Much Ado About The Script in the Closet
Two Pulitzers are among the accolades that husband and wife Lionel (Mark De Rocco ) and Lynn (Ruth Kavanagh ) have won for writing books together. But they’ve never tried doing a screenplay until one shows up in their linen closet.
Zoey (Charlotte Jones ), their young son’s nanny, has found the script and copied it into her employers’ work computer—which just happens to be in the living room of their huge Fifth Avenue apartment. When Lynn discovers the script file and reads its passionate, confessional dialog, she’s sure that Lionel must be cheating on her with a new collaborator—another woman!
Oblivious to this, their older son Carleton (Isaiah Stannard) has just broken up with Gladys (Jada Delgado), the daughter of his family’s best friends Valerie (Kristin Johansen) and Noah (Tom Staggs), who also live in the building. They’re not writers; but Doris, the maid (Carrie Wilder) can’t resist taking a crack at improving the screenplay—which was left in the closet by actors hired for the little boy’s birthday, as Elmo (Tina Harper) and Spongebob Squarepants (Patrick Huang).
L-R: Valerie (Kristin Johansen) and Lynn (Ruth Kavanagh) congratulate themselves on plotting revenge for what they’re sure is Lionel’s infidelity.
Loopy characters working at cross-purposes, action freeze-framed by blackouts, plenty of doors . . . that’s what makes a farce on stage; and The Script in the Closet has them all. What it doesn’t have, though, is forward momentum. There are plenty of funny lines and ludicrous conflicts, but on the second night of the run they generated only occasional snickers. Belly-laughter never erupted; hardly anyone chortled or guffawed.
The reason nobody’s funnybone was provocatively tickled, I think, was the pacing. It dragged. I’m sure Lighting Director Alex Moore and Sound Designer Boris Nazaro gave it their best shot. But responsibility for driving so far below the speed limit must lie with Joyce Griffin, who wrote, produced, directed, designed the costumes, and designed the set (assisted by Jen Varbalow) which fills much of the theater space.
To be fair, many blackouts had to cover costume changes. But repartee that ought to be snappy tended to sag. I hope Griffin finds a way to hurry things up. The Script in the Closet isn’t just a bedroom farce. It’s a satire on collaboration in the creative arts, and a dig on helicopter parenting. (“All that cuddly stuff,” says Lynn, “that’s the nanny’s job.”) If the play got a shot of speed, it could go barreling along the way a good farce should.
Opening Photo: Everyone in this farce has reason to celebrate . . . at the end. Photos by Jonathan Slaff.
The Script In the Closet, by Joyce Griffin, runs through March 17 in The Downstairs theater at La Mama, 66 East 4th Street. 212-352-3101
