12/16/2015Theater: 'Absolute Brightness' Great Actor, So-So Script | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=35732f33-f687-48e8-be78-fd962bc9e66b&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&1/4Theater: 'Absolute Brightness' Great Actor, So-SoScriptTheater: 'Absolute Brightness' Great Actor, So-So ScriptTHE ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS OF LEONARD PELKEY ** 1/2 out of **** WESTSIDE THEATREPerformer James Lecesne's latest one-man show confirms what everyone has known for two decades or more:he's a terrific performer.</p><p> Lecesne creates clearly defined characters with a shrug of his shoulders and a changein his voice.</p><p> Minimal props help him populate the stage with everyone from an awkward teen girl to a regular guycop to a seen-it-all old lady puffing away on a cigarette with the raspy bark to show for it.As a showcase for Lecesne, The Absolute Brightness Of Leonard Pelkey succeeds.</p><p> But Lecesne doesn't needshowcasing anymore; we know what he's capable of from past successes.</p><p> As a piece of theater, unfortunately,it fails.</p><p> The story is cliched, the characters thin and literally nothing that happens truly comes alive or surprises.Only Lecesne's innate talent and considerable gifts (not to mention some crowd-pleasing jokes of the too-easyvariety) make it a diverting affair.The story is simple: the flamboyantly gay teenager Leonard Pelkey is missing and his guardian -- Aunt Ellen --fears the worst.</p><p> The owner of a beauty salon, she barges into the police station and demands a detective takeher information and do something about it.</p><p> He does and what we learn is that Leonard was quite the kid.</p><p> Henever fit in and never tried.</p><p> Advice to elderly ladies about hair color, finding a creative outlet with communitytheater (natch) and crafting his own fabulous rainbow-colored sneakers: that was Leonard.The detective pieces this together while tracing Leonard's steps on what appear to be the kid's final, fateful day.Everyone he talks to remembers Leonard but the teen remains so vaguely fabulous and ill-defined that what weremember are the people.</p><p> A mob wife, an old immigrant watch repairer, a sullen boy who plays video gameswhile talking to the police -- none of them are original, but at least Lecesne brings them to life in quickbrushstrokes.When a body is dredged up from the lake, the worst fears of Leonard's friends and family are confirmed andnow the only question is whether justice will be done and a killer found.Lecesne achieved immortality with the character of Trevor, another confidently out gay teenager.</p><p> I said confidenteven though Trevor attempts suicide in the Oscar-winning short Lecesne crafted about him.</p><p> That film ends withan amusing kicker about a gay teen volunteer at the hospital.</p><p> Audiences might have accepted one musicaltheater loving boy -- especially one driven to attempt suicide -- but two confident gay teens was a revelation longbefore Kurt and Glee.Lecesne took his moment in the spotlight and launched The Trevor Project, a national hotline for teens.</p><p> He alsoseized other opportunities, namely to write a novel for young adults.</p><p> The result was his 2008 debut as an author:The Absolute Brightness Of Leonard Pelkey.Now he's turned that book into a show.</p><p> Perhaps condensing it down is the reason for some of its weakness.Maybe I missed it, but when Leonard's Aunt Ellen came into the police station, I kept waiting for the police to askwhat her relationship was with the boy.</p><p> And what about his parents? If they ever explained how she came to12/16/2015Theater: 'Absolute Brightness' Great Actor, So-So Script | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=35732f33-f687-48e8-be78-fd962bc9e66b&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&2/4shelter Leonard, I missed it.Further, we're told repeatedly how Leonard has changed everyone around him.</p><p> I certainly didn't want an Anne-of-Green-Gables series of episodes where we hear how Leonard solved this problem or brought that coupletogether.</p><p> And it's enough for a kid to be themselves, a proud role model for others.</p><p> Still, if you're going to insisthe changed everyone's lives for the better, it would be nice to argue exactly how. (Only the old watch makeroffers a good if passive example; out of fear he tried to force his own gay son to "change" and Leonard is achance for him to see gay kids could be loved.)Finally, it's little surprise who killed Leonard or why.</p><p> So some false drama is inserted by Lecesne.</p><p> Leonard'sAunt Ellen -- that brassy hair dresser that speaks her mind and everyone claims bulldozes her way through life?-- suddenly, out of nowhere this force of nature decides she WON'T speak at the trial when the family of victimsis allowed to voice their feelings.</p><p> Really? You couldn't shut her up and now for no good reason and againsteverything we know about her this tiger woman is staying meekly quiet? So the suspense about whether she'llactually speak out is somewhat less than nil.The story is set in 2005, so we can more easily accept that the bullying (and worse) Leonard faces wouldn'traise so many red flags or have the adults in his life raising hell at the school.</p><p> Of course bullying exists todayand always will for kids who are different.</p><p> But in a way, it's a pleasure to report how stereotypical, sounremarkable Absolute Brightness seems to us now.</p><p> Out gay teen? Bullying? These are still flashpoints, but atleast their stories don't seem hard to believe or utterly unreal anymore.</p><p> That's progress.Director Tony Speciale oversees the work with a fine eye, helping Lecesne to craft some vivid moments thanksto the lighting of Matt Richards and especially the effective but unobtrusive sound design of ChristianFrederickson. (Frederickson has fun at one moment with a squeaky door but it's an earned one.) Duncan Sheikoffers some modest original music that keeps the sad nature of what's being investigated front and center evenas the parade of characters amuse and entertain.</p><p> Lecesne the actor of course is excellent.</p><p> He lets himself downwith the script but one never questions that his heart is in the right place and on full display every night.THEATER OF 2015Honeymoon In Vegas ** The Woodsman *** Constellations ** 1/2 Taylor Mac's A 24 Decade History Of Popular Music 1930s-1950s ** 1/2 Let The Right One In ** Da no rating A Month In The Country ** 1/2 Parade in Concert at Lincoln Center ** 1/2 Hamilton at the Public *** The World Of Extreme Happiness ** 1/2 Broadway By The Year 1915-1940 ** Verite * 1/2 Fabulous! * The Mystery Of Love & Sex ** An Octoroon at Polonsky Shakespeare Center *** 1/2 Fish In The Dark * The Audience *** Josephine And I *** Posterity * 1/2 The Hunchback Of Notre Dame **
