Good to Be Bad
When I read that Theresa Rebeck's play Bad Dates concerns a thirtysomething single mom "diving back into the dating pool," I naively believed that "her dating disasters" would "make for a fun and fashionable comedy."
I'm relieved to say that I was wrong — as was their blurb writer.
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Rebeck's comedy, sincerely performed by Susan Riley Stevens under Ceal Phelan's wise direction at the Act II Playhouse, begins as expected, with Haley frantically dressing for a first date. "I don't have a shoe fetish," says the Texan, a Manhattan restaurant manager, to the audience she welcomes into her bedroom. "At least, not a crazy Imelda Marcos fetish." When one of her dozens of shoe boxes reveals wads of cash, however, it's our first hint that Bad Dates offers more than advertised.
Hilarious descriptions of three bad dates — with a schlub nattering about his cholesterol, a Columbia law professor who's clearly gay to everyone except Haley's mother, and a guy who falsely promises "the opposite of being lonely" — are tempered by a larger story about Haley's journey toward self-sufficiency. Like the dates, the tale often amuses: Rebeck and Stevens bring Haley's restaurant, owned by money-laundering Romanian ex-cons, to life in an intriguing mystery.
Like us, Haley's surprised by the difference between expectations and reality, so eager to figure out "how to look sexy without looking like a slut" that she overlooks the man who might actually be a good date. It's all much more than we were led to expect, but we have no reason to feel disappointed; Stevens makes the journey engrossing and enjoyable.
While one might cynically expect that a one-woman, one-set show is merely theater on the cheap, Bad Dates is well produced. William Pollock provides Haley's charming, albeit improbably spacious, bedroom, as well as her many outfits (including some amusing rejects), lit expertly by James Leitner.
My expectations were also exceeded by Act II's Saturday night audience. Always a congenial group, they not only warmed to Bad Dates' larger ambitions, but seemed unfazed by the woman in the third row knitting through the play. One could bitterly view this as deterioration of theater decorum, or see it as a positive sign that Act II's crowd feels very comfortable.
I'm still mulling that one, but I'm convinced by Bad Dates: It succeeds, and exceeds.
Through Oct. 22,Act II Playhouse,56 E. Butler Ave.,Ambler,215-654-0200, www.act2.org
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