EMA Review: Boy Gets Girl ** Still Hungry

Flawed Boy Gets (Flawed) Girl

By Paul Atreides

Author, Playwright, and Theatre Critic at EatMoreArtVegas.compaul-atreides.com

Good news! There’s a new theatre company in town!

Sin City Players is presenting their second production (I’m not sure how we at EMAV missed Nights at the Algonquin Round Table).  Now playing in the Fischer Black Box at Las Vegas Little Theatre (LVLT), Boy Gets Girl, by Rebecca Gilman, comes off more like a made-for-television movie despite 2001 Outer Critics Circle and 2002 Olivier awards nominations.

The play centers around Theresa Bedell (Noemi Vasquez), a writer for a New York literary magazine, who goes on a blind date with, and is ultimately stalked by, Tony Ross (Jared Linford). She is surrounded by co-workers, Howard (Alan Roberts) and Mercer (Dusty Shaffer), who try to help. The disappointment comes from Gilman interrupting her own message with unnecessary scenes and convoluted themes. The result is that the overall effect becomes preachy, with careless plotting, and ends with a whimper.

Director Rhonda Goldstein enables those flaws. When newly hired assistant Harriet (Charlotte Nichols) repeatedly plops down in Theresa’s office after having been chastised, it comes across as neither actor nor director knew where or how to play out the scene. When Theresa needs to call the police a third time, she still rifles through a card index to find the phone number, even though you would expect her to have it on speed dial. Roberts, Shaffer, and Vasquez take turns circling one another when no movement would increase the tension.

Linford turns in a nice performance, moving from awkward first date to disappointed “let's be friends” to angry stalker. He’s all in, physically and vocally, and navigates the small space with confidence.

While Vasquez starts out well, when the harassment begins, she goes from zero to sixty in two seconds. The subtlety isn’t there with needed transitions. Many times, her rapid speech patterns and enunciation get so muddled that the dialogue is lost.

Experienced cast members Teresaa Fullerton, who always turns in good performances, delivers Detective Beck with calming certainty, and Alan Roberts, who has brought some of the most detailed, three-dimensional, and nuanced characters to the annual Fringe Festival, does what he can despite not having much to work with. The standout is Michael Connoly. He plays Les Kennkat, an old, broken-down film director with a cult following, specifically written to serve up comic relief, and does it very well.

The script is meant for a much larger stage. Kudos go to the uncredited set designer who managed to squeeze six locations into such a small space, and Ernest Medina for lighting them all with precise separation.

Flaws and all, if you’ve read my series of articles in Devoid Magazine over the past year, you’ll understand why I still urge you to go and support this new effort.

When:  8 p.m. Fridays – Saturdays through February 28; 2 p.m. Sunday, March 1

Where: LVLT’s Fischer Black Box, 3920 Schiff Drive

Tickets: $15 - $25 702- 362-7996 (www.lvlt.org)

Grade:  ** Still Hungry

Producer: Sin City Players; Producers: Jack Stroud, Shakien R. Smith (Gabe); Director: Rhonda Goldstein; Scenic Design: Uncredited; Lighting Design: Ernest Medina; Sound Design: Alan Roberts; Costume Design: Uncredited; Stage Manager: Liam Ramos