Two's a Crowd

C

If you are seeking light summer entertainment and aren’t too fussy, you might enjoy this fluffy, dated comedy with music starring longtime comedian Rita Rudner, now at 59E59 Theater A. The intermittently funny book is by Rudner and her husband Martin Bergman, who also directed, and the serviceable music and rather leaden lyrics are by Jason Feddy, who also serves as singer and guitarist. Rudner plays Wendy, a 60-ish wedding planner from Cleveland who has come to Vegas to distract herself from her husband’s recent infidelities. Robert Yacko plays Tom, a recently widowed contractor, also from Cleveland, who is in Vegas to forget his sorrows by playing in a poker tournament. A computer glitch puts them in the same room in a completely booked hotel. They instantly dislike each other but, of course, get past their first impressions. We also meet Louise, the assistant manager, and Lili, the chambermaid, both played to the hilt by Kelly Holden Bashar. Brian Lohmann plays a few roles, including Wendy’s husband Gus. The hoary plot has few surprises. There are two types of songs, those sung by the actors which, during the first act, stop the action and contribute little, and short songs sung by Feddy between scenes. As of intermission, I would have said that the show would have been better off without music, but that changed during the second act when the songs were much more artfully integrated into the action. Lohmann, as Gus, gets a lively number that was the evening’s musical highlight. The dialogue has many snappy lines, as one would expect from Rudner. On the more serious side, there are some observations about the difficulty of being a woman over 60 today and even a few detours into the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius. The shamelessly tasteless final song provides an appropriate ending for an uneven evening that is not quite ready for New York. Nevertheless, it was fun to see Rudner, who is looking very good indeed. I think I would have enjoyed an hour of her stand-up more than this show.

Running time: one hour 50 minutes including intermission.

Question: Is there any theater in New York that attracts a more homogeneous audience than 59E59 Theaters? I could count the number of people too young for Medicare on one hand. In my many visits there, I don’t think I have ever seen a person of color.