The Cake

C+

After successful productions in L.A. and the Berkshires, Bekah Brunstetter’s (“This Is Us”) comedy with serious overtones has landed in New York at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Stage I. Those expecting a serious look at the legal ramifications of denying a wedding cake to a same sex couple won’t find it here; there is no lawsuit involved. What we get instead is a sympathetic look at a Southern woman whose religious beliefs are out of sync with her loving personality. The bake shop owner, Della, superbly played by Debra Jo Rupp (Becoming Dr. Ruth), is a woman of a certain age in a childless stale marriage who hopes to validate her life by appearing in a televised national bake-off. In baking as in life, Della seeks success by closely adhering to the rules. When Jen (Genevieve Angelson; Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike), the daughter of her late best friend, returns from Brooklyn to plan a hometown wedding, Della is thrilled until she learns that Jen’s intended is a woman, Macy (Marinda Anderson; The Treasurer, Miss You Like Hell) , a journalist with inflexible views on just about any subject. The fact that Macy is African-American doesn’t seem to be a problem. When Della claims to be too busy to bake their wedding cake, Jen is crushed. While Jen may have escaped to Brooklyn, she has not been able to shake deeply ingrained feelings of shame about being a lesbian. In a subplot, Della tries unsuccessfully to rekindle the spark in her marriage with the help of lots of butter cream. Later, when her husband Tim (Dan Daily; Days To Come) finally sees the light, he tries to reciprocate with a heap of mashed potatoes. You will either find these scenes hilarious or gross. The play is interspersed with several droll imaginary interchanges between Della and George (Daily again), the unseen host of the TV series. Will Della be able to overcome her religious strictures to bake the cake? The ending seemed a bit facile. The production is greatly enhanced by an amazing set by John Lee Beatty (Doubt, Proof, Good People) with three revolving sections. The shelves of brightly colored cakes certainly made my mouth water. Tom Broecker’s (Our Mother’s Brief Affair) costumes and Tommy Kurzman’s wigs also make a substantial contribution. Lynne Meadow’s (Linda, Of Good Stock) direction is seamless. The play is entertaining but doesn’t really have much depth. Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

The Treasurer

B-

Playwright Max Posner is a lucky man to have a Playwrights Horizons debut with a production featuring Peter Friedman (Circle Mirror Transformation, The Heidi Chronicles) and Deanna Dunagan (August: Osage County), directed by David Cromer (The Band’s Visit, Our Town). Friedman plays The Son, a middle-aged man of calm demeanor who confesses in the long opening monologue that he expects to go to Hell for not loving his mother Ida. He has good reason not to because she abandoned her family when he was 14. She went on to a second marriage, lived profligately and fancied herself the belle of Albany. When her second husband dies, the party is over and she must adjust to a diminished lifestyle. The Son is tasked by his siblings with the job of managing her finances. She willfully resists his attempts to trim her sails. Whenever the two of them lock horns, we see how hard it is for him to say “no” to her. The play darkens as we realize that she is sinking into dementia. Marinda Anderson (Bella: An American Tall Tale) and Pun Bandhu (Wit, Plenty) play an array of people she interacts with, including a fundraiser for the Albany Philharmonic, a Talbot’s salesperson, a stranger she calls to find out why she keeps remembering a particular phone number, and a bedding store salesperson. Anderson also plays a pregnant woman sitting next to The Son on a plane. There are some very funny bits along the way, some more relevant than others. My favorites were a conference call during which the siblings try to choose an appropriate dog for Ida and a scene, overlong but still hilarious, in which The Son attempts to answer the security questions to log onto his computer. The airplane scene fell flat and the need for a second scene with Ida and a salesperson was questionable. The play takes a turn for the worse near the end that erased some, but not all, of my positive feelings. It is uneven and fragmented and could benefit from further work. Nevertheless, Posner’s writing has a quirky energy that shows promise for the future. The set by Laura Jellinek (Mary Jane, A Life) is problematic. The way it is divided, there are scenes where audience members on a given side of the theater will not see the actor speaking. There is an elaborate unfolding of the set for one short scene that is one of the play’s least interesting. Lucy Mackinnon’s projections before the play opens are wasted because they are shown on a back wall with patterned wallpaper that is partially blocked from the view of much of the audience. David Hyman’s costumes for Ida are wonderful. Director Cromer is only partially successful in pulling it all together. While it doesn’t seem quite ready for prime time, it is an imaginative take on an all too relevant problem and affords the opportunity to see two top-notch actors at work. Running time: one hour 35 minutes; no intermission.

