In The Wings: When Bad Plays Happen to Good Actors

Aside from natural disasters, acts of war and innocent people spending years in jail for crimes they didn't commit, there are few things as sad as talented theatre artists making fine contributions to a really lousy play.

I generally don't like to use terms like "really lousy play" in a review, but in the case of In The Wings I think it's absolutely necessary. If this were an Off-Off Broadway showcase written by some young kid who office temps during the day and lives on a diet of ramen noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I'd probably call the play "problematic" or "a work in progress." But Stewart F. Lane, the author of this completely unfunny comedy, is a three-time Tony Award winning producer whose personal web site is called MrBroadway.com. It's his job to try and avoid lousy plays. I'm sure the man has feelings like anyone else and I don't want to sound mean, but for goodness sake, there must have been sometime between the first draft and opening night when a colleague took him aside and said, "Friend, this is a lousy play. Do not allow this to be reviewed."

This is a play where someone is described as " unique in the anals of comedy". This is a play where Peter Scolari is given the exit line, "As they say in show business, 'That's show business.'" This is a play where Marilyn Sokol is given the indignity of having to do the old "getting tired by climbing up five flights of stairs" routine mere minutes after Scolari failed to get any laughs from the same bit. (Hint: This is a routine that needs to be set up. Read Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park.)

There's attempted humor involving having to run to the bathroom, a flirtatious line about candle wicks and the embarrassing sight of Ms. Sokol exposing herself to the audience when she sits down, knees apart, in a short dress. (I swear, I didn't look.) And just when you thought the play couldn't get less funny, the author pulls out a grown-man-wets-his-pants joke.

And yet the production mounted by director Jeremy Dobrish is very good. I kept imagining what a great time I'd be having if he and the actors had an entirely different script to work with.

The year is 1977 and in acting style, design and comedic spirit, In The Wings will remind you of Three's Company, Love Boat and other popular comedies of the late 70's. (minus the jiggle) There's a relatively normal central romantic couple, an unrealistically wacky friend, a loving but domineering mother and an eccentric "guest star" role.

Young lovers Melinda and Steve (Lisa Datz and Josh Prince) are a pair of struggling New York actors, and in typical TV fashion they live in an apartment that's way too big to be affordable by a pair of struggling New York actors. Set designer William Barclay decorates the place with Playbills from Lenny, Equus, Two Gentlemen of Verona and other shows of the era mounted on their kitchen counter. Letters spelling out "STAR" in lights are displayed on top of the cabinets. A showcard from Candide and a poster from A Chorus Line hang from the walls, along with framed comedy/tragedy masks. In sitcom shorthand, actors live here.

As Steve puts it, they've been living a life "in the wings"; going to acting class, auditioning, pounding the pavement for any kind of theatre work, but always waiting for their entrance. They think their big chance has arrived when acting teacher Bernardo (Scolari) casts them in a non-paying, 16-performance Off-Off Broadway showcase of a musical he has taken 20 years to write and will now direct. The show, I Married A Communist is based on the experiences of his almost-blacklisted father during the Hollywood Red Scare.

While Datz and Prince play their roles with a cute and likable earnestness (it helps that they speed up some of their really bad jokes just to get them over with) Scolari makes several trips to the all-you-can-eat scenery buffet with a bad Russian accent, a worse French accent and a bombastic presence that would make Milton Berle seem subdued. This is a good thing. His hamminess in the face of bad material is admirable and the detail with which executes every routine is that of a serious comic artist. The gap between the high quality of his performance and the low quality of his material could very well be the widest currently on display in New York.

Steve is cast as a tap-dancing Roy Cohn and Melinda is given the part of a slutty communist nun -- and still the author can't get a decent laugh out of this! After watching Steve's big number (the three songs in the show are performed well but really aren't worth typing about) logic takes a holiday. See, the way Bernardo is presented, any sophisticated fan of late 70's sitcoms would assume he was some kind of con-artist, but going against anything that resembles reason we discover that he really is a big-time Broadway player and that every critic in New York thought the show was a work of genius. I don't mean in a Springtime For Hitler so-bad-that-it's-good way. I mean in a David-Merrick-and-Clive-Barnes-both-love-it way. So it's transferring to Broadway. And that's when things start getting sticky for our lovebirds as they discover that three really isn't company.

In supporting roles, Brian Henderson is appropriately stupid and annoying as an air-headed bimboy and Marilyn Sokol pulls back a bit to bring some unexpected warmth to her bossy mom character.

And although Mattie Ulrich's costumes aren't meant to be satirical, the assortment of bell bottoms, hip huggers and mismatched prints are funny in their accuracy.

You know something... if you have the time to spare and if money isn't a concern for you, I'm going to recommend you take in a performance of In The Wings just to give a nice, hearty round of applause to a very good cast. Heck, they deserve it. And after you do, treat yourself to some popcorn. Because you did a nice thing.