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Regional Reviews: Minneapolis/St. Paul Stage Kiss Also see Arty's review of Play It Again, Sam
Under Casey Stangl's direction, there is ample attention to the bountiful laughs in Ruhl's script, but serious insights into the line between reality and pretend are less apparent, as a number of contrivances in the plot make the lives of the actors hard to take seriously. This is not a bad thing. A well-crafted comedy confection is always welcome. Adding whipped cream to this sundae of a comedy is Stacia Rice's star performance, by turns smart, sexy, and lost at sea. An actress, given no name other than She, is making a return to the stage after 10 years. In a twist of fate, She is cast as the lead opposite the similarly named He. The two of them had an intense relationship going back to their youth that ended badly twenty years before, and they had not been together since. She is now married, with a 15-year-old daughter; He has had a string of relationships, his current one being a kindergarten teacher who, He states, is too nice for it to last. After an initial round of icy recriminations, their old longings for one another resurface, no doubt egged on by the frequent and passionate kisses their roles in the play require. The play is a crazily over the top tearjerker called The Last Kiss and was a flop in 1932, but director Adrian Schwalbach believes that with the right touch the audience in New Haven, where the play is being mounted, will lap it up. The Last Kiss has a plot that eerily mirrors the situation She and He find themselves in, two former lovers whose time together ended badly, brought back together. The interplay between them on and off stage is used well to stir confusion about which feelings are real and which are just the actors craft. After the play's run, She and He revisit their former lives together in his shabby New York City apartment. Her husband, Harry—played by the same actor who was her husband in The Last Kiss—her daughter, Angela—played by the same actress who played her daughter Millie in The Last Kiss—and his girlfriend, the kindergarten teacher, all pounce in to stir up the works. Adrian Schwalbach shows up offering He and She parts in a play he has written (every bit as bad as The Last Kiss) to be mounted by an obscure theater in Detroit. They are not impressed, but need the work. This second play within a play, with He as an IRA agent with an Irish brogue and She as a hooker with a nasal Brooklyn accent, allows them to bring their relationship full circle. Stacia Rice has honed terrific comic chops of the self-deprecating, unmoored variety. She tries valiantly to make something of the impossible roles in her two plays, demonstrating tools an actor uses to try to spin substance out of a void. She can take charge in the presence of her man-child ex-lover, but be at a loss dealing with her own daughter. Other pleasures in Stage Kiss aside—and there are many—watching Stacia Rice at work and play is a great show in itself. Todd Gearhart, while not quite at Ms. Rice's level, does fine work as the ex, mooning over their long-lost love, while clearly unable to sustain a mature relationship. He does well playing the preening peacock, with a hollow frame under the plumage. As the husband, Michael Booth is suitably valorous in standing patiently by his wife, with tolerance for her leap into the arms of her old love—both in Stage Kiss and the play within—that strains credibility. Charles Hubbell is delightful as the director who fancies himself a hipster— beret in place, a wisp of facial hair—and is clueless as to how to make stage business that resembles real life. Grant Fletcher Prewitt plays Kevin, the director's acting protégé who makes up in enthusiasm what he lacks in talent. Prewitt draws numerous laughs out of this sad sack role. Cat Brindisi brings marvelous positive energy to the role of Laurie, the bamboozled kindergarten teacher, and channels Vera Charles as the so, so sophisticated friend of the heroine in The Last Kiss. Rebecca Hurd is a fireball of spite and need as the actress' teenage daughter Angela, offering wisdom that is eluding the adults, though too childish to believe as the similarly aged daughter in The Last Kiss. Aside from the story, the laughs and performances, Stage Kiss provides a marvelous window into a show's physical development. From the first rehearsal of The Last Kiss, spiking the stage to indicate where furniture will go to the arrival of minimal furniture needed for rehearsal, the cast wearing bits of costumes to help establish their character, to the final production with a gorgeous penthouse set and elaborate costumes. Ms. Rice's hooker costume in the act two play is a hilarious caricature of tarted-up street walkers (Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman was a J.Crew model by comparison) topped by Kevin's costume as a grossly miscast pimp, down to the zebra patterned shoes. Kudos to set designer Todd Rosenthal and costume designer Devon Painter. There are also laughs as the contribution of sound designers is illustrated, courtesy of sound designer C. Andrew Mayer. Demonstrations of the way directors or fight choreographers map out moments of intense physicality—first a kiss, later the IRA agent violently shaking the hooker—treat body parts, whether lips, shoulders or hair, as so many stage props. One can only hope that the toll on Rice's neck and shoulders in that shaking scene is less real than it looks to us—thanks to Annie Enneking's fight choreography. Ruhl's script throws in giddy moments of stage business that have nothing to do with the story, such as when four lovers—She, He, the husband and the kindergarten teacher—seize upon a cue and break out into "Some Enchanted Evening." A fun moment, but moments like this are reasons the play is far more successful as a comedy than as a deeper meditation on the nature of real and unreal. Regardless, the laughs are abundant, the production sumptuous, and the performances, Ms. Rice in particular, are excellent. While it may not lead to deeper love, this Stage Kiss is super entertainment in its own right. Stage Kiss, continues at the Guthrie Theater's McGuire Proscenium Stage through August 30, 2015. 618 South 2nd Street, Minneapolis, MN, 55115. Tickets from $34.00 - $65.00. For tickets call 612-377-2224 or go to GuthrieTheater.org. Rush seats available 30 minutes before performance, $20.00. Writer: Sarah Ruhl; Director: Casey Stangl; Set Design: Todd Rosenthal; Costume Design: Devon Painter; Lighting Design: Tom Mays; Sound Design: C. Andrew Mayer; Dramaturg: Carla Steen; Voice and Dialect Coach: D'Arcy Smith; Fight Choreographer: Annie Enneking; Vocal Music Supervisor: Raymond Berg; Stage Manager: Jason Clusman; Assistant Stage Manager: Michele Hossle; Assistant Director: Michael Sheeks; Casting Consultants: McCorkle Casting, LTD; Design Assistants: Alice Friedrickson (costumes), Ryan Connealy (lighting), and Reid Rejsa (sound associate); Interns: Emily Kolb (directing) and Morgan Beach (stage management). Cast: Michael Booth (Husband/Harrison), Cat Brindisi (Millicent/Laurie), Todd Gearhart (He), Charles Hubbell (a director), Rebecca Hurd (Millie/Maid/Angela), Grant Fletcher Prewitt (Kevin), Stacia Rice (She)
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