| . | 11/17/2009
The Understudy
By: Victor Gluck
Justin Kirk, Julie White and Marc-Paul Gosselaar in a scene from The Understudy
(Photo credit: Carol Rosegg)
Just what the doctor ordered for these cold damp autumn days: a hilarious new show business comedy by Theresa Rebeck seen from the point of view of the lowliest team player, the understudy. Although the satire is scattershot, The Understudy is still a laugh fest for New York theatergoers who will get all the in-jokes.
The three-character cast includes Tony Award winner Julie White who has previously appeared in Rebeck’s Spike Heels, The Family of Mann, and Bad Dates; television star Marc-Paul Gosselaar currently starring in TNT’s hit drama, Raising the Bar, and here making his Broadway debut; and stage and screen actor Justin Kirk who can be seen weekly in Showtime’s Weeds opposite Mary-Louise Parker. Scott Ellis who directed White to her Tony Award in The Little Dog Laughed has staged with a sure hand and obtains as many laughs as is humanly possible from the clever material.
Among Rebeck’s targets are celebrity-helmed two-character vehicles (think A Steady Rain), film stars who get $22 million per action picture for deathless lines like “Get in the truck!” (think Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman), rediscovered lost plays by major fiction writers touted as masterpieces (think Mark Twain), and stars who close hit shows due to “mercury poisoning” (think Jeremy Piven). She even gets in a running joke about cell phones that go off at inopportune moments and over-heard conversations which are broadcast by technological devices.
Rebeck makes use of many dramaturgical tricks (play within a play, narrator addressing the audience, and use of the actual theater as a stage set) all of which make the play even more theatrical. Alexander Dodge has designed elaborate scenery which tends to come and go with a life of its own.
Kirk plays Harry, a serious stage actor, who has been hired to understudy one of the two film stars in a Broadway staging of “Kafka’s lost masterpiece.” A play written for 15 actors has been double cast by its penny-pinching producers with two action film stars: the unseen Bruce, who receives $22 million per film and his up-and-coming co-star Jake (Gosselaar) who made $2.3 million on his last film. Jake is understudying Bruce while Harry has been hired to understudy Jake, and so the need for the understudy rehearsal. Jake’s new action picture has grossed $67 million on its opening week – which Harry resents as he couldn’t get hired and Jake’s main acting work consisted of shouting, “Get in the truck!” badly.
As part of the satire of Harry’s lowly role as an understudy, even though he has done some important work elsewhere, he is mistaken for an intruder when he first shows up. Then when he resents being asked to recreate someone else’s weak performance without being allowed to use his creativity, he is told exactly where he ranks: “You have no rights! You’re an actor! You’re not even an actor, you’re an understudy!” As proof of the incestuous relationships in the theater, White plays the stage manager Roxanne who was previously engaged to Harry who ran out on her six years ago and whom she hasn’t seen since.
While Roxanne, exasperated by all the technical glitches that go wrong, the men bond and find some grudging respect for each other. The men eventually discuss technical ways of improving their performances as the unseen Laura in the booth misses sound and light cues and the scenery for the three hour Kafka epic flies in and out. The pieces of the rehearsed play we hear sound like a veiled parody of both Kafka’s novels, The Castle and The Trial, which Jake keeps bringing to our attention. The play’s surprise ending proves how little can be counted on in the live theater.
White is the master of the slow burn and she is given ample opportunity to make use of it. Gosselaar is clever casting as he is a television hunk playing a film hunk appearing in a stage play. He makes us realize that action film stars may be brighter than we give them credit for. After all, they do have to manage their careers in a treacherous business. He is rather endearing even when he is the butt of so many of the jokes - which his character is not allowed to get. Kirk is charming as the understudy who both speaks his mind to the audience while commenting on the state of film and theater and tries to teach Jake and us a lesson in acting. While he and White have little chemistry as a previously engaged couple and White seems somewhat his senior, they both score as harried theater denizens.
While Theresa Rebeck’s satire seems to drift all over the place and the plot is a simply an excuse to air a few grievances as to the state of the fabulous invalid, The Understudy is a delightful comedy which will send you out in the evening with a smile on your face.
The Understudy (through January 3, 2010)
Roundabout Theatre Company at the Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, 111 W. 46th Street, in Manhattan
For tickets, call 212-719-1300 or http://www.roundabouttheatre.org
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