“Life Upon the Wicked Stage” according to the song “ain’t nothing like a girl supposes.” In Jo Morello and Jack Gilhooley’s same-titled ensemble of one-acts, it ain’t always what actors and especially playwrights would like to experience. Yet it certainly holds its shares of laughs for audiences.
Consisting of six plays, Life starts with The (Play)Wright Stuff. It has eager-beaver producer Buck (smooth Preston Copeland) auditioning for a show he doesn’t know Karen (Natalie Sullivan, rightly indignant) wrote. Gloria de Luna’s silly loser Sunny is determined to comply with Buck’s every direction. She goes from a syllable-by-syllable reading to squeaky soprano to basest bass. The plot thickens when the playwright insists her work be done accurately and storms off, leaving Buck to show the sleazy direction he really wants to go in.<
In The Hetero Chorus Boy, Jonathan R. Thornsberry’s appealing Sean of the title, knows chorine Deana (wistful Tracy Roese) wants a husband but advises she’s not going to meet one on the job. All chorus boys are gay, says Sean, a role he plays to get jobs. He’s conjured up a lover and (outrageous) behaviors that work, but now, at a night spot, waitress Roxy (Skyla Dawn Luckey) outs him. Needed: a “non-hetero-phobic dude” to be his cover. Will Sean make history as a chorus boy who wins Deana’s love? Will they be in the big-budget musical, “The Life of God?” Surprise!
Connubial Bliss has married playwrights Marie (Beth Adele Long, courageous and composed) with Charlie (Tim Guerrieri, motivated but mercurial), whose run of Broadway successes has slowed after two flops, ready to split professionally and personally. She wants to assure her own identity, subjects, style. He thinks of himself as the creative one. Pivotal to their predicament is their agent Leslie (personable, strong Tamara Spiri). She insists their contract demands they compromise. Will they reconcile their scripts and with each other? Will Leslie score with Charlie more than with any script?
Obsolete’s playwright Jeff (Thornsberry) wants to do theater without actors. That’s what Julie (Luckey) is. He’s always written plays for her. She got him the company that did them. With both plays and casts getting smaller and smaller, how can their producing director and stage manager Richard (David Nisson, determined) do without anyone but his girlfriend?
In The Dog Lovers, a dog owner (Sullivan as goony Gloria) insists he should be the lead in a new musical. Her argument with the Producer (de Luna) involves reproducing the vocal range of the unseen Spike, who is hilariously not unheard. And singing is not all he contributes . . .
Co-Dependents starts after playwrights Marie and Charlie have gone their separate ways from connubial bliss. Playing a pick-up at a Connecticut night club, Marie tries to score acceptance of her historical, Italian family-centered script by Rudy (Copeland), a County-Western singer. He’s actually jail-bait. When Charlie comes, he’s entrapped by a policewoman (Luckey) and taken to jail. Will Marie save him and their marriage?
Director Lil Barcaski gets maximum effect from a minimal scenic design (essentially two screens, a table, two chairs) by having the cast up close and personally relating to each other and the audience. They effect swift changes of costume (in Tamara Split’s case as agent, behind a “desk” on three days in rapid succession, mainly using a scarf). A few use hair-dos strategically. All strategies work, as well, for touring with one-night performances!
Gypsy Stage Repertory directors choose its acting members first and then each season’s plays they’ll be in. Life Upon the Wicked Stage gives them ample opportunity to display their versatility delivering wacky and sometimes wicked humor.
