The Boulevard Theatre tackles a pair of short works in Two 2 Go, a program featuring scripts by George Bernard Shaw and Thornton Wilder. The two shorts are placed in the larger context of a remedial English class for adults (a result of Gov. Scott Walker's educational budget cuts). It's a fun premise that helps to ground the two pieces in a larger framework, though its thematic volume bleeds uncomfortably into the Wilder piece.
The first short is Shaw's A Village Wooing. Worth the price of admission by itself, the Shaw piece is the most compelling and sophisticated romance to hit the stage all seasonpossibly in the last couple of years. Liv Mueller plays a woman on a cruise ship vacation who incessantly bothers a man sitting next to her. The man, played by Michael Keiley, is a travel writer who would rather not be bothered. Mueller and Keiley make the most of the intimate space by embellishing their characters with subtle details. It can be very difficult to make an onstage romance convincing in such a limited amount of time, but Keiley and Mueller not only make it look easy, they also make it look fun.
The second short, Wilder's Pullman Car Hiawatha, is a poetic tale of a journey across the heart of the country. Pullman Car has a certain rhythm and soul to it, drawing together a six-person ensemble through many, many characters making a simple journey. The Boulevard ensemble doesn't quite bring together the disparate cast of characters with the kind of grace achieved in Wilder's script. It is not without its moments, but it seems like an afterthought compared to the Shaw work that opens the show.
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The Boulevard Theatre's Two 2 Go runs through May 29. To reserve tickets, call 414-744-5757.
