Dates and Nuts

Reviewed by Deborah Klugman

In Gary Lennon’s regrettably overwritten comedy, directed by Wilson Milam, Elizabeth Regen plays Eve, a fierce and fiery drama queen searching desperately for love on the streets and in the bars of NYC’s Lower East Side.

With its colorful characters and earthy female perspective, Lennon’s play is one you want to embrace with almost as much passion as Eve dedicates to finding her man. But notwithstanding Regen’s eruptive energy, there’s not enough substance behind the script’s bawdy verbiage — and this performer’s fire-crackling persona — for it to be involving.

When we meet Eve, she’s perched on a front-door stoop with her friend Mary (Dianna Aguilar). Eve’s still smarting from a breakup with her last boyfriend, a bisexual man who’d been two-timing her with a gay Mafioso.

The betrayal prompts the already mouthy Eve to publicly parade her lust by coming on to every good-looking jock she sees and acting out her resentments against gay men (presumably for stealing her lovers) by scornfully labeling them “Gs” — much to Mary’s embarrassment. Later, in a bar, Eve reverses tactics by playing hard-to-get with the men who approach her. One of them, Al (Josh Randall), a decent sort, eventually scores her attention and graduates to become the new lover around whom her emotional stasis revolves. Contravening a male stereotype, he lobbies for sensitive foreplay and taking it slow, much to Eve’s frustration. From then on, the looming question becomes whether their relationship can survive Eve’s insecurity and manic obsession.

But by this point in the play, Eve’s ranting has grown tiresome. Outside her sexual urges and rampant prejudices, we’ve not learned much about her. While she mentions her work as an animal activist, there are no anecdotes that expand on this, nor anything to tell us about her family, her day-to-day habits, or even her friendship with Mary, her evident confidante. That skimpiness in background might be dismissed in a shorter work, but here, in this  lengthy intermission-less one-act, listening to Eve go on ceaselessly about her feelings, without much context, becomes wearing.

What’s needed is adept pruning and directorial finesse, beginning with the gal pal intimacy between Eve and Mary, which is currently stilted and undeveloped. And despite the remarkable stamina and arresting physicality of her performance, Regen’s Eve never pauses long enough to bare a quiet moment or an instant of reflection: nuances essential to creating a fully fleshed-out and compelling portrayal.

The same lack of texture holds true for Darryl Stephens’s rendering of Patrick, Eve’s drag queen neighbor — like Eve, he’s a flamboyant exhibitionist, though a wiser one. There’s so much more to be revealed beneath the flaming mannerisms and the high-heeled strut.

As the forbearing Al, Randall keeps it simple, probably the best way to hold his own against Regen’s flamboyance. Dave Scotti gives a funny, skillfully chiseled performance as a sleazy bar denizen chasing down every skirt he sees.

Bootleg Theatre, 2220 Beverly Blvd, L.A.;Thurs.-Sat., 7 p.m., Sun., 2 p.m. (dark June 7 and 22); through July 12. (213) 389-3856, www.bootlegtheater.com