Letting audience in on waiting game

By John Berger
Special to the Star-Bulletin

SNIPPY and snappy but never smug or smarmy. ASATAD's "It's Only A Play" is a perfect choice for theater fans in search of contemporary adult comedy. The language merits a "parental discretion advised" label but playwright Terrence McNally's comic insights are right on target.

The setting is the bedroom of Julia Budder's (Diana Carter Anderson), wealthy first-time producer of a Broadway play, "The Golden Egg."

One by one, the principals appears. Obnoxious director Frank Finger (Bob Jones) who has never ever received an unfavorable review even when he deserved it. Foul-mouthed leading lady Virginia Noyes (Karin Valasek) who is back on Broadway af-

ter a lackluster Hollywood career. Nervous playwright Peter Austin (Lance W. Bateman), hailed as a promising new talent - until now.

Theatre critic Ira Drew (Garison Ellsworth Piatt) is introduced as the most vicious reviewer in the biz. Turns out that he's made the party to advance the career of a young female protege.

TV star James Wicker (Larry Bialock) is also here. The leading male role was written for him but he turned it down because it conflicted with the production of his sitcom. His opinion of the play? "Gobble-gobble-gobble!"

In New York, shows live or die on the judgments of reviewers, so the producer, playwright and the others nervously mark time, dropping names and trading quips as they wait for the reviewers' verdicts.

Playwright McNally quotes from theater reviews far more scathing than anything said of Hawaii's theater groups in the past decade.

Bialock carries much of the early action. His performance establishes the high comic trajectory that is maintained throughout Act I.

Then comes Act 2. The all-important review arrives. The fate of "The Golden Egg" is known, the suspense is over, the energy dissipated.

There's nothing left for the audience to do other than to say "Alrighty then."

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What: It's Only a Play

When: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 4 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 1 (except Jan. 23)

Where: Windward Community College Little Theatre

Tickets: $14-$17

Call: 247-6939