Staged

Reviewed by Dana Martin
Laguna Playhouse
Through February 25

Not every new work is stage worthy. Laguna Playhouse’s new comedy Staged by Martin Bergman and Rita Rudner finds charm in fits and spurts but the world-premiere production is clunky and underwhelming.

Fenella Fennington (Rudner) and Jarvis Haverly (Mike McShane) are a star-studded couple in a stormy marriage that ends in very public disaster. They take turns airing each other’s dirty laundry during a performance of Antony and Cleopatra in which they play the title roles. Jarvis refuses in dramatic fashion to continue working with Fenella, who has recently filed for divorce after discovering Jarvis’s infidelity with Katya (Annie Abrams), a much younger member of the chorus. The production is cancelled and the two are estranged.

Cut to 20 years later: Broadway producer Ezra Pechter (Brian Michael Jones) approaches Fenella and guilts her into starring in a new play, Two on a Bench, claiming that his father had produced the ill-fated Antony and Cleopatra fiasco, leaving him in financial ruin. Fenella agrees despite her claim that the script “needs some work” and her dream of Broadway stardom is re-born (if short-lived). Trouble is, Ezra also hires Jarvis to star in the production opposite Fenella and the two are reluctantly reunited. What follows is the former couple navigating the twists and turns of a terrible script, a messy rehearsal process and a 20 year–long grudge.

The play behaves and moves like an old-school sitcom, with the characters crafted in broad strokes. Both Fenella and Jarvis are vapid, self-absorbed narcissists who aren’t interested in anyone but themselves. There’s no learning, growing or changing happening with these two. The play’s scenic transitions are punctuated by podcast host Barry Broadway (Brian Lohmann), who is dedicated to Broadway gossip and incorrectly sensationalizes details of the pair’s ill-fated reunion (one of the more interesting aspects of the story).

Rita Rudner focuses on Fenella’s vocal quality rather than the character’s inner life, resulting in a performance that’s stiff and inauthentic. Mike McShane’s Jarvis is all posturing and panache. Brian Michael Jones’s Ezra is the play’s axis and manages to deftly deliver a majority of the play’s plot twists. Brian Lohmann plays several farcical characters throughout the evening, including Fenella’s hippie boyfriend Bill and Broadway gossip Barry. Kelly Holden Bashar holds her own as no-nonsense stage manager Gerry.

Martin Bergman’s direction focuses primarily on presentation, with little attention to nuance. Nita Mendoza’s lighting design is generic and overuses blackouts. Costumes, coordinated by Stacey Nezda, are a mixed bag; some of them are finely appointed while others are ill-fitting. The cheap wigs — used to differentiate between characters as well as mark the passage of time — are another liability; it’s not clear whether or not they’re meant to be a joke. Stephen Gifford’s scenic design is well-suited to the story and helps anchor the world of the play.

Staged is a thinly veiled vehicle for the power couple Bergman and Rudner to work together. Great for them, but this production is a miss.

Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Rd., Laguna Beach; Wed.–Fri., 7:30 pm.; Sat., 2 pm & 7:30 pm; Sun., 1 pm & 5:30 pm (no 5:30 performance Feb. 15); through Feb. 25. (949) 497-2787 or lagunaplayhouse.com. Running time: 90 minutes with one 15-minute intermission.