12/12/2015Theater: The Mad Ones Navigate The Straight & Narrow | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=ccf7f9b7-4a98-4522-a496-c0b5ae58f830&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&1/4Theater: The Mad Ones Navigate The Straight &NarrowTheater: The Mad Ones Navigate The Straight & NarrowTHE ESSENTIAL STRAIGHT & NARROW ** 1/2 out of **** THE NEW OHIO THEATRETheater company The Mad Ones deliver an intriguing, well-acted new play that confirms that if they're crazy, it'scrazy like a fox.</p><p> Most of the play is set in a blandly depressing hotel room in the 1970s (I think).</p><p> Slowly we sussout that a group of country artists have been stranded in a small town (broken axle) and have several days to killbefore they can get back on the road.</p><p> They meet kooky local inhabitants, throw a party, watch movies on TV,rehearse and most of all gingerly try and come to an understanding between the band members who'veremained together and the enigmatic Graham, who has just rejoined the group.Interspersed with this often amusing, always convincing drama (with a twang) are scenes of an actressrehearsing dialogue and blocking for a scene in some sort of lame movie or tepid 70s TV cop show.</p><p> Shepractices picking up and slamming down the phone, gasping in aroused delight, posing on the bed while recitingdialogue and so on.</p><p> Stephanie Wright Thompson plays both the singer in the country band and this actress andfor no discernible reason, it remains basically a mystery for almost the entire show whether this is the sameperson later in life or some alternate tale.The Essential Straight & Narrow from The Mad Ones on Vimeo.It's telling that there's no writing credit.</p><p> The show was "created by the Mad Ones in collaboration with theensemble." That may be why The Essential Straight & Narrow has a clutch of great characters but a saggingand vague structure.</p><p> Thompson plays Jo the singer and early on she's rehearsing a song with bandmate andpeacemaker Paul (Michael Dalto) when Graham (Joe Curnutte) shows up.</p><p> Typically for this play, we understandthat these people have uneasily reunited after a time apart (and that Jo and Graham have unfinished romanticbusiness), but it takes a while to figure out whether it's Jo that has just rejoined or Graham.</p><p> That's not a smallpoint: who has the power, who came back and why, did the band need the returning performer (whomever itwas) more than the performer needed them?Eventually, we know that Graham was the one that split away from the group.</p><p> Why he split with Jo is less clear.Despite living in LA, she doesn't seem more pop-oriented or career-focused or interested more in success thanartistry or any of the other various reasons people in an act might go their separate ways.</p><p> Clearly they both carefor each other and clearly they are both still available.</p><p> So the main drama of the play -- whether they'll get backtogether -- is muddied.</p><p> We can barely figure out why they broke up, much less whether we want them backtogether.</p><p> The reasons they remain so far apart despite both of them showing vulnerability simply remainsopaque.Luckily, there's a lot more to enjoy, including the cutting back and forth between this drama and the actress'ssolo rehearsal of her lines (which Thompson delivers very amusingly).</p><p> The group dynamic, with Paul constantlyacting as a Ringo-like keeper of the peace, is amusing.</p><p> And best of all is wild card Marc Bovino as hotel denizenDebbie.</p><p> Debbie is a prostitute but whether she is meant to be a man in drag or transgender or transitioning orjust a female character who happens to be played by a man is unclear to me. (Since the bandmates never say a12/12/2015Theater: The Mad Ones Navigate The Straight & Narrow | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=ccf7f9b7-4a98-4522-a496-c0b5ae58f830&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&2/4single word about this, I assume Debbie is a woman.)It really doesn't matter because Bovino steals the show with a hilarious, delightful turn that lights up the roomwhenever Debbie appears.</p><p> Whether she's searching for her lost puppy, handing out markers and paper platesfor a crafts project or telling ghost stories, Debbie is vividly real.</p><p> Frustrated over losing at a party game, blithelybringing over a shady group of friends for a raucous party, flirting with every man in sight, Debbie is a New Agehoot. (Tarot cards and Ouija boards were surely in the mix at one point with this gal.) Tellingly, even Debbie isstranded by the lack of structure in the show, sent off towards the end on a dour and uninteresting note.Director Lila Neugebauer has fun with the party scene and delineates the action between the two time framesneatly.</p><p> But she and dramaturg Sarah Lunnie needed to take a much stronger hand with the storyline.</p><p> Surrealtouches add nothing and the big confusion of how the two alternate realities are linked is merely indicative ofdeeper confusion.</p><p> A simple line or two would quickly establish who had rejoined the band, making thatmurkiness unnecessary.</p><p> More serious overhauling is needed to figure out what the two romantic leads mean toeach other and to us.The set by Laura Jellinek is effective and the costumes by Asta Hostetter are fun without being jokey (always atemptation with the 70s).</p><p> For all my complaints, it's telling that the final moment does have an emotional kick to it-- The Mad Ones remain an ensemble to watch.</p><p> And I already miss Debbie.THEATER OF 2014Beautiful: The Carole King Musical ***Rodney King *** Hard Times ** 1/2 Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead ** I Could Say More * The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner ** Machinal *** Outside Mullingar *** A Man's A Man * 1/2 The Tribute Artist ** 1/2 Transport ** Prince Igor at the Met ** The Bridges Of Madison County ** 1/2 Kung Fu (at Signature) ** Stage Kiss *** Satchmo At The Waldorf *** Antony and Cleopatra at the Public ** All The Way ** 1/2 The Open House (Will Eno at Signature) ** 1/2 Wozzeck (at Met w Deborah Voigt and Thomas Hampson and Simon O'Neill) Hand To God *** Tales From Red Vienna ** Appropriate (at Signature) * Rocky * 1/2 Aladdin *** Mothers And Sons ** Les Miserables *** 1/2 Breathing Time * 1/2
