In the Wings
(Photo © Carol Rosegg)
As show folk often do nowadays, playwright Stewart F. Lane has given a website address in his program bio. It’s www.MrBroadway.com. The reference must be to his status as the Tony Award-winning producer of such shows as Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Will Rogers Follies, La Cage aux Folles, and Woman of the Year. Surely, Lane wouldn’t have the chutzpah to claim the “Mr. Broadway” sobriquet for himself on the basis of his new comedy, In the Wings.
To give credit where it’s due, the play is not as dreadful as Lane’s earlier effort, the ungrammatically titled If It Was Easy… (written with Ward Morehouse III), a true abomination that played briefly at the Douglas Fairbanks in 2001. But In the Wings does have a milieu in common with that clinker: namely, show business. The plot concerns Melinda Donahugh (Lisa Datz) and Steve Leonards (Josh Prince), two actors who are living together. They hit a bump in their two-year relationship when she’s asked to go to Broadway with I Married a Communist, a show in which they’ve both appeared, but he is replaced by Lisa’s doltish scene partner, Nicky Sanders (Brian Henderson).
As Communist author Bernardo (Peter Scolari) comes between the lovers, and as Steve’s mom Martha (Marilyn Sokol) wavers about coming between them, dramatist Lane goes astray. Were he truly Mr. Broadway, he’d know that I Married a Communist bears no resemblance whatsoever to anything that might be produced on or off Broadway now or in 1977, when the play is set. (Unless, that is, you count If It Was Easy…) Lane may think he’s writing about the show business he knows, but he’s really writing about a show business nobody knows because it doesn’t exist. He jams a couple of scenes and three ditties from I Married a Communist into the action. Two of the songs are by the redoubtable Michael Garin, off his form here; they would lead most In the Wings watchers to think that Communist is a sure misfire, but Lane posits it as a potential blockbuster.
Lane also shows Melinda and Nicky rehearsing with a glaring lack of talent, then turns her into a star. He brings on Martha as a typical meddling Jewish mother in the first act, then transforms her into a model of sly wisdom in the second act. He gives Steve a temp deejay job at a classical station, then sets up a predictable turn of events. From Barefoot in the Park, Lane borrows a running sight gag involving winded visitors to a walk-up. It was funnier 40 years ago and, presumably, will be funnier again when Simon’s early hit is revived on Broadway later this season.
But enough about Lane and his lame comedy. People who have to earn a living have been rounded up for this unrewarding enterprise, and they deserve to be mentioned even though they often go too far. Scolari, affecting a Russian accent, does more pushing than Sisyphus at his mountain. Henderson, as a fellow whose motor skills are compromised, also works a smidgen too hard, and Datz’s version of Melinda’s acting is excessive. (Does she, and does director Jeremy Dobish, truly believe that anyone as mechanical as Melinda would receive the laudatory reviews she supposedly garners?) But Prince, who gets to tap dance during one sequence, underplays nicely; and a special round of cheers goes to Sokol for almost bringing off the Martha role.
The creative team with which Dobrish has surrounded himself does creditable work. A big nod to costume designer Mattie Ullrich for finding so many 1970s outfits that will make audience members squirm in their seats at how ungainly we all looked during the Nixon, Ford, and Carter years. Kudos also to William Barclay, whose lower East Side apartment — with a Chorus Line poster hung prominently and the word “STAR” spelled out in bulbs atop the cabinets — is right on the mark. Sound designer Jill B C Duboff, whose challenges include simulating the sounds of a man urinating and then showering in an off-stage bathroom, does his job well. So does lighting designer Phil Monat.
In the days and weeks prior to its opening, In the Wings began to receive decidedly unfavorable word of mouth. This led my companion to remark, after Act I, “It’s nice to see a play that lives up to its hype.” Amen.
