|
Even considering the show's cast and director, if you had told
me a week ago that the musical comedy Are We There Yet? would
wind up being my favorite Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse presentation
over the past two years, I wouldn't have believed you.
Its concept is lifted directly from I Love You, You're
Perfect, Now Change, albeit with a focus on families rather
than romance: Four performers - two women and two men - each
portray numerous characters in an unrelated series of alternately
comedic, heartwarming, and musical vignettes. Its poster, an
exaggerated cartoon image of a harried family trapped in a
cramped automobile, suggests overly aggressive, National
Lampoon's Vacation-style zaniness. And although the two
works aren't related, its title also belongs to that shrill,
overbearing Ice Cube movie from 2005, which wasn't exactly
the cheeriest of omens. (Neither, to be honest, is the production's
set, which is functional enough, but which has been painted
a splotchy blend of dark yellow and white; it looks like a
house built of cheddar Jack cheese.)
I am officially eating crow, because not only is nearly everything
about the theatre's latest offering first-rate, but a first-rate surprise - Are
We There Yet? is continually sharper, funnier, and more
moving than you expect it to be. Much of its credit goes to John
Glaudini, who has composed a batch of sprightly, harmonically
adventurous tunes with clever lyrics, and writers James Hindman,
Ray Roderick, and Cheryl Stern, whose satiric and dramatic sketches
oftentimes defy expectation in incredibly satisfying ways.
 |
But enough can't be said about the invention and sincerity of
performers Erin Dickerson, Sandra D. Rivera, Tristan Layne Tapscott,
and Tom Walljasper, or the nuance and generosity of Ann Nieman's
direction. (Or, for that matter, the expert contributions of
on-stage musicians Stephen Hopkins, John Ladson II, and the peerless
Ron May, who looks as though he couldn't possibly be having more
fun.) The music and script are already more than agreeable, but
in the hands of these talents, Are We There Yet? is
downright magical.
A few of the authors' sketch-comedy conceits are amusingly
over-the-top, and when they are, the actors attack their stereotypes
with unmitigated zeal. (One spectacularly heartless routine finds
a quartet of conniving European relatives waiting, none too patiently,
for the family patriarch to die.) Yet even when the show's humor
is at its broadest, the portrayals are peppered with flaky, unpredictable
grace notes that reveal active comic minds at work, and that
make you laugh for being so recognizably, weirdly human.
Engaging in some casual flirtation with his character's wife,
Tapscott yips like a puppy and does a mad little backward hop,
and upon meeting Walljasper's cretinous pre-pre-school administrator,
Dickerson's mom-to-be instinctively wipes off his moist handshake.
(That's not the only thing wiped off in this skit - watch how
discreetly Walljasper handles the breaking of Dickerson's water.)
In addition to ensuring that her two-hour production moves
along at a speedy clip, Nieman does a superlative job of guiding
her cast toward the reality in the characters' nuttiness, so
that the laughs - and there are some big ones here -
resonate with actual feeling. And she's even better with her
handling of Are We There Yet's legitimately touching
vignettes, which, thanks to the actors' alert and inspired performances,
never slide into melancholy or unearned sentiment.
 |
Rivera has a lovely, unforced comedy style - she's great as
a mother making desperate deals with God in exchange for her
son not screwing up his baseball game - and her big-hearted,
beautiful underplaying is especially notable as a birth mother
searching online for her long-lost daughter. Blessed with the
sort of stage presence that's at once electrifying and blissfully
soothing, Dickerson can perform outsize comedy and divinely subtle
emotionalism in practically the same breath, which she does to
splendid effect when one of her characters here endures an initially
questionable, ultimately delightful blind date. Tapscott is wonderfully
funny when attending a daughter's unbearable dance recital or
interrogating a flummoxed prom date, but late in Act II, the
actor also performs a startling, deeply felt monologue as an
elderly man facing the first stages of Alzheimer's, which he
pulls off with exquisite commitment and grace.
Walljasper, meanwhile, has been given his meatiest, most substantial
area role(s) since My Verona Productions' The Pillowman back
in 2006, and it's a thrill seeing this superb actor back in leading-man
form. Whether playing a kindly (though demanding) coach or an
edgy father-of-the-bride or a happily Viagra-fueled widower,
Walljasper invests every character with his knockout combination
of imagination and honesty; roles of such richness and variety
can't come along often enough for Walljasper's fans, but then
again, productions of Are We There Yet's caliber don't
come along often enough, either. Circa '21's latest is an exceptionally
good time at the theatre. During the show's opening road-trip
number, Walljasper's aggrieved dad snarls, "There's no such
thing as fun for the whole family." It turns out he's dead
wrong.
For tickets, call (309) 786-7733 extension
2.
|
|
