Regardless of your reaction to The Little Dog Laughed, you have to give the Bickford Theatre points for pushing the envelope.
With plenty of male smooching and a nanosecond of nudity, this coming-out play is pretty daring stuff for a Morris Township venue that tends to stick with G-rated productions.
The Little Dog Laughed opens with actor Mitchell Green (played by Mark Irish, whose screen credits include Girl in the Park with Sigourney Weaver) on the verge of a breakout movie deal.
When Mitchell falls for Alex (Scott Tyler), a bisexual young hustler, the actor’s indiscretions threaten the enterprise. He won’t be a heart throb at the box office if word gets out.
Billed by the Bickford as a “naughty comedy about a dirty business,” the production veers between a wicked sendup of Hollywood and a serious exploration of angst-ridden gay love, with the needle swinging to the melodrama side of the meter.
The first half takes a while to gather steam … while the conclusion contains more twists than an Olympic gymnastics routine. I kept wanting to reach for the remote, and slo-mo instant replay to decode the ending.
Playwright Douglas Carter Beane received a 2007 Tony Award Best Play nomination for The Little Dog Laughed. I never saw that version. The Bickford production is not as powerful as Take Me Out, the 2003 Tony Award winner about a closeted baseball star, or as outrageously funny as The Birdcage, the gender-bending film based on La Cage Aux Folles.
For me, the relationship between Mitchell and Alex progresses inexplicably from casual to cartwheels. The players give it their all. But I wanted more information about them both, a scene or two establishing where they were coming from. Key bits of background information are dropped in almost as afterthoughts.
Alex’s girlfriend Ellen ( Cynthia Fernandez) creates a bizarre triangle, as a con artist whose emotions get conned by Alex. We’re told she has an unhappy relationship with her mother, and little more. She struck me as a plot device more than a character.
The Broadway version did win a Tony–for leading lady Julie White in the role of Diane, Mitchell’s wise-cracking lesbian agent.
Likewise, Liz Zazzi is the star of the Bickford production. The play crackles every time she walks on stage. As Diane, she dishes out some wicked double entendres and is the most fully realized character.
It’s easiest to connect with Diane because she has the most to lose. She has devoted seven years to Mitchell’s career, shelving any pretense of a personal life. Over that span she has come to know the actor better than he knows himself. When this very tough bird finally begs him not to throw it all away, it’s the most real and poignant moment in the show.
The Star-Ledger’s Peter Filichia gave Liz Zazzi a “NJ Obie” in 2009 for a decade of solid performances; with The Little Dog Laughed, she appears determined to keep the accolades coming.
The Little Dog Laughed is directed by Eric Hafen. It runs through Feb. 13. Tickets are $40, with discounts for seniors, students and Morris Museum members. For more information, see www.bickfordtheatre.org or call 973-971-3706.
The Little Dog Laughed was disgusting, raunchy, vulgar, profane, and very offensive. We’ve been long time, enthusiastic subscribers to the Bickford, but if it puts on any more trash like this, the Morris Museum should close it down.
I thought that the first half did move, as high-powered actor Mitchell Green reveals his vulnerabilities