Review for The Grunion Gazette
"Men" Makes For Fun Night At Carpenter
What do you get when you combine the "Odd Couple," "Rent" and "Love American Style?"

You get Musical Theatre West's rousing production of "The Thing About Men," based on the film "Men" by Doris Dorrie, and directed and choreographed by Larry Raben.

Tom (Stan Chandler) is an advertising executive married to Lucy (Elizabeth Ward Land). He strays like a feral cat and Lucy boots him out of the house after she lands in the arms of Sebastian (John Bisom), long-haired artist, Starbucks barrista and cad.

Proving the adage that man adults (adulterizes?) because that's what men do while woman adults because the party's over, Tom is at wit's end to re-court Lucy. That everything includes assuming the moniker Milo and becoming Sebastian's roommate, although he keeps his identity a secret.

Along the way, he comes to realize that he's been a self-centered schmuck his whole life.

After a lot of soul searching, and a lot of hilarious episodes of keeping his identity a secret, including dressing like a gorilla and knuckling-scraping the floor with way too much simian verisimilitude, he resolves to help Sebastian get a real man's job, with the long hours, the lack of sleep, the desiccation of a once-rampant libido. The American dream.

As it happens, Sebastian, who now resembles a print ad from the Men's Warehouse Ñ short hair, polished shoes, suit, tie Ñ no longer appeals to Lucy, who liked him better as an articulate Tarzan.

Tom's not looking so bad now. At least he's the predictable commodity. So the new and improved grown-up Tom and Lucy live happily after and the new grown-up Sebastian jumps up a bracket or five in terms of tax and accountability.

The songs are crisp, advance the story, and provide a few walkaway moments: Tom's singing "The Better Man Won," and the Company's rendition of "Downtown Bohemian Slum."

The acting works very well. Land is a saucy Lucy. She's proud, with that potent mix of arrogant/vulnerable and she plays both sides well. She moves like something peeled off of the side of an ancient Egyptian tomb, slinking, often in profile, almost feline.

Chandler's Middle American Stan set him up as dependable and stolid. His transformation from lovesick fool wondering what went wrong to mature grown up worked well.

Bisom plays the Peter Pan male model role very role and then becomes Ñ gasp! Ñ a man.

Chemistry wise, Chandler and Bisom were a perfect Felix and Oscar.

Special mention must be made of Man (Craig A. Meyer) and Woman (Jodie Langel). Part Greek chorus, part mime, part alter ego, not to mention pure hilarity, they shadowed Tom, Lucy and Sebastian, like when Lucy and Harpo Marx mirrored each other, gave the scenes depth and resonance and a comic touch. Not to mention the fact that they caricatured the most salient parts of Tom and Lucy.

But I'm still not convinced that PowerPoint style set backdrops, in which all sorts of graphics and words are projected onto the back wall Ñ agile though they are, clever, deft Ñ aren't just slick. Here, they were: it's like the actors performed in front of a drive in..

4/22/2005

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