One Slight Hitch
American Stage Theatre Company, 163 Third St. N., St Petersburg,
Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, Sundays,
3 p.m. through Aug. 2. $29-$49. 727-823-7529. americanstage.org.
If you’re a fan of comedian Lewis Black, I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed by his comedy One Slight Hitch, currently playing at American Stage. This wedding-day farce is so generic, it could have been written by any of a hundred playwrights anytime in the last 50 years (minus a detail or so).
And what’s at stake in the play — which of two equally unimpressive men a bride-to-be will finally choose — is so far from compelling, most theatergoers won’t even bother to make a choice in the matter. Fortunately, Black's talent with one-liners and unexpected quips raises some smiles and even generates the occasional laugh. And the actors in the production, led by the formidable Brian Webb Russell, do their passionate best to keep us focused. But you can find more to chew on in most TV sitcoms.
The story revolves around Courtney (Jennifer Christa Palmer), who’s only hours from marrying Harper (the wonderfully eccentric Brian Shea) when the curtain rises. But Jennifer’s father Doc (Russell) is unhappily startled by the appearance of Ryan (nicely silly Jordan Foote), his daughter’s former lover. Doc tries to hide Ryan away, but with the demands of other family members like his hair-curler-wearing wife Delia (Karel K. Wright) and adolescent daughter P.B. (the utterly charming Regan Moore), it becomes harder and harder to keep Ryan from disrupting the nuptials.
When Ryan loses most of his clothes and Courtney’s alcoholic other sister Melanie (Jonelle Marie Meyer) takes a predatory interest in the day’s uninvited guest, lots of mischief of a not-unfamiliar type ensues. There are the carefully timed entrances and exits we expect of any farce, more mishaps to add pressure to the already overburdened characters, and a few moments of serious soul-searching lest we think the playwright a mere cynic.
Hitch supposedly takes place in 1981, but the plot could just as well take place in 1961 or today. There are several references to the writerly life — Courtney has supposedly been published in the New Yorker, and Ryan claims to be penning an On The Road for our time. Harper, we learn, is studying to become a clinical psychologist (a detail that leads to one of the show’s biggest laughs), and there’s some comedy in the degree to which Doc is dominated by Delia. But ingratiating as Moore is, P.B. never seems to have an essential role in the play, and Melanie usually comes across as equally superfluous. Director Gavin Hawk does a fine job of moving the pieces around in this quick game of checkers, and Greg Bierce’s upscale living room is brightly attractive. Trish Kelly’s excellent costumes include Courtney’s lovely bridal dress and P.B.’s Madonna-like layered outfit. Hawk’s sound design is often more affecting than the play.
Expect no rants, no curmudgeonly insights, no irascible indignation at the world and its follies. This is an old-fashioned farce of a too-comfortable kind.
And that, I’m sorry to say, is the most surprising thing about it.
This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2015.