%uFFFDThe work of comic playwright Rich Orloff has been featured at the Tenth Street Theatre quite frequently for a venue that has only been open for a short number of yearsmore than a dozen of his works were featured in two seasons alone. OK, so they were all one-acts, but Orloff is nothing if not prolific. In Tandem’s Orloff shorts programs Ha! and Romantic Fools will be followed this year by a feature-length show, as Next Act Theatre presents Orloff’s office comedy Big Boys.
The play reads like some of the Marx Brothers’ best material set in a contemporary office. David Cecsarini stars as Victor Burlington: the boss. His dialogue is very reminiscent of Grouchofast-paced, manipulative and filled with spurious logic that seems to bend the fabric of reality. With a character as big as Victor, there’s only room in the play for one other person. He’s a comparatively sedate, logical and ethical man named Norman, played by Norman Moses.
In the hands of the wrong pair of guys, the pacing of the script would be difficult to manage. But Moses and Cecsarini have become brilliant fixtures of Milwaukee’s theater scenethe dynamic between Moses as straight man and Cecsarini as blustery businessman is going to be fun. To top it off, they will be working with talented director Mary MacDonald Kerr, who has shown a sparkling sense of humor in shows like Renaissance’s String of Pearls. Kerr’s comic instincts can’t help but to sharpen an already clever comedy.
Next Act’s production of Big Boys runs Jan. 20-Feb. 13 at the Tenth Street Theatre. To reserve tickets, call 414-278-0765.
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Theater Happenings
- This week, a year after its initial run was cut short, Youngblood Theatre launches its visceral and challenging production of the Adam Rapp drama Red Light Winter. The three-person drama about two former college friends and a prostitute runs through Feb. 5 at the Alchemist Theatre. For more information, call 414-426-4169.
- Just five days after Liberace leaves the Milwaukee Rep’s Stackner Cabaret, in walks Hank Williams. The Stackner’s winter ends with Nobody Lonesome for Me, an intimate cabaret-style bio of the country music legend that runs Jan. 21-March 13. For tickets, call 414-224-9490.
