Hey!
Here’s a review from the Chronicle (the biggest paper in this one-pony town) for the play I’m in. That’s where I am, btw, in case anyone in the UK even wonders. I’m in SF, legitimizing myself as a real actor. In this play I’m an aging bitter actor with AIDS. That’s the character, not me, and the research was intense. I don’t have AIDS yet – give me time, I’ve only been in SF for three weeks.
It’s 4 stars. The review. IT IS! For some reason the icon this paper uses doesn’t transfer. More to come, hopefully. Stars. Reviews. AIDS. All the fun stuff.
Read on. NOW!
She Stoops to Comedy: Comedy. By David Greenspan. Directed by Mark Rucker. With Liam Vincent, Amy Resnick, Sally Clawson et al. Through Jan. 9. SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter St., San Francisco. 90 minutes. $40. (415) 677-9596, www.sfplayhouse.org. David Greenspan has more fun writing his characters into hilarious meta-theatrical complications in “She Stoops to Comedy” than anybody has a right to. He’s not as successful bringing his backstage high jinks to a conclusion, but by then the SF Playhouse West Coast premiere that opened Saturday has delivered so much laughter that it’s hard to care.
Taking off from Shakespeare’s cross-dressing heroines, Greenspan explodes gender and identity notions with infectious glee. But that’s just for starters. “Comedy” is a romp through every aspect of theater, from overblown egos and out-of-town romance to on-the-fly rewrites. It’s a terrific workout for a very good cast, culminating in a tour-de-force two-character solo by the sublime Amy Resnick.
Just as Shakespeare wrote for boys playing girls who dressed up as men, “Comedy” uses a man as its female lead. Diva Alexandra Page (Liam Vincent in the role Greenspan originated), worried about losing her lover Alison (Sally Clawson), disguises herself as a man to play Orlando opposite Alison’s Rosalind in a summer theater “As You Like It.”
Right, that’s a man playing a woman pretending to be a man to woo a woman playing a woman who pretends to be a man. Which doesn’t include the gay actor (stand-up comic Scott Capurro) who falls for Alexandra’s male persona or the pretentious actress (Resnick) coming on to Alison – until her former lover (also Resnick) shows up, as either a lighting designer or an archaeologist (as the script changes).
There’s considerable added inside-theater comedy, from the way Greenspan puts the plot of Ferenc Molnár’s “The Guardsman” through the “As You Like It” wringer to nods to everyone from Charles Ludlam to Virginia Woolf. Then there are the backstage problems of independent filmmaker turned first-time stage director Hal Stewart (Cole Alexander Smith) and his lover Eve Addaman (Carly Cioffi), who always says her surname first (try it out).
Director Mark Rucker navigates Greenspan’s heady shifts of reality and scene retakes with an ease that lets the hilarity flow. Vincent anchors the comedy with a perfect dry, wry wit, and Capurro shines in a sadly funny monologue about gay roles.
Everything builds to the scene between Resnick’s two roles, which she executes with show-stopping finesse. It’s a hard act to follow. The way “Comedy” peters out to its “Guardsman” resolution is a bit of a letdown, but the joy of its best moments prevails.