NY Review: 'Call Me Waldo'

In "Call Me Waldo," Rob Ackerman's self-proclaimed "outrageous new comedy"—that's the subtitle on the program—the playwright wants to celebrate the beauty of ordinary labor done well and with passion. That's also a common theme running through the oeuvre of the producing company, Working Theater. Unfortunately, Ackerman's shoddy dramaturgical workmanship results in a second-rate product.

The central premise is slight. Lee, an intelligent but underachieving electrician's assistant, channels the spirit of his illustrious and charismatic ancestor, the nonconformist scholar and author Ralph Waldo Emerson, whenever he feels unable to cope. The metamorphosis usually occurs when Lee is intimidated by his gruff, overcritical boss Gus or emotionally challenged by his loving wife, Sarah, a nurse, who wants him to be more assertive. Lee attempts to apply Emerson's philosophy of uncompromising individualism to his workaday problems, which results in ridiculously forced comic situations. Meanwhile, in a predictable subplot, Gus and Cynthia, a doctor who works with Sarah, wind up romantically entwined. This could work as a 10-minute sketch on "Saturday Night Live," where Ackerman worked as prop master for several seasons, but he takes the slender idea and stretches it so thinly that the play feels overextended at 90 intermissionless minutes.

The core gimmick doesn't make sense, and the specifics for it are never explained. In Margarett Perry's sitcom staging, whenever actor Matthew Boston is required to switch from Lee to Emerson, his voice drops a register and he takes on a "classical actor" stance, as if he were impersonating Jon Lovtiz's Master Thespian character. Is Lee possessed? Is he merely quoting and dramatizing? It's totally fuzzy and underdeveloped. In addition, sometimes the characters abruptly shift their motivations from scene to scene with no transitions or connection. For example, early in the play, Cynthia, who studied Emerson in college before taking up medicine, advises Sarah to read the scholar's collected works to better understand Lee's obsession. Not much later, she does a 180-degree turn and demands that Sarah drop all things Emerson. The reasons Ackerman provides are too flimsy to support Cynthia's complete turnaround. He also descends to cheap laughs when sturdy character development is needed. When Sarah asks Cynthia how she knows so much about Emerson, the latter replies, "Wikipedia!" In order to get in an easy website gag, Ackerman has ignored the fact that Cynthia has stated that she was an American studies major.

The four-person cast does its best to add depth to this shallow comedy. Every actor has moments of insight. Boston is effectively moving when conveying Lee's fear of mortality, particularly during a monologue about the near-fatal illness of Lee's daughter. Rita Rehn delivers a strong lesson in listening when her Sarah silently takes in Lee's seeming madness, but she goes overboard too often, acting rather than reacting. Brian Dykstra gives Gus a rough, attractive charm, and Jennifer Dorr White endows Cynthia with a frosty elegance that covers a fun-loving kid just aching to get out. Unfortunately, these high points are fleeting amid the forced hilarity. David L. Arsenault provides an intriguing helter-skelter set and inventive lighting for this disappointing venture.

Presented by the Working Theatre at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex's June Havoc Theatre, 312 W. 36th St., 2nd floor, NYC. Feb. 22–March 11. Tue., 7 p.m.; Wed.–Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 and 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. (No performance Tue., Feb. 28; additional performance Wed., Feb. 29, 2 p.m.) (212) 868-4444 or www.smarttix.com.