Bright Light City

Reviewed by Neal Weaver

RECOMMENDED:

Nate Rufus Edelman’s slick and funny comedy has an unexpected sting in its tail.

Larry (Leon Russom) and Wally (Garrett Michael Langston) are a pair of hit-men who’ve been sent to Las Vegas to commit a murder. Larry is earnest, disciplined, professional, and resolutely impersonal. But there must be a soft-spot in him somewhere, as he has recruited Wally, an all-around fuck-up to be his partner, and his replacement when he retires after the current job. Larry attempts to be a responsible mentor to his wayward protégé, but Wally makes it difficult. He’s a non-stop and profane talker, who’s furious that Sam, their unseen boss who communicates only by telephone, has booked them into a sleazy motel miles away from the Strip, where the action is. Wally is far more interested in seeing the Vegas sights (including the Elvis Presley Museum), and getting laid to celebrate his 26^th birthday, than he is in their mission.

Sam has left them a briefcase containing two pistols, $50,000 cash, and an envelope containing their instructions and a photograph of their target. (Larry is fanatical about following instructions, but Wally is easily distracted.) They learn that their prospective victim is a cocktail waitress and hooker named Ruby Star. But when he sees her photograph, Wally recognizes her as a television actress named Audrey Richman (Heidi James) who starred in a long-ago series called Beaver Beach, as a resourceful teenaged lifeguard. And Wally had a huge crush on her. She was, he declares, “the first girl I ever masturbated to.”

According to the plan, to prove his ability as an assassin, Wally is to pick her up, hire her services, bring her back to the motel, and shoot her. Then they’ll quietly slip away, leaving “the clean-up” to dispose of the body. That isn’t what happens.

Edelman writes wonderful scenes: Wally and Larry emerge as a sort of hilarious Abbott and Costello team, with Larry as an eternally thwarted Abbott, and Wally as a feckless but eager and incorrigible Costello. Russom and Langston play off each other with verve and skill. The scenes between Wally and Audrey are a marvelous blend of corrupt cynicism and embattled innocence. James’s Audrey emerges as a gal who has come way down in the world, but still manages to be classy and honest.

Writer Edelman and co-director Angie Scott plot the twists and turns of the tale with precision, and keep things light and funny. And John McDermott’s sleazy motel set is lovingly detailed, downto the sagging drapes, smudged walls, stained ceilings, and decomposing furniture.

Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring Street, downtown. Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun., 3 p.m., thru June 22. (866) 811-4111, www.thelatc.org.