The Understudy

Crazy antics at the theater. Luckily the stage manager is as frenetic and crazy as the world of theater production. And Julie White is the perfect person the play the ball-of-nerves character. Her skinny frame seems to be using more calories than an Olympic athlete as she bounces around the entire theater, literally, trying to keep a rehearsal afloat, or at least moving towards progress.

Her job is to help get the understudy (Justin Kirk), ready in case the secondary lead, Jake (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), needs replacing. Turns out the understudy is the stage manager's ex-fiance who left her weeks before their wedding, no explanation or parting words, just ran. Seems he also has a strong disdain for Jake's talents thinking his action star status landed him the role.

The plot is simple so really the entertainment value is in the performances. Kirk does a great take on the line, "Get in the truck!" which we gladly see looped back later in the piece. I also like this silly dance they put together at the end - who doesn't like a dance number ending?

The writing likes to skewer the Broadway production system in many forms. The easy target is the use of the film star to headline. While I myself often wonder if this is good for theater (Jeremy Piven, Catherine Zeta Jones, Sienna Miller, Julia Roberts), I can't argue with the numbers as many of those plays and musicals keep the house filled so long as the star is there. The other details were fun and added some good measured comic relief - the stoned and never-seen lighting and set assistant, constant cell phone use, agent calls. But the problem with the play-within-a-play theme is it gets boring for most of the audience who doesn't work in this business.

Luckily my audience was filled with industry types - guy behind me was some sort of theater directors - everyone kept stopping by and the house manager asked if he was going to drop by backstage after the show. Lots of theater folks, mostly gay guys, all standing up, waving to each other, saying, "Hi", etc. The only person I recognized was Mario Cantone. The guy sitting next to me turned around to chat with his former acting teacher who was sitting with the director guy. I've never been so aware of my female hetero state. But I think the audience reaction and enjoyment helped elevate the experience to a higher level.

While personally I love Julie White and her performance was extremely engaging and tone-perfect for the character, I just kept thinking that she was too old to be romantically involved with Mark-Paul Gosselaar cast as Jake. Justin Kirk and Julie White see cast well for that relationship but I hate ot be age-ist when I say that while Mark-Paul Gosselaar is hot, hot, hot, I just couldn't see why his character would be attracted to the stage manager. Still nice to have the eye-candy and the female fantasy that us gals over 40 could be appealing to men over ten years younger.

For a light evening out, this was a fun and comedic romp. Not all Broadway plays need be pivotal or groundbreaking. I consider this piece a fun escapist ride, complete with hot men, fun staging, chaotic crazy Julie White, and dancing, of the fun of dancing. "Get in the truck!" never looked so fun ... and funny. Justin Kirk, you crack me up.