The team-written play The Jack Monty Show (1999) took us onstage and backstage at a fictional 1960s TV variety show. Director/writer Stefan Marks' new comedy attempts something similar about contemporary sitcoms. To add to the déjà vu, both plays are amusing yet thematically diffuse.
Press materials for Sitcom promise "comedy and drama," but the show's fleeting moments of poignancy are jarring, what with its predominant broadly comic tone. When Marks takes the subject less seriously, he pulls off some witty barbs about vanity, folly, and self-delusion in the TV industry. There are additional lost opportunities as the sitcom characters and studio actors offer scant reflection upon one another. And an unnecessary Pirandello-esque gimmick that briefly surfaces in the second act adds to the helter-skelter quality. Marks' fast-paced and sometimes engaging piece would be far more satisfying if the disparate pieces dovetailed into a cohesive vision.
A spirited cast provides compensation. Especially funny is Max Koch as Paul, a hammy actor hoping his fourth sitcom is the one that finally clicks. He's also effective in his TV role as a doltish couch potato. Chad Siebert likewise pulls off a double slam-dunk: He's hilarious as the pea-brained model-turned-actor who refers to a Shakespearean classic as "A Midnight's Summer Dream." Siebert and Koch achieve a smooth chemistry as the two sitcom roomies who come to blows over two girls living next door. Amy Motta and Leigh Serling score solid laughs as the distaff half of these romantic mix-ups. Off-camera, Motta evokes wry humor as the appearance-obsessed actress, and Serling amuses as the less glamorous second-banana type. Jason Huber deftly plays a doofus actor cast as a bellhop, though his standup monologue about L.A. theatre belongs in a different play.
Virtually every actor gets a monologue—some funny and others mildly heartrending. At least two have little to do with the overall theme: the musing of the stage manager (Katie Maringer) on her guilt at balancing motherhood and career, and the superfluous subplot about the pregnant wife of the self-important producer (Ralph Diner). Diner scores huge laughs, however, when he pompously asserts his questionable wisdom (to wit: Frequent use of the word "ass" will garner maximum laughs). Mark Gowers has amusing moments as the yes-man director, as do Michael Porter as the beleaguered writer and Hilary Hesse as a zany sitcom psychic.
Mark Svastics' bare-bones set is serviceable at best, and his darkish lighting seems more appropriate for a somber drama. Stephen Epstein's sound effects and video segments are well executed. A telling point raised by one character ("Who wants to go to the theatre to see a sitcom?") proves particularly apt. Less sitcom and more sustained satire would indeed make this a more palatable evening.
"Sitcom, the Play," presented by B.F.D. Studios at the Stella Adler Theatre, 6773 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Thurs.-Sat. 8 p.m. Sept. 20-Oct. 27. $13. (888) 520-2470.