by Richard Pacheco
Your
Theatre’s current production of the often raunchy, wild and wooly romp of a
production of Douglas Carter Beane’s “The Little Dog Laughed” is sassy, smart
and full of fun. Fast moving, it is often outrageous in its humor, loaded with
sexual overtones and sparkling with energy. This satire is smart and funny at
times down and dirty.
Beane’s works include the screenplay of “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar,” and several plays including “The Country Club” and “The Little Dog Laughed,” which was nominated for the 2007 Tony Award for Best Play and “As Bees in Honey Drown”, which ran at New York's Lucille Lortel Theatre in 1997. Beane often writes works with sophisticated, "drawing room" humor. This play was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play and Julie White won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her performance. The 2007 Theatre World Award was presented to Johnny Galecki. The title is a reference to the fictional short story written by Arturo Bandini in John Fante's Ask The Dust. The same title is also used for a fictional play that appears in Agatha Christie's Three Act Tragedy.
It is all propelled forward by the efforts of the agent, Diane, a deft mixture between the Wicked Witch of the West and a fairy godmother. She is the epitome of the Hollywood agent, conniving, determined, at times unscrupulous to get what she wants—and her ten percent out of it. She is in New York to buy the rights to a play that will make her working actor client into a big time Hollywood star. Her wit stings and sings at the same time. She is reminiscent of Diana in “Network,” a cold calculating heart and manipulative mind.
Her client, the actor Mitchell, is a closeted gay actor who strives to be a matinee idol, He strives to keep his sexual preferences secret. All this goes to hell when he takes up with a rent boy, male prostitute, Alex, in New York. Diane has secured the film rights to a play in which the lead male character is gay. And as she observes: "If a perceived straight actor portrays a gay role in a feature film, it's noble, it's a stretch. It's the pretty lady putting on a fake nose and winning an Oscar." Both Mitchell and Alex insist they are not gay, no matter what. Alex has an erstwhile “girlfriend”, more a friend with occasional benefits, Ellen. There are more twists and turns in this quagmire of mistake and denied sexual identity.
Chris Bailey is the methodical and calculating Diane, a woman is not above or below anything to achieve her goals, no matter what it takes. Bailey is a delight in the role, managing to make the biting edge sharp while maintaining its often viscous humor.
Ray Almeida Jr. is Mitchell, the actor in crisis over the conflict of his true sexual identity and his desire to be a matinee movie star. His ego as aspiring matinee ego does constant battle with his sexual desires for Alex. Almeida is excellent as the actor with ego and sexual desires which contradict them. He delivers the elements of expanding ego with deft touches and finds his elements of sexual attraction with sincerity and attention to detail.
Tyler Rowe is Alex, the sweet smart hustler, the rent boy. Her is genuinely conflicted and somewhat a sentimental character. Rowe is admirable as Alex, managing to muster a combination of earnestness and flair as he wriggles through the complex convolutions of his relationship with both Ellen and Mitchell. Underneath it all, he has an integrity despite his lifestyle as a hustler, there is an underlying honesty which is both revealing and engaging.
Caroline Paradis is Ellen, the erstwhile girlfriend/friend of Alex. Ellen is rebounding from an affair with an older man and ends up with her friend, soon to become friend with benefits, Alex. Ellen might be reading too much into this affair and her dreams may prove stilted and out of whack with reality as it stands. Paradis is wonderful in the role, offering a tantalizing balance between self assured and insecure with a keen bland of the two for a complex character.
Director Robin Richard keeps the pace fast, and the zingers on target. He extracts the best from his cast who have a good chemistry together.
It will be presented again at Your Theatre on Jan. 23, 24, 25 at 8 pm and Jan. 26 at 2 pm. at Your Theatre, 136 Rivet Street, New Bedford, MA. Tickets $15 all performances.
Beane’s works include the screenplay of “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar,” and several plays including “The Country Club” and “The Little Dog Laughed,” which was nominated for the 2007 Tony Award for Best Play and “As Bees in Honey Drown”, which ran at New York's Lucille Lortel Theatre in 1997. Beane often writes works with sophisticated, "drawing room" humor. This play was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play and Julie White won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her performance. The 2007 Theatre World Award was presented to Johnny Galecki. The title is a reference to the fictional short story written by Arturo Bandini in John Fante's Ask The Dust. The same title is also used for a fictional play that appears in Agatha Christie's Three Act Tragedy.
It is all propelled forward by the efforts of the agent, Diane, a deft mixture between the Wicked Witch of the West and a fairy godmother. She is the epitome of the Hollywood agent, conniving, determined, at times unscrupulous to get what she wants—and her ten percent out of it. She is in New York to buy the rights to a play that will make her working actor client into a big time Hollywood star. Her wit stings and sings at the same time. She is reminiscent of Diana in “Network,” a cold calculating heart and manipulative mind.
Her client, the actor Mitchell, is a closeted gay actor who strives to be a matinee idol, He strives to keep his sexual preferences secret. All this goes to hell when he takes up with a rent boy, male prostitute, Alex, in New York. Diane has secured the film rights to a play in which the lead male character is gay. And as she observes: "If a perceived straight actor portrays a gay role in a feature film, it's noble, it's a stretch. It's the pretty lady putting on a fake nose and winning an Oscar." Both Mitchell and Alex insist they are not gay, no matter what. Alex has an erstwhile “girlfriend”, more a friend with occasional benefits, Ellen. There are more twists and turns in this quagmire of mistake and denied sexual identity.
Chris Bailey is the methodical and calculating Diane, a woman is not above or below anything to achieve her goals, no matter what it takes. Bailey is a delight in the role, managing to make the biting edge sharp while maintaining its often viscous humor.
Ray Almeida Jr. is Mitchell, the actor in crisis over the conflict of his true sexual identity and his desire to be a matinee movie star. His ego as aspiring matinee ego does constant battle with his sexual desires for Alex. Almeida is excellent as the actor with ego and sexual desires which contradict them. He delivers the elements of expanding ego with deft touches and finds his elements of sexual attraction with sincerity and attention to detail.
Tyler Rowe is Alex, the sweet smart hustler, the rent boy. Her is genuinely conflicted and somewhat a sentimental character. Rowe is admirable as Alex, managing to muster a combination of earnestness and flair as he wriggles through the complex convolutions of his relationship with both Ellen and Mitchell. Underneath it all, he has an integrity despite his lifestyle as a hustler, there is an underlying honesty which is both revealing and engaging.
Caroline Paradis is Ellen, the erstwhile girlfriend/friend of Alex. Ellen is rebounding from an affair with an older man and ends up with her friend, soon to become friend with benefits, Alex. Ellen might be reading too much into this affair and her dreams may prove stilted and out of whack with reality as it stands. Paradis is wonderful in the role, offering a tantalizing balance between self assured and insecure with a keen bland of the two for a complex character.
Director Robin Richard keeps the pace fast, and the zingers on target. He extracts the best from his cast who have a good chemistry together.
It will be presented again at Your Theatre on Jan. 23, 24, 25 at 8 pm and Jan. 26 at 2 pm. at Your Theatre, 136 Rivet Street, New Bedford, MA. Tickets $15 all performances.
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