Reply 'See this' to all who e-mail
Last Updated: 12:19 PM, December 15, 2010
Posted: 10:38 PM, December 14, 2010
"You've Got Hate Mail" is the perfect bedroom farce for an era in which there's more action online than in actual bedrooms.
Composed entirely of e-mails and text messages riotously enacted by a five-person ensemble, it may encourage you to keep your BlackBerry under lock and key. At least if you have anything to hide.
Hapless Richard (Billy Van Zandt, one of the playwrights), is cheating on wife Stephanie (co-playwright Jane Milmore) with sexy co-worker Wanda (Fran Solgan). After Richard accidentally sends his wife a self-incriminating e-mail, he frantically tries to cover it up. But his wife's best friend, Peg (Bonnie Deroski), long aware of Richard's indiscretions, sets her straight.
Watching the action gleefully is Richard's leering co-worker/best friend, George (Glenn Jones), whose chief online activity consists of sending out fake nude photos of Hillary Clinton.
Richard sheepishly agrees to couples therapy, a seething Wanda plots her revenge, and George and Peg discover a mutual attraction as the plot becomes ever more farcically complicated.
Anyone who's ever hit "reply all" by mistake will find much to relate to. Playwrights Van Zandt and Milmore wrest much comic mileage from the endless gaffes of electronic communication, such as George's endless e-mail malapropisms ("HMOG," he writes when shocked) and a lengthy riff involving the phrase "I can't tell you" that's like a 21st-century "Who's on First?" routine.
The comic momentum -- there's even a chase scene! -- never flags, even though all of the dialogue is spoken by performers seated in front of computers.
Expertly directed by Gary Shaffer, the piece is enlivened by some terrific performances, especially Van Zandt's sleazy, Jon Lovitz-like philanderer and Jones' wacky, electronically clueless cohort. Look for this limited-run show to return in March.
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