Been negligent on blogging about this show, it’s been a crazy month. I’ll try to remember as best I can.

This revival of David Rabe’s play is a dark chronicle of struggling actors in Los Angeles, circa 1980s. A story of men living in a house, and the women they try to love, and end up exploiting and resenting. It is a sad, sad tale of violence and abuse, both to themselves and everyone they touch. The show chronicles the relationships of several men, none of whom have their lives together, and you are led to believe no amount of hope, or cocaine, will ever help them get it together.

This revival very accurately puts you back to that time, in that place. Not that I was there, but watching the play, I felt like I could have been. Hate to say it, but Ethan Hawke as Eddie was excellent. Completely believable, perhaps because he was portraying a life he himself has lived. His voice sounded like he had just smoked a carton of cigarettes, screamed bloody murder for three weeks and finished off with a bottle of whiskey. And then swallowed a frog. Anyway he sounded hoarse. Perhaps weeks of having to “project” has taken its toll on the film-actor. Or perhaps it was a character choice, if so, it suited Eddie well, a pathetic alcoholic.

Stealing the show, as she steals all her films, is Parker Posey, in the small, rather unimportant role of Darlene, the sometimes girlfriend of Eddie. Her spastic, irratic, comedic performance is hard to love. You love and pity her simeltaneously. She exists within the play to indicate that Eddie really wants to have a normal relationship with a nice girl but of course, fails. They are both doomed to fail.

Wallace Shawn as Artie, the creepy, womanizing older friend, was funny and disgusting at the same time. You hate the things he says, but he’s just so damn cute when he says them. He brings a humanity to a character that could otherwise be completly unsympathetic.

Elizabeth Berkely (yes, Jessie from Saved by the Bell) was actually “not bad” as Bonnie, the stripper-druggie-party girl. I’ve seen her on stage twice now, both times she has disrobed. Have to say, if I looked like that, I’d be getting naked in front of everyone I see, all the time. Seriously, the girl is gorgeous. Her beauty far surpasses her acting ability, however, and she is eclipsed by the phenomonal talent of her co-stars. However, since the last time I saw her (in “Lenny” with Eddie Izzard, in 1999), she has really grown as an actress. I was actually very impressed with her work. Perhaps because I wasn’t expecting much.

Matt Rauch is the actor who we saw play the role of Phil, which is normally performed by Bobby Canavale. Rauch was excellent, and even more impressive is the fact that he is the understudy for all four male roles in the show. This is a talky, talky, talky show. Holding one role in your head at any given time is a major accomplishment, let alone all four. His character is the most pathetic in the show. A violent sociopath who just wants to be loved. And Eddie, his best friend, just wants him to be normal, and will defend him no matter what he’s done. Of course he dies in a car wreck. Act three is everyone dealing with Phil’s death. You believe Hawke’s Eddie has really hit rock bottom with Phil’s death, and then you see him slowly climb his way back out with the re-appearance of Donna (Halley Wegrin Gross), a young, trampy-but-sweet hippie girl who just wants to get out of L.A. and see the world. Her innocence saves Eddie from his own willingness to just give up.

The play’s bleakness and funny moments are equally highlighed by director Scott Elliot. A danger would be to slant the focus toward one direction or the other. He gets the balance just right; making the play as close to real life as I could imagine.