Review: Theater RED Presents Headland's Raw and Risqué THE BACHELORETTE

The night before a friend's wedding sets the stage for Theater RED"s Milwaukee premiere of Bachelorette at Bay View's Alchemist Theatre. Raw, risqué and x-rated, Leslye Headland's script first arrived at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival starring Kirsten Dunst, Lizzie Caplan and Rebel Wilson. Later the director and writer translated this into a stage play, and the playwright followed by producing another movie "Sleeping With Other People," supposedly a down and dirtier version of the iconic "When Harry Met Sally." While being featured in Rolling Stone, LA Times, and The New Yorker, Headland's play attempts to deal with several mean girls suffering from hangovers and a younger generation's views on a version of the "Romantic Comedy," or rom-com.

Leslye Headland quotes from the article "Modern Romance " published in The New Yorker, September 14, 2015: ""Rom-coms were always ninety minutes of a man and woman talking, having sex in another way, through the conversation. How do you make a rom-com for 24 year olds who have no idea what courtship or foreplay is, who just hook-up on Tinder?"

While female comedians/comedy have recently come to the forefront, (think of the film "Bridesmaids"), Theater RED's Bachelorette plays more as the indie film the play transpired from, a story regarding relationships and sex. While Headland claims she desires to "demystify sex," she tries to speak on how young adults view this in contemporary culture. This play stretches the rom-com format, and the dark dramedy comments on addictions, friends or frenemies forever and the billion dollar wedding industry, Supposedly a selection from Headland's Seven Deadly Sins play cycle, Bachelorette speaks to gluttony. Producing Director and Prop Designer Marcee Doherty-Elst along with Scenic Designer Aaron Kopec give the audience a posh New York hotel suite overlooking Central Park for this night of mean girls meeting rich life to play out in.

To begin the action, the Maid of Honor Regan invites two friends (yet uninvited to the wedding weekend), to Bride Becky's hotel room the night before the big event. All the young women approach age thirty and deal with career disappointment while dabbling in substance abuse---whether alcohol, cocaine, prescription drugs or weed. Certainly Headland made certain these women were gluttons for every excess, and perhaps supersedes her aim when the girls revel in their addictions and latent jealousy and anger at their stage in life.

A capable group of actors recreate the wedding eve with LIz Faraglia's Gena believable and sympathetic as a character. Shannon Nettesheim's Katie appears desperately needy and also suicidal, while Tess Cinpinski's Regan seems unconscionable, a veritable horror story to her supposed friends, especially Becky. The curvy and womanly Bride Becky, who Kelly Doherty inhabits with a fierce, genuine love for her fiance and disappointment at her friend's betrayal, caps the final scenes with professional aplomb.

Everyone in Headland's play lives with some betrayal, including the two boy toys, Nick Narcissi's very manipulative Jeff, and Evan Koepnick's kinder, softhearted Joe. With drugs, sex and liquor straight up and unfiltered in every scene throughout the no-intermission production, sometimes less might be more in Headland's search for newer forms of the romantic comedy, or an independent genre script on relationships and sex.

While truth lingers in each scene of Bachelorette, why would anyone wish to show the darkest side of their gender without much redemption as a true sampling of what women friends harbor inside? And yes, the wedding industry can be insane and insulting, although somehow other scripts have chosen less risqué results before the evenings of champagne swilled with a side of cocaine where afterwards one night stands were derigueur, which in this play can be somewhat misleading as if this is standard behavior for every bachelorette party.

Theater RED"S production will definitely make the audience reflect on what expectations they hold for their own life, even later on, perhaps heading into their 50's, when approaching the dating scene after a partner's death or a divorce. Director Mark Boergers develops Headland's characters as the script allows, with Doherty capitalizing on her brief stage time as the appalled bride in the production.

Outside the intimate theater in the lounge, audiences can get "in the mood," with bridal themed drinks, party games and raffles. The interesting evening can set in motion time to reevaluate bridal expectations and traditions for the big day. In this play, Becky's wedding dress checked in at $15,000, and there are weddings recently attended where the bride spent $10,000 on a designer dress. Becky's ritzy New York event tab rounds out at about $90,000 on average, an amount any Milwaukee theater would surely appreciate as a grand donation. One friend's Chicago wedding added up to close to $60,000, with the dinner served at the reception merely beginning at $168.00 per person, which can add up quickly and expensively when there are 200 guests invited.

There's plenty to reflect on, ruminate about or perhaps think about possibly redeeming in this evening's tribute to excess at the theater, especially what audiences might desire in their future romantic comedies, or independent films on relationships. Certainly a dose of reality to be sure; however, if 24-year olds require training in relationships, maybe giving them a dose of what actual romance might look like would be one place to start. Headland touched on this with Becky, who truly loved her fiancé, and was anticipating a great life and marriage in the future, whether her 'best' friends wished her well or not, or regardless of her dress size. Oddly enough, statistics indicate less expensive weddings equal longer marriages. Where is 21st century culture headed after seeing a play like Bachelorette? Check out Headland's and Theater RED's courageous production and come to one's own conclusions.

Theatre RED presents Leslye Headland's Bacherlorette at Alchemist Theatre, 2569 South Kinnickinnic Avenue, through March 25. For performance schedule, ticket package informations or ticket purchase, please visit www.theaterred.com

To post a comment, you must register and login.