Guy Walks Into a Bar

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RE:Show Business Weekly Review by Iris Greenberger
Guy Walks Into a Bar Written and directed by Don Creedon The Grand Theater, at the Producers? Club 358 West 44th Street 212-352-3101 or 866-811-4111 Review by Iris Greenberger Whether single or married, everyone can remember the trials and tribulations of the dating scene. With great humor, writer and director Don Creedon captures all the lows of looking for a long-term relationship in the comedy Guy Walks Into a Bar. The action centers on Joe, a 30-something Everyman whose confidence has been badly shaken by the breakup of his marriage, as he attempts to get back into the game. As Joe, Walter Michael DeForest heads up the perfectly cast three-man ensemble. We follow him in four scenes, all set in New York City bars, as he experiments with Internet dating, an affair with a married woman, speed dating and ladies? night. In each situation, he encounters a different pair of guys, played with impeccable comic timing by Bill Rutkoski and Wayne Stills. In the first bar, Joe nervously awaits a blind date he met on the Internet. Two bar flies ? Sam and Decco ? feed on his insecurities by telling him that any woman who would look for a man online must be desperate. Next, he meets Sal and Dommo as all three watch a football game on TV. When Joe admits to having a several-year affair with a married woman whom he can only see when her husband is out of town going to football games, the two question what he is gaining from this lopsided relationship. At the next bar, where Joe waits to participate in a speed-dating event, Shea and Dodo are shocked that he would pay for this kind of singles? activity. The pair leave him completely flustered as they explain why talking to 12 women for 10 minutes each ?goes against the laws of human nature.? The repartee is outrageous and hilarious as they do a series of mock speed dates with him to see if he can handle the difficult questions they are sure the women will ask him later that evening. In the final scene, set in a bar where Joe has stopped in for drinks on ladies? night, he chats with two very straight looking men ? Steve and Dessie ? who have dressed as women just to get free drinks. Here, the physical comedy of the pair enhances some very witty dialogue. All three actors are wonderfully talented and make the most of clever, fast-paced writing. Don Creedon has a spot-on understanding of the dark side of looking for love and has found just the right actors to deliver his message.

Reviewed by WMD4NYC on Thursday, May 13th, 2010