzo, as the personable mafioso type leader of the joint, jumps in with “That’s dark” and the audience roars and convulses with laughter.   Joseph Lorenzo is absolute, sheer perfection and his timing is uncannily perfect.

Isabella Dibernardino’s grungy, been-there-done-that, oddball aura does not mesh well with the warm-hearted innocence and sporty radiance required by the role of Tom Alper’s daughter 15-year-old daughter, so the role feels like a bit of a misfire, but there are some moving scenes between father and daughter.  Grant Hall is a welcome new addition to the cast, shining in his role as a messenger who delivers an unwelcome letter to Tom Alper and some even more unwelcome attention to his daughter.  Hall is eminently likable and charismatic, finding a surprising range of nuanced notes and comedy in this part.

I miss the cluttered, grimy, claustrophobic, very lived-in feel of the old set at the Madnani Theatre, although the new staging at the Odyssey Theatre is more polished.  All throughout, The Pitch benefits from the brilliant producing of Christine Blackburn.  Blackburn is an accomplished dynamo producer of comedy, including my favorite comedy show in Los Angeles, Story Smash, a long-running hit Blackburn has created and hosts, next up at the Lyric Hyperion on August 10th.  Christine Blackburn’s virtuoso comedic sensibility adds a real comedic pop and bite to Alper’s textured, insightful writing.

Tom Alper’s The Pitch is unstoppable, and you do not want to miss it.

Please note that some roles are multicast.

The Pitch runs at the Odyssey Theatre through August 4th.  The Odyssey Theatre is located at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. Los Angeles CA 90025.  Parking is free on site. You can get tickets by calling (310) 477-2055 ext. 2 or by clicking the button below:

Photo Credit: Jessica Sherman

To post a comment, you must register and login.