Dead Accounts

Roma was right.  This play stinks.  And when I say "this play", I mean the actual script itself.  Theresa Rebeck got thrown off SMASH after the first season and someone should now officially throw her off Broadway too.  Dead Accounts amounts to nothing more than a bad sit-com that doesn't come close to cutting it on stage.  Most of the characters are way overly-exaggerated to be believed.  While perhaps a common trait in 30 minute situation comedy writing, it's not at all a good idea for a 2 hour stage play charging upwards of $100 per seat.

What about the acting, you might ask?  Well, that was mixed but decent.  Norbert Leo Butz, plays his sweet spot to the nines - a hyperactive, neurotic, mess.  Katie Holmes turns in a decent performance despite the trite material which has her vacillating between dumb and kind to just plain dumb. Jane Houdyshell shines in the role of dowdy and typical aging mid-western mother with limited brain capacity for independent thought and therefore fixated on God.  Josh Hamilton (Phil) had nothing more than a cameo-type role (think guest star on a SNL skit) and Judy Greer turns in what I would consider the worst performance of the evening.  The buildup to her character's arrival was substantial and the meek, baby-talking, inappropriately innocent girl that showed up was disappointing to say the least.

The New Yorker "observations" penned by Ms. Rebeck were marginally entertaining but like everything else, unnecessarily over-the-top.  The out-of-towners seemed to get most (but not all) of the jabs. And when it came to Ms. Holmes' scene stealing melt-down about the greed of banks, the audience clearly showed their mid-western ignorance.  (And by 'audience' I mean the gaggle of noisy out-of-town tourists straight off the big white bus who filled the last two rows of the mezzanine (read, cheapest seats) just because Katie Holmes was on the marquis while there were over 12 empty rows of seats  in front of them).  

Roma was right - and the word is out.  Dead Accounts is indeed dead.   Dead on Arrival.

Show People

Picture this - Tom (Ty Burrell) apparently has a lot of money - a huge house in Montauk (awesome set), a Mercedes in the driveway, and a successful computer company - so think what you may... He hires two washed up Broadway actors to play "his parents". You soon find out it's to impress his girlfriend to whom he is going to propose this weekend. He's trying for the "perfect family" look this weekend. Sounds harmless - right?

After all the characters meet and he's briefly out of the room - The fiancee blurts out that she can't go on lying to such sweet parents - - he's gay and she's been hired to play his girlfriend for his parent's visit this weekend. Seems harmless right?

But wait a minute - They quickly realize they are all actors. What do they all do with this information? They all know... But he doesn't know they know. Why are they here? What kind of creepy guy is he? What crazy plan does he have for them all?

Well - we eventually find out at the (very) end of Act 2 - and let me tell you it was the stupidest ending I could have imagined! All that time invested (with these pretty fine actors) and all for this?? I enjoyed the eternally caustic Marnie (Debra Monk) and her ever dramatic husband Jerry (Larry Pressman). The "fiance", Natalie (Judy Greer), aptly rounds out the comic trio. Debra Monk really made the show worth the price. All things considered - she's a gem! I really thought Tom yelled too much and seemed like too much of a psycho - even though I guess he was supposed to be playing one - I just didn't enjoy his demeanor.

This play, written by Paul Weitz, went to a place a bit too dark for this audience, I must say. How far will people go for the "performance of a lifetime"? What is "pure acting" and a "great performance"?.

Well - I found out and let me tell you - Funny, Funny, Funny, yet Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!