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CONNECTICUT CRITICS CIRCLE |
The Scene POP INTO "THE SCENE" AT HARTFORD STAGE BONNIE GOLDBERG Whether you drink tequila or vodka as you munch your Doritos, if you want to mingle with the "in-crowd" and being au currant is at the top of your to-do list, then Theresa Reback's new biting and sharp comedy "The Scene" will be your cup of joy juice. The Hartford Stage will be serving vodka on the rocks until Sunday, May 4 as we eavesdrop on the lives of a trio of New York types, sophisticated and jaded, caught in a high stakes game of fame and fortune and one fresh off the bus newcomer who quickly learns her lines and jumps feet first into the fray. Matthew Arkin is an alternately mellow and frantic Charlie, currently out-of-work and parched, lost in a desert with no acting prospects, when once he flourished in an oasis of paradise. In contrast, his wife Stella, played with class and style by Henny Russell, competently performs her job as a booking agent for guests on a television show, paying all the bills, and waiting anxiously for word about a baby girl from China she hopes to adopt. The couple's good friend Lewis, a calming voice of reason Liam Craig, brings them bags of chips and good advice, trying to conceal how much he cares romantically for Stella. Into their lives leaps the quirky and overly sexed Clea, a vivacious and openly amorous Christy McIntosh, who has abandoned her roots in Ohio to make her mark on the Big Apple and she tempts both men with a Lilith-like seduction, complete with apple. Associate Artistic Director Jeremy B. Cohen directs this brash and brassy, overtly sexual, comedy, with nudity and profanity, as a co-production with New Jersey's George Street Playhouse. For tickets ($23-64), call the Hartford Stage, 50 Church Street, Hartford at 860-527-5151 or online at www.hartfordstage.org. ; Performances are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with matinees Sunday and selected Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 p.m. Watch three old friends struggle to maintain their equilibrium when Clea snakes into their midst on her personal search for money and men, no matter what the terms or the cost. This review originally appeared in the Middletown Press. |