The Narcissist Next Door
Reviewed by Stephen Fife
Table of Fun Productions at the Hollywood Fringe Festival
Through June 29
If you’ve ever wondered why sitcoms are only 30 minutes rather than an hour or longer, then drop by The Narcissist Next Door at the Complex, with a running time of 70 minutes. The first 25 minutes are pretty funny, the second 25 minutes aren’t bad, but the last 20 minutes are tough to stomach. It’s like going to a dessert café where you are served order after order of crème brulee. At some point you just want to throw up.
The show’s setup is familiar from apartment-dweller sitcoms like Three’s Company and Don’t Trust the B — in Apartment 23. Things have not been going well for close friends Sebastian (Michael Nardelli) and Kate (Kincaid Walker). Sebastian has plenty of money — his grandfather created the recipe for the modern fish stick — but his photography career has been going nowhere. Meanwhile, Kate has gone through a series of failed relationships with men and is tired of being dumped. Both feel like they’ve reached a dead end. What are beautiful white people in their mid-20s to do?
Enter Tony (Luca Malacrino), Sebastian’s new next-door neighbor, who has just arrived in town to take over the ultra-popular TV series, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Not only that, he is happier than he’s ever been. What is his secret? Tony introduces his new neighbors to an ancient self-help philosophy from Peru and promises that it will turn their lives around.
There is plenty of talent in evidence. Mr. Nardelli and Ms. Walker are both veterans of network TV shows and indie films, and they do nice work here. Re’chard Francois as Kate’s new boyfriend has a dry wit and a deadpan delivery that is welcome amid all the broad hijinks. Director Susan Dalian does a deft job of keeping the comedy humming along until the action adjourns to Mexico (for no particular reason), where writer Ellen Buckley’s conceit collapses in a narcissistic heap. There are some sparkling lines and some enjoyable byplay, but the heart of Ms. Buckley’s comedy is the friendship of Kate and Sebastian, and this gets lost in the course of Tony’s manipulations. A half-hour of new age narcissism would have been more than enough for me.
The Dorie Theatre at the Complex, 6476 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood; Sat., Jun. 15, 8:15 p.m.; Sun., Jun. 23, 12:15 p.m.; Wed., Jun. 26, 6:15 p.m.; Sat., Jun. 29, 10:15 p.m. www.nextdoornarcissist.com or https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/6236. Running time: 70 minutes with no intermission.
