Reviewed by Will Stackman
Wishing that former pop icons still had real resonance doesn't make it so. Acting as if they did might, for a moment or so. This revival of Christopher Durang's soi-disant cult comedy, "Laughing Wild" is the second show presented by the Huntington Theatre Co. to coincide with Pride Month. It hasn't aged as well as William Finn's "Falsettos", though both are somewhat distant. "Laughing Wild", which takes its title from an obscure line from Beckett's "Happy Days" quoting Thomas Gray, is further hampered by '80s pop culture references, giving the show a touch of Trivial Pursuit. But enough people seem to be ready to get the joke to make the script one of his most produced. Or it might be its length, minimal technical requirements and two-person cast.
As an added attraction, this Huntington Theatre Company production features the author as The Man, whose monologue, the second in the first half of the show, is entitled "Seeking Wild." This exploration of New Age pretension, culminating with a description of the Harmonic Convergence celebration in Central Park, almost works. Pretending to read from note cards, Durang plays it in a genial low key which would be more effective in a more intimate space. Unfortunately, the new Wimberley proscenium stage was designed to appear as large as possible and simulate production conditions at B.U.'s renovated turn of the century theatre on Huntington Ave. But one starts looking forward to how this more normal, merely neurotic, character relates to the madwoman Debra Monk portrays in her opening monologue which has the show's title. While each has a past, how her obvious mental disturbance relates to his general anxiety, should be interesting. It isn't. The two have met, before the action begins, when she knocked him on the head in the grocery store because he's taking too long choosing canned tuna fish. Several imagined versions of this incident open the second half, entitled "Dreaming Wild". These culminate in gunfire, but the action then switches to an even more nightmarish scenario, where Monk takes on the role of Sally Jesse Raph_el and Durang becomes her interviewee, a statue of the Infant of Prague. The subject turns to HIV-AIDS, much more explicitly than in "Falsettos", attacking the Roman Church's stand on the subject --circa the late '80s. While its stance hasn't changed that much, the focus of concerns with that institution in the beginning of the third millennium, particularly in Boston, make Durang's rant rather puny. After that sketch, we're back in Central Park at the Harmonic Convergence rally, where The Man's attempts at centering his breathing seem a shallow solution to The Woman's existential anguish. "Laughing Wild" is a poor substitute to a possible take on NYC anxiety post-9/11/.
This script has been praised as invoking how hard life is "in the world and the city," making the mistake of assuming that New York City is the world. Both these people might be happier if given the simple prescription, "Get Out Of New York!"--or at least Manhattan. There might be more of a play if it were clear why they could not. Durang writes excellent bits for actors, but his freewheeling unfocussed satire in itself seems dated, except for the highschool favorite, "The Actor's Nightmare" or his longer pastiche, "A History of the American Film." Both are overly referential to the Industry--aka Show Business--but manage, given their source material, to keep more ideas about life in play. "Laughing Wild" takes its central image, a mad woman "laughing wild in deepest woe," and repeat it hoping that understanding may set in. Director Nicholas Martin doesn't seem to have been able to take the script beyond this limitation, though Emmy-winner Monk given a more detailed character to work with probably could.
Monk indeed handles the space in the new Wimberley Theatre with facility, but the setting by Jon Savage seems only slightly more elaborate than those whipped up for the recent Boston Theatre Marathon. The Infant of Prague costume by Jeff Mahshie is silly and accurate, but both principals appear to have dressed from their closets, though Durang has shaved for this production, which makes his headshots from the '90s rather misleading. Charles Foster's lighting has the glare of a typical road-show. Perhaps if this production had even the minimal sense of the City seen in "Falsettos", and somehow reflected the mental states being explored, the evening would seem less like two hardworking actors putting on a show. Monk is clearly the more powerful performer, while Durang seems to hope his words will speak for themselves. But more of the laughter, often inappropriate, comes from the audience's desire to be entertained than the dated script, whose evolution from a monologue is at best incomplete.