River City Rep’s ‘It’s Only a Play’ is So Much More

Friends, this one is on you.

Y’all KNOW I love going to the theatre – hello obnoxiously checking in to every place possible when I’m in NYC harassing visiting my sister – and yet no one thought to tell me the jewel we had right here in Shreveport with the River City Repertory Theatre.

Granted, I did intermittently expatriate to Funroe for the past 5 years – but that’s no excuse.

I was able to attend the company’s tenth show of the season, “It’s Only A Play,” on Friday night. Now I’m no Ira Drew (one of the show’s alleged antagonists who enters with years of prominent critical review under his belt), but I have seen my fair share of plays, both at the West End and on Broadway (#ohshethinkshefancy). I even remember some of them (My 20s were a bit of a blur…) I know a good performance when I see one – and this play is worth every second of your time.

I actually saw this play in New York with a fully stacked cast – Stockard Channing, T.R. Knight, and Matthew Broderick to name a few – and came into tonight’s performance with the unintentional comparison running in my head as the play opened. By the time Blayne Weaver barreled in as British head case Frank Finger, however, the comparisons were gone. I was in. Though there were a few verbal missteps sprinkled in, by the time the cast crescendoed towards intermission the energy onstage had completely coalesced. It was exhilarating!

The play-writing of Terrence McNally (didn’t he write our school geography books?) is an irreverent critique within a critique, pointing out both the overzealousness with which people grade themselves by subjective opinion only to Jean-Paul-Sartre us all into wondering what could possibly make it so important.

Perhaps my favorite part of the cast’s interpretation of the script, which is laden with New York and theatre-based references, was their complete trust that this Shreveport audience would appreciate it. A minority of the jokes fell flat from not connecting with the audience’s general knowledge base (including my own), but for the most part the actors were rewarded for their efforts; they set us up with the alley-oop by giving us the same caliber performance they would give on a Broadway stage, and we finished the dunk by being an invested and reactive audience.

I shouldn’t have to sell you on the unique fun of the script – there’s google for that – but it is mind-tickling to watch an art form tackle itself with both irreverence and honesty. It’s the sort of thing that “threatens people – they don’t want to see themselves as they really are,” quips Frank. You could say it’s the same “meta” idea tackled by “The Grinder,” which does it for television. (Don’t even get me started on why snooze-work TV would cancel such hilarious innovation; I’m still one-woman blowing up the twittersphere trying to get it back.)

The play is good; the cast is better. Forget that between them they’ve got credits such as “Battlestar Galactica,” “NCIS,” an internship at Juilliard, or decades of awards and theatre experience across the country. I’m grading these cats on tonight’s performance only!

Heather Bryson as Julia is charmingly and naively optimistic, channeling Paulette from “Legally Blonde” at moments (compliment!). Aiden Poling nails the earnestness of Gus, a New Yorker newbie not yet tainted by reality. Ryan Williams and George Sewell play Peter and Ira, respectively, two men who both love the theatre from different vantage points; their antagonistic relationship in particular speaks volumes. Weaver as Frank Finger wavers so skillfully between neurotic and disdainful I was surprised to see him smiling and laughing after the show; I thought for sure that was just his personality! Anne Lockhart made me forget all about Stockard Channing and delivers some of the night’s funniest lines; perhaps my favorite, however, was Patric McWilliams, whose patience with his delivery could be used as a clinic for comedic timing.

But who the heck am I? Go see for yourself! Trust me, there’s nothing like live theatre, and there’s really nothing like good live theatre! At the end of the night, you feel you’ve bonded with your fellow audience members and been an active part of something that will never be exactly replicated. It’s happening IN SHREVEPORT! Go! Go now! Get thee to the funnery!

“It’s Only A Play” will raise the curtain two more times on Saturday, May 28 at 7:30pm and Sunday, May 29 at 3:00pm.

Advance tickets: http://rivercityrep.org/tickets.html

River City on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RIVER-CITY-REPERTORY-THEATRE-20184917892/