Photo Source: Nancy Savan
Miss Edwards (Maria Gobetti) is in the last hour of the last day of her 36-year teaching career when she unravels after catching football superstar Joe (Kanin Guntzelman) passing a profanity-laced note to his girlfriend (Jessica McKee) during their final. Perhaps if Joe hadn't added a doodle of Edwards wielding a pitchfork, or perhaps if he hadn't referred to her as an "a-hole of a c--t," she might have gone home to put her feet up and watch PBS, as Joe so graciously advises she try. Never someone to stop nurturing, however, even if it means holding her erring student hostage in her classroom, she's pleased when Joe suggests she's messing with his destiny. "Which is why I got into teaching," she admits pleasantly, proceeding to break Joe's note down on the blackboard for grammatical problems, then forcing him to compose a new note complete with a topic sentence followed by three supporting sentences and eliminating the opening passage about his recent bowel movement—unless his "primo dump" was meant to be the focus of his masterwork.
Under Dan Guntzelman's briskly effective direction, Levin's hilariously irreverent dialogue spins along just as briskly, bringing many laughs along the way while introducing characters who prove endearing despite their outrageous behavior. Kanin Guntzelman is perfect as the charmingly clueless jock, as is McKee as his syrupy-sexy cheerleader, but Gobetti keeps all the balls in the air with a tour-de-force, patiently acerbic performance somehow managing to evoke Eve Arden starring in a Wes Craven remake of "Our Miss Brooks." In less-skilled hands, Miss Edwards would still be scary, but as assayed by such a traveled yet subtle veteran comedian, one wants to run to the market and buy Gobetti a nice shiny apple.
Presented by and at the Victory Theatre Center, 3326 W. Victory Blvd., Burbank. June 3–July 10. Fri.–Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 4 p.m. (818) 841-5421.