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| Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight Synopsis |
play reviewed by variety.com
Reckless boudoir chatter unites the three frisky couples in first-time playwright Peter Ackerman's bedroom farce about the hazards of analyzing Freudian slips in the dark. While striving to seem daring, even dangerous in its appraisal of romantic relations, "Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight" lacks the stylish savagery of Patrick Marber's "Closer," a comedy that goes much deeper into the land-mined territory of sexual desire. Ackerman's script is really nothing more than an urban twentysomething sitcom. John Rando's antic production can't compensate for the superficial vision, though his actors' erotic hijinx have a kind of mindlessly zany appeal.
In the heat of an extremely exuberant lovemaking session, Nancy (Erin Dilly) calls her boyfriend Ben (Mark Kassen) "a hook-nose Jew." Obviously, their dirty talk has crossed a boundary, though it's only after the two have settled down to cuddling that difficult questions arise.
Does the fact that Ben is Jewish make a difference in their relationship? Is Nancy a closet anti-Semite or is she just afraid of being strung along?
Most disturbing, however, is Ben's conclusion that one person can never truly know another. To illustrate his point he raises the hypothetical possibility of his being bisexual -- a notion that sets his girlfriend running out into the New York streets without taxi fare at 3 in the morning.
Meanwhile, Nancy's best friend Grace (Clea Lewis) has her own bedtime dilemma with her latest lover, Gene (Jeffrey Donovan), a neurotically insecure Mafia hitman who wants to be appreciated more for his mind than his body. Before he'll concede to another round of sex, he demands that she teach him a little something about art history -- clearly the last thing on her maniacal, one-track mind.
When Nancy turns up in the middle of the night with the news that Ben might be gay, Grace does the only advisable thing under the farcical circumstances: She calls her newly licensed therapist Mark (Andrew Benator), who recently fixed her up with his mobster brother Gene. The escalating sexual confusion turns into a free-associative conference call ineptly led by Mark that includes his geriatric gay lover Mr. Abramson (Nichoas Kepros), who doesn't take too kindly to the report of Nancy's ethnic slur, and Ben, who insists to everyone's disbelief that he's 100% straight.
Ackerman sets in motion a witty set of cross-purposes, though his treatment is less clever than his premise. The humor is broad and not terribly fresh, and few of the laughs have a lingering resonance. It's the kind of material that evaporates from the mind almost within seconds of its presentation.
Still, it's relatively painless stuff and the actors work hard to amuse. As the put-upon male lovers, Donovan and Kassen arrive at a somewhat more effective balance between reality and farce than their female costars. Dressed in perfectly pressed pajamas, Donovan makes an oddly winning impression as the compulsively neat gunman.
Lewis (known to many as Audrey on the now defunct TV series "Ellen") hits one too many shrill notes in her portrait of the college-educated nymphomaniac, though she turns in an otherwise splashy, crowd-pleasing performance. As the flummoxed girlfriend, Dilly manages to be simultaneously sweet and sour, though her character's last-minute sentimental tears seem sorely out of place.
Rando's knockabout approach to the production, though long on yocks, is decidedly short on panache. Nowhere is this more evident than in Rob Odoriso's set design. Three beds pop out of a checkerboard wall upholstered in Gypsy colors, and decorated with little toy Statue of Liberties and hanging slides of the New York skyline. Not only is the space poorly utilized, but the tacky ambiance suggests an hourly rate motel in midtown.
But while "Things You Shouldn't Say" may not leave a lasting impression, its breezy, undemanding nature could translate into lucrative Off Broadway summer fare.3
play reviewed by backstage.com
Subtitled "A Comedy in Three Beds," playwright Peter Ackerman leaves nothing in doubt as to what his first play concerns. A kind of post-modern sex comedy, it has most of: the affectionate characteristics of the genre, with the questionable additions of explicit language and racial slurs. Clearly influenced by TV sitcoms, Ackerman here is allowed free rein with situations and epithets too naughty for television. So there are dirty words, flashing, and lots of sheet thrashing. As one character remarks, "Adolescence is an eternal state in this country"--and that's straight from the playwright's pen. On the other hand, the hearty audience. response indicated that this kind of innocent wickedness is just what they left home to see.
In the first of the three, beds is Ben (Mark Kassen) and Nancy (Erin Dilly), whose racial slur at coital climax is the device engineering the play's plot. In bed number two are Nancy's best friend Grace (Clea Lewis) and her hit man boy-toy "Clean" Gene (Jeffrey Donovan). The third bed has Gene's brother Mark (Andrew Benator) a gay psychiatrist, with his older amour-du-jour, Mr. Abramson (Nicholas Kepros). In the post-modern sex comedy connecting doors are out, but connecting new technology is in--here, it's a speakerphone. It really doesn't matter that the interwoven plotting is unconvincing but it's disappointing that there's so little wit in the weaving.
On Rob Odorisio's ingenious set of night-lights and emerging beds, John Rando has directed these sexual games with great pace and style, making the proceedings seem more amusing than as written. This is also true of the top-flight cast each making the most of the comic opportunities given Dilly makes a charming mid-western ingenue and Donovan s sexually inarticulate, anal-compulsive tough guy is a genuinely funny character. Lewis' great energy propels the play--but she has a mechanical voice that seems stuck in perpetual overdrive
play reviewed by Entertainment Weekly
THINGS YOU SHOULDN'T SAY PAST MIDNIGHT Singles meets Three's Company in this boisterously naughty romp about three couples searching for love (and lust) in New York City. One pair's quarrel--sparked by bizarre, politically incorrect pillow talk--sets off a farcical chain of events that includes an offbeat May-December coupling, a speakerphone-aided group-therapy session, and lots of cheerful bonking. Featuring lively performances from Ellen's Clea Lewis and Jeffrey Donovan (as a college-educated nympho and sensitive Mafia hitman, respectively) and sprinklings of nudity, Things is merry sitcom fare without the network censors. (TC) B+
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