Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center
November 22, 2009
Have you ever had a date that you couldn’t wait to tell your friend about. Whether it was great or a complete disaster, you have to tell them something. In the fast paced, need our information now type of society, one could go on many dates, blog about it and have a vast following waiting patiently to offer their two cents. This wasn’t a Perez Hilton type event, but 130 people listening to someone talk about a handful of dates, and mob fronts, for ninety minutes wasn’t such a bad date to me.
‘Bad Dates’ is a one woman comedy-drama written by Theresa Rebeck. The story centers around a restaurant running, single mother who has decided to give dating another chance. The show is currently being produced by the Stageworks Theatre Company at the intimate Shimberg Playhouse. Set in a studio apartment in Manhattan, we listen to Haley Walker lament of her trials and tribulations not only as her audience, but her confidants.
‘Bad Dates’ is a wonderfully scripted monologue involving what happens before and after a series of bad encounters, not just possible suitors. We begin meeting Haley as a mid-to-late thirties single mother trying on different shoes and dresses in preparation for a date. We learn Haley has accumulated around six hundred pairs of designer shoes and can’t fit into many of them. Haley comes and goes from dates detailing what the men wore, what they talked about and even some sexual orientations. Haley has also brought herself into the dirty underbelly of organized crime as she rose from lowly server to restaurant manager of a laundering front. We ride Haley’s roller coaster of emotion for ninety minutes as she sings from the mountain top after a great date and drinks in low places after her string of bad ones. Haley receives a phone call one night that changes everything she thinks about herself, her daughter, and even someone she never thought twice about.
Sometimes when an actor is given the reigns of a big time role, say Hamlet, the expectations are through the roof. The production can rise or fall depending on the caliber of the portrayal. Though, every now and again, an amazing actor is given the opportunity to put an entire show on their back and let it rise and fall with them, literally. Jessica Rothert’s performance was a phenomenal journey of eternal optimism and innocuous desperation at the same time. Speaking for nearly ninety minutes straight, Rothert as able to create characters such as the daughter Vera, her brother BJ, Eileen, Emily, “Bug Guy”, “Gay Law Professor” and mob boss, all with only her voice and clever playwriting.
Rothert’s Haley was so engaging of the audience, there were times when she would ask simple rhetorical questions, and I had to stop myself from answering. Bravo.
With a simple bedroom setting, a litany of designer shoes, dresser and closet, Stageworks’ fantastic use of minimalism produces maximum effect. I found Jessica Rothert’s performance extremely engaging, even being on stage by herself. This show is primed to be a surprise hit here in Tampa. With shows like In the Heights, Wicked, and Wonderland at the Straz Center, audiences looking for an intimate production they can relate to up close and personal, look no further.
‘Bad Dates’ is currently playing through December 6th at the Shimberg Playhouse at the David A. Straz Center for Performing Arts. This show had it’s first two performances sold out before they opened. By the time this show reaches it’s final week tickets will surely be hard to come by.
Tickets start at $24.50 and can be purchased by clicking here or calling the Straz Center at 813.229.STAR.
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Music of the Post - anberlin
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