REVIEW on the "THEATER DISTRICT" ----------------------------- ENTERTAINMENT TODAY 6/25/04 by Travis Michael Holder A family starts the day in the usual way as the teenage son grumbles his way through breakfast before school and his father, Kenny, sits on the bed clipping his toenails. His mate prepares for the rigors of a day running a trendy little restaurant on East 46th Street in New York's bustling "Theater District", while patiently identifying the location of all the things Kenny cannot find around the house and fielding a call from Kenny's ex-wife saying her current husband is throwing a 40th birthday party for her on Halloween night and they should come as something. "You go as Wisdom and I'll go as Mirth" is suggested. Just an ordinary urban family trying to get through another day? Ordinary except for the fact that Kenny's husband is a guy named George and the teenager's best friend Theo just came out of the closet from the podium at a high school assembly. Richard Kramer's award-winning "Theater District", now making its west coast debut at the equally award-winning Black Dahlia, is a witty and winning comedy with a heart as big as Manhattan itself. Kramer, writer and executive producer of such provocative television fare as "thirtysomething", "My So-Called Life" and "Tales of the City", has created a charming nuclear family, though not without its problems. Kenny (Jeff Sugarman) and his newly moved-in son Wesley (Josh Breslow) struggle with getting to know each other as father and son, while George (NYPD Blue's Bill Brochtrup) has become closer to the boy than Kenny, which worries ex-wife Lola (Suzanne Ford), try as she will to be a politically correct and open-minded parent. "Theater District" is one of the best plays of the year in LA, made better by the remarkably unadorned and always-inventive staging of the Dahlia's artistic director Matt Shakman, and by an extraordinarily gifted ensemble cast. Brochtrup is theatrical ambrosia as George, a role that seems to share the exact sense of humor and comic timing as the actor himself - not to mention that Manhattan-sized heart. To say this is a role Brochtrup was meant to play is an understatement. Sugarman is a solid and subtle Kenny, as are Ford as the confused ex and Allan Kolman as her quirky but adoring husband. Isaac Laskin is also sweetly memorable as Wesley's curious best buddy Theo and Lenny Von Dohlen, doing double duty as George's maitre de Niko and an ex-trick orderly at a hospital who recognizes George from a long ago pickup on the steps of St. Patrick's, finds some wonderful moments in this script I myself never saw when I auditioned. I hate to see shows I read for featuring a performance I know I could have done better but, in this case, the work of Von Dohlen could not possibly be improved upon. And finally as Wesley, Breslow is heartbreaking and rivetingly sincere. It is one of those exquisitely fresh and delicately gossamer performances by a young person that gives one faith in the outlook for theatre, well placed in the hands of talented kids such as this one. Let's hope for the future of the artform he doesn't get smart and go to law school. Still the real star of Theater District is Kramer's urgently human script, which is intelligent, hilariously contemporary, and agonizingly bittersweet. Accused in print several times now for writing a play which could be compared to his work for television, I cannot help but wonder, if no one knew the man's TV history, if this would even be suggested. This is a brilliant, perfectly structured play and there isn't a moment where a commercial interruption from Bud Lite or Pampers would fit in. Don't buy the comparison; there is none. For tickets, call (866) 468-3399. ----------------------------- STAGE SPOT: LENNY VON DOHLEN "Backstage West," June 17, 2004 (BY: Les Spindle) Lenny Von Dohlen never gave up stage acting - he just got caught up in TV and film successes. "During the 1980s, I was doing a lot of plays in New York - a struggling actor subsisting on peanut butter," he quips. "Then I discovered an actor could actually make money in TV and film." He says he has rediscovered the joy of performing onstage - tackling two supporting roles in the current West Coast premiere of Richard Kramer's poignant comedy, Theater District. Raised in Texas, Von Dohlen worked hard to get rid of his regional twang, only to summon it up again for his first major career break as a country & western band leader in the 1983 Oscar-winning film Tender Mercies. In Theater District, he displays his facility for dialects by playing a flamboyant French maitre d'. He parlays this comic role into a choice cameo, bringing something that could be interpreted as over-the-top camp down to earth, as he captures this flippant guy's compassionate side. In his second role, he aces an amusing scene as a hospital orderly who exhibits more than casual interest in a man from his past (Bill Brochtrup), who rushes into the hospital seeking information about an emergency-room patient. Von Dohlen has worked with Kramer in TV projects that include the Emmy-winning Kent State and thirtysomething. They recently ran into each other at a Trader Joe's, and Kramer instantly offered him the maitre d' role in the play. The decision to cast him in both roles came later. Adhering to the adage that there are no small parts, only small actors, Von Dohlen speaks of the importance of always listening carefully to the play while onstage: "I love working with the dedicated people at this theatre. They are pursuing this for truth and beauty, not just as a springboard to the next job. Before I decided to be an actor, I wanted to be a jockey, but then I realized I wanted to be more than a Texan cowboy." Tender mercies, indeed; this chameleon-like actor's dreams have come true, and then some. ----------------------------- Thank you very much, Jennifer, for your kind help on this information. For more info and review, visit the theater site! BACK