Susan Huckle and Peter Pasco (Photo by Jim Cox)
Reviewed by F. Kathleen Foley
A visiting produtction at The Odyssey Theatre
Through November 2
Go Play!, a visiting production at the Odyssey, is a gelatinous dip in pure goo.
Playwright Barra Grant, who also directs, is perhaps best known for her solo show, Miss America’s Ugly Daughter, which details her turbulent relationship with her mother, Bess Meyerson, the first and only Jewish Miss America.
As indicated by the title, the current production catches Grant in a more playful mood. Painfully playful, in fact.
Three dog owners, Arlene (Lisa Joffrey), a Jewish event planner; Rose (Susan Huckle), a newcomer to the city; and Tyrell (Ralph Cole, Jr.), a musical-comedy performer, meet by chance in a New York dog park, one that is shortly scheduled to make way for a new Target. The gimmick here is that their dogs, Lucille the Yorkie lapdog, (Janine Venable), Zeus, the snooty, upscale poodle, (Christopher Schellenger), and Drac, the scruffy rescue, (Peter Pasco), are all played by human actors. And they all talk!
Just amongst themselves, though. Their humans can’t understand them—a source of frustration for the pooches.
All the characters, canine and human, face crises and challenges. In an echo of Grant’s own family history, lonely Arlene has spent a lifetime trying to gain the approval of her celebrity mother. Trapped in a marriage with an emotionally abusive boor, Rose dislikes not only her husband, but her obnoxious young son as well. By contrast, Tyrell, a Broadway actor sidelined by injury, dotes on his pampered poodle, who won Best in Show at Westminster.
The play’s main focus is on the bond between Arlene and Rose, opposite personalities who, after rocky beginnings, find strength and support in their new friendship. Tyrell is more peripheral, a stock character who breaks into show tunes while his dog warbles along. (Speaking of tunes, the show’s sprightly interstitial music, peppered with “Woofs,” annoys.)
On the plus side, the scenic design by Jerry Buszek, with its painted fabric flats, adds a touch of whimsy, while Lisa Lupo’s dog costumes suggest the canine’s personalities without overdoing it. In a variety of roles, from an Eastern European veterinarian to Rose’s philandering husband, Scott Golden is just fine.
The other performers are not so fortunate. However, they do their best with Grant’s simplistic text, which provides few opportunities for nuance and gives them little recourse but to go over-the-top. Way, way over-the-top. There are a few moving moments between Rose and Arlene, and Grant achieves a hint of comical acerbity when Rose, faced with her husband’s demands for a divorce, cheerfully agrees—but only if he takes their horrible kid.
It should be noted that A.R. Gurney, in his winsome play, Sylvia — a comical look at the near-obsessive bond that people can form with their pets — proved that the device of a talking dog could work. Beautifully.
In writing this review, several scathing, dog-related puns came to mind. But I refrained. I do give the cast credit for enthusiasm. All are willing and generally able, just stuck in the cloying artifice of their material. And when, in a penultimate scene, Cole, Jr. interrupts the action to quiz the audience about their own pets, it’s a genuinely sweet moment. Just too little, and too late.
A visiting production at The Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A. Sat., 2 and 8 p.m.; Sun, 2 p.m. https://GoPlayOnStage.com 80 minutes, no intermission.
