REVIEW: GEORGE STREET PLAYHOUSE'S BAD DATES IS THE PERFECT WAY TO GET BACK TO THE THEATER—WITHOUT LEAVING HOME
By Ruth Ross
With George Street Playhouse’s Conscience the last show I reviewed, on Sunday, March 15, just before the pandemic quarantine began, it’s rather fitting that the first play I review as vaccinations get underway is Bad Dates, George Street Playhouse’s first offering of the 2021 season—only this time, it’s a virtual performance, not one onstage in the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center!
This one-act, one-woman comedy by the most
Broadway-produced female playwright of our time, Theresa Rebeck (Art,
Seminar, Mauritius), takes us on a 90-minute rollercoaster ride through dating
world of 40-something divorcee Hayley Walker, who regales us with details of
her pathetic social life as she dresses for and returns from a series of bad
dates.
Talking nonstop as she changes a myriad of outfits and tries
on shoes (her bedroom is crammed with shoeboxes and discarded high heels),
Hayley reveals her impulsive, quick to judge personality, along with deep
insecurity about who she really is. Is she 13-year-old Vera’s mother, who’s now
ready to date? A “restaurant idiot savant” who excels at running a Romanian
restaurant when her boss goes to jail for money laundering? A staid matron in a
dress with a mid-calf skirt or a femme fatale in a red one-shoulder slinky number?
And what’s up with that shoebox full of cash?
Andréa Burns’ Hayley is a Texas firecracker, talking
nonstop and bouncing from bedroom to bathroom to closet and down the hall to
ask advice of her teenage daughter as she anxiously prepares to meet several
different men—all of whom turn out to be as awkward at facing the middle-aged
social scene as she. One is a Buddhist weirdo who talks to bugs; another is a “snotty,
mean” Columbia Law professor who won’t even explain what kind of law he teaches
because he considers her too stupid to understand; and still another reveals TMI
about his cholesterol and irritable colon!
Of course, none of these men ever appear onstage; all we
get is Hayley’s accounts of what happened. But what saves this rather slight
and often repetitive comedy is the growth of Hayley’s character as she endures disappointment
after disappointment. The rather annoying, insecure girl-woman (a
self-described “ding-a-ling”) of the opening scenes becomes more confident and
willing to look past first impressions as the play draws to a close. Burns
pulls off this metamorphosis so smoothly that we are as surprised as she by the
time she has her final epiphany.
Peter Flynn directs Burns (his wife!) with a steady hand,
showcasing her great comedic timing but never letting the jokes get in the way
of the character’s emerging humanity. Lisa Zinni’s costumes perfectly telegraph
Hayley’s insecurity about who she is, and the shoes (she claims to have 600 pair)
are to die for.
The play was performed at the home of a George Street
Playhouse board member, which really gives the production a sense of
verisimilitude. And filming it like a movie (Hudson Flynn is the cinematographer)—instead
of through a Hollywood Squares Zoom grid—adds an intimacy we might not encounter
viewing it in a theater.
Theresa Rebeck’s Bad Dates might not be a
ground-breaking, earth-shaking piece of playwrighting, but its humanity and close
attention to what goes on when two people go on a date—at least, from one
person’s point of view—makes for good night at the theater! That’s my favorite
kind of date!
Bad Dates is available for viewing through March 14th. Tickets for each play are $33 per household and are on sale through georgestreetplayhouse.org/events. For information on subscription packages, phone 732-659-0377.
WATCH A TRAILER HERE.