Against the Wall

Reviewed by Terry Morgan

Theatre West’s “Writers in Rep” program provides a great opportunity for playwrights, giving two new plays a repertory slot in the season. These are coveted full productions that spotlight new works. Unfortunately, one of these plays, Charlie Mount’s Against The Wall, a comedy about comedians, doesn’t fulfill its humorous promise. I laughed only twice in two hours.

In modern-day Greenwich Village, standup comics Jeff (Nick McDow) and Alex (Lukas Bailey) are housemates. Alex is successful and engaged to be married, while Jeff is bitterly single and takes out his hostility on his standup audiences. Alex sets Jeff up on a blind date with serious actress Susan (Katie Adler). It goes spectacularly wrong, but the two end up as a couple anyway. Jeff resents how Susan attempts to change him, however, and he may not be able to resist pushing her away.

As written, Jeff is such an unsympathetic protagonist that there is little McDow can do to improve the situation, but he makes the most of the character’s human moments. Adler does wonders with another thoroughly unbelievable character, bringing charm and realistic emotion to bear, but even she can’t make sense of a hokey monologue about wanting fireflies and magic. Bailey is affable as Alex, the most credible character, and excels in both dramatic and comedic scenes.

Mount’s direction is professional, and he gets good performances from his actors. The production’s problems land squarely on his play: Not only is it not funny, it’s aggressively not funny, with joke after joke misfiring. One example of the level of humor: Jeff yells “I’m not hostile” to his friends in a clearly hostile way. The relationship between Jeff and Susan strains credulity throughout, with Jeff switching on a dime from being a closed-off jerk to a font of emotional wisdom. Finally, the characters don’t speak like the modern 20-somethings they’re supposed to be, instead quoting “Mairzy Doats.” Having a series of pre-1970s comedians’ pictures on the wall of the apartment only adds to the sense of falseness

Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Los Angeles; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; through June 22, www.theatrewest.org