Bella: An American Tall Tale

C+

What are the odds that two shows about 19th-century black women with large derrieres would arrive on Theatre Row within a month of each other? And yet the revival of Suzan-Lori Parks’s Venus at Signature Theatre has just been followed by the New York premiere of Kirsten Childs’s musical at Playwrights Horizons. I skipped Venus, because the prospect of watching an innocent woman being exploited and forced to appear in a freak show sounded too depressing. Although Childs’s work also includes a segment when the title character becomes a circus attraction, the prevailing spirit is far from depressing. Bella (Ashley D. Kelley) is a naive girl from Tupelo, Mississippi with a rich fantasy life who is forced to leave town after injuring a rich white man who was trying to rape her. She heads by train toward New Mexico, where her boyfriend Aloysius (Britton Smith) is a Buffalo Soldier. On the train she is looked after by a protective porter (Brandon Gill). After a fanciful adventure I will not describe, she ends up as a circus attraction who becomes a big star in Europe but, a la Josephine Baker, was scorned when she returned to America. There are many other characters: Ida Lou (Marinda Anderson, a black widow heading to Kansas where she thinks life will be safer; Miss Cabbagestalk (Kenita R. Miller), an old maid on her way to likely servitude as the mail-order bride of a widower with six children; a kindly couple, an inept gang of robbers, Bella’s mother (Miller again) and Aunt Dinah (Anderson again) and the grandmother (Natasha Yvette Williams) who is succumbing to dementia. Finally, there is the Spirit of the Booty (Williams again), whom you must see to believe. The cast of twelve are all talented, with Kelley and Miller the standouts. The production is lavish: Clint Ramos’s set has a Western-themed proscenium with a red velvet curtain. a painted scrim, a stage within a stage that moves back and forth and a revolving platform. [Was there a sale on stage turntables this spring? This is the fifth play I have seen recently with a revolving stage.] Dede M. Ayite’s costumes are inspired. Camille A. Brown’s lively choreography adds a lot to the production. Robert O'Hara (Bootycandy) directed. Childs’s music mixes many styles and occasionally seems derivative: there is a song near the end that sounds very similar to the disco anthem “I Will Survive.” A hilarious number in the second act called “White People Tonight” got a big reaction. It all goes down easy, but seems muddled and overstuffed. It has already shed 20 minutes in previews but could profitably lose a few more, preferably in the first act. Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes including intermission.

A Life *** B+

Adam Bock’s bold new play at Playwrights Horizons defied my expectations. Even the scenic design turned out to be surprising. The problem for a reviewer is that it is difficult to say much about the production without spoiling the experience. David Hyde Pierce plays Nate Martin, a middle-aged gay man living in Manhattan. The latest in a long series of lovers has left him a month before the play begins. In the past, Nate has turned to astrology for guidance. His supportive best friend Curtis (Brad Heberlee) and he enjoy ogling hot men in Central Park. We also meet Nate’s sister Lori (Lynne McCollough) and two other women, Jocelyn (Marinda Anderson) and Allison (Nedra McClyde). About halfway through the play, events take a most unexpected turn. There is a long scene virtually without dialogue that tests the audience’s mettle. The remainder of the play follows the likely consequences of that scene. It is bracing in its conception, but likely to be disturbing for single people living alone in New York. Pierce does well in a challenging role (even though he seemed a bit old for the part). Heberlee is quite strong and the three women are all fine. Laura Jellinek finds an ingenious solution to presenting three different locations. Jessica Pabst costumed each character suitably. Director Anne Kauffman has wisely chosen to let the play breathe without rushing through difficult moments. Even though I found it unnerving, I was glad to experience it. Running time: 80 minutes, no intermission.