If you’re reading this, you’re interested in theater. Take whatever level of interest you have, ratchet it up a hundred times, and you might match the obsession that drives the main characters in “Which Way to the Stage,” the latest offering from Richmond Triangle Players.
Luckily, a mania for the stage isn’t required to enjoy this rambunctious, hilarious, and sometimes uncomfortable story. Playwright Ana Nogueira uses theatrical compulsion as a vehicle for exploring thornier issues around gender dynamics, the thin line between tribute and parody, and what words people are “allowed” to use.
She also peppers her joke-dense dialogue with surprisingly insightful aphorisms, a sometimes jarring juxtaposition that only works because director Lucian Restivo’s excellent cast makes it all flow naturalistically.
Jeff and Judy (Matt Shofner and Amanda Spellmen) are frustrated, wannabe actors who haunt the stage door of the 2014 Broadway production of “If/Then,” hoping to get Idina Menzel’s autograph. While they wait, the best friends engage in spirited debates about theater lore, like why Patti Lapone’s performance as Mama Rose in “Gypsy” was so superior to Bernadette Peters’ take.
Every so often their affectionate banter stumbles into highly charged territory that foreshadows impending problems. The openly gay Jeff makes a living teaching fitness classes and performing in drag, with a stage persona that occasionally slips into misogyny. Judy, who works in real estate, oscillates between insecurity about her own femininity and warranted outrage about the sexism she often faces.
Two developments ultimately bring simmering tensions to a head. First, Judy meets flirty actor Mark (Calvin Malone) at an audition; sparks fly immediately but his sexuality might be more fluid than she realizes. Then, Jeff builds a performance “honoring” Menzel in broad caricature, an affront to Judy’s hero worship of the icon.
The rising conflict allows all of the characters to speak their truths in insightful ways, even as Nogueira’s script never stops delivering the jokes. Under Restivo’s direction, the rollicking pace never slows and, in moments when it reaches a crescendo like the bravura performance by Jeff that ends the first act, I found myself laughing so hard I was crying.
The over-the-top theatricality of Jeff’s drag performance is Shofner’s bread and butter and he dazzles in that scene. Even so, the show also gives the actor smaller, quieter moments of pathos, allowing him to show how affecting he can be on a more human scale.
What gives the show its zing throughout is the authentic chemistry Shofner shares with Spellman, who nicely balances big city brassiness with a winning vulnerability. Scenes where she barely suppresses her competitiveness with a Los Angeles-based actress who fully embraces her sexuality (Sydnee Graves) have a delightful frisson.
Graves plays two other roles, a drunken bachelorette at Jeff’s show and a casting director, and manages to infuse a level of depth into characters who could have been tossed off as types. Malone’s character could similarly be dismissed as a simpleton hunk but both the script and Malone’s performance make Mark an unexpectedly fascinating enigma.
The production’s technical elements seem somewhat muted, Daniel Allen’s set dominated by a large theater marquee that opens to reveal a drab audition room hallway. But they break wide open during big numbers at the end of both acts, featuring Paul Vaillancourt’s frenetic lighting design and Taiq Karriem’s splendid costumes.
“Which Way” may not appeal to all: its theater insiderness may be catnip to some (like this writer), but may confuse others. If delivered less smoothly, some value statements proclaimed may seem overly strident. And while the ending seems inevitable in many ways, it didn’t quite land for me.
But those quibbles seem like dinging a rip-roaring roller coaster for an underwhelming arrival back at the station. “Which Way to the Stage” offers a boisterous ride made even more compelling by the complicated issues it bumps up against along the way.
“Which Way to the Stage” is playing through May 17 at Richmond Triangle Players, 1300 Altamont Ave. Tickets and more information available at https://rtriangle.org/.
