Bad Dates Ultimately Delivers

Bad Dates by Theresa Rebeck
Kansas City Repertory Theater
Copaken Stage

I saw Bad Dates on opening night last night. The wife and I trundled downtown to the almost-finished Power & Light District for a night of theater. The district itself is taking shape quite nicely and I expect it to a great, glittering destination when it’s finished later this year. If you’re a Missouri Tiger fan, come on down for the big pep rally before the MU-KU game at Arrowhead.

Anyway, Bad Dates is a one-person show. It’s about a single mom’s dating life in New York City. With that one sentence synopsis I was thinking that this would be an onstage "Sex and the City". Then we walked into the theatre and took a look at the stage. The set was an apartment’s bedroom: bed, closet, dresser, vanity, lounge chair. Above the bed were five pictures declaring the inhabitant of this room to be a Cool Mom. The most noticeable thing about this set was the shoes. Shoes were strewn everywhere; on every flat surface, over the closet door and exploding all over and out of the closet. It’s an interesting look to see a set that was mostly bought, as opposed to built. I had a small tremor though, that this might be even more of a confection of a show than I had previously thought. Forget SATC, think "Caroline in the City".

The show is carried on the shoulders of the only actor, Rebecca Dines. Ms. Dines is an Australian actor with a substantial list of credits. When she appeared onstage, however I had a bad feeling. Her American accent seemed muddled and imprecise. It was only later that I realized the degree of difficulty of the accent she did, both American and Texan. With that taken into account the occasional peeks of her Antipodean origins are understandable. When the show goes on for a bit, her language settles down more. Honestly, I wondered why she just didn’t make the character Australian and speak in her normal voice.

Ms. Dines has an appealing energy onstage, but in the entire first half of the production that energy seems uncontrolled, wild, as if her arms and legs are separate actors in the show. She flies around the stage and tries on many different outfits and shoes and directing her monologue at and interacting with the audience. As the show continues though, her true abilities as a performer are revealed. When the director allows her to, she can deliver a strong performance as this harried, charming, insecure woman. The entire first half of the show, unfortunately, she is less the character and more the dervish. I suspect that this was a direction choice and the show is poorer for it. When Ms. Dines, in the second half, is allowed to stand still and show the character and not the movement Bad Dates is an enjoyable piece of theatre.

Another issue with the directing is that whenever Ms. Dines would come to a point in the show where she would get to speak a truth about her character, she would come downstage and the lights would dim behind her. It’s such an obvious choice to highlight her with technical elements, rather than let the actor’s performance speak for itself. Why not give her a chance to connect with the audience on her own without hitting us over the head that now an Important Speech is coming?

The script by Theresa Rebeck has some unusual twists that can be incongruous, but I think the show hangs together well, albeit in two distinct pieces. Ms. Rebeck is a former writer for "Law & Order", and it shows in a lot of the characters that are introduced in the script. There are many small touches that become significant later in the show, which I thought was a nice touch.
Even though Bad Dates starts out as a light, airy piece of theatre, the second half of the show is real and left me with an overall positive feeling about it.

Bad Dates runs until October 21st at the Copaken Stage at the H&R Block Center, 13th and Walnut, Kansas City, MO. Tickets can be purchased at 816-235-2700 or online at http://www.kcrep.org/.

Kitchen Nightmares on Fox

Fox’s remake of Chef Gordon Ramsay British program “Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares” is remade for US broadcast. “Kitchen Nightmares” (Wed. 8 PM on FOX) fits with the traditional reality makeover scenario: struggling *blank* meets successful *blank* and with some tough love, tears and a makeover, the struggling *blank* can meet his/her/its potential. It’s the same whether its “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” or “Nanny 911”. The formula is comforting and successful and “Kitchen Nightmares” is a fine example of the genre.

Programs of this nature start with the star/host. In this case it’s Chef Gordon Ramsay, a Scot with a three-star restaurant and a profanity-laden vocabulary, fresh from his stint this summer in the second season of FOX’s “Hell’s Kitchen”. In the first episode, Gordon visits a small, family-run Italian restaurant in Babylon, NY called Peter’s. The family who runs Peter’s is in danger of losing the restaurant and their livelihoods. Gordon comes in to try to help them.

The first thing he does is sample the food. His meal is execrable and he shares the cold crab cakes and uncooked pasta with the camera with disgust. You can see just how unappetizing the meal is. The camera catches Gordon’s anger at this substandard meal both visually and in his comments like “the crab cake is *bleep*ing frozen in the center”.

Next, he goes into the kitchen and discovers a kitchen stuck in time. The walk-in freezer leaks like a sieve, food in them is rotting where it sits and the ovens are broken and being used to store dirty aprons. Gordon tells the manager, Peter, a hulking, balding, self-important gladhandler that his restaurant will be famous very soon; for poisoning half of Babylon.

Gordon soon discovers that the whole problem is Peter. He’s spent the family’s money on a flash car, expensive watch and new suits for himself. It’s become such a problem that the restaurant has bill collectors coming to squeeze money out of Peter even while the cameras are rolling. One collector takes Peter out back and while the camera catches every word, threatens his business.

Peter won’t refit the kitchen so the chefs are doing the best they can with broken equipment. Gordon sees that the only way to fix the problem is to force Peter to work in the kitchen for a night. Peter is quickly revealed to be the weak link. He can’t cook on the equipment and is constantly coming up front to ask for cappuccino or whine about how things don’t work back there. The kitchen staff and Gordon all gleefully commenting in confessional-style shots about what how awful Peter is when forced to actually work. It’s compelling TV to see such a character hoisted on his own petard, which, of course, is the producers’ plan all along.

After showing Peter the error of his ways and forcing him to change at a blistering staff meeting after Peter’s disastrous night in the kitchen, the next morning finds Peter hard at work trying to repair the neglect that his mismanagement has caused. He apologizes to the wait staff he’s terrorized and cajoles a repairman to fix the walk-in box that same day.

With Peter’s new attitude now comes the makeover. Chef Ramsay sweareth at you, and then he gives you a whole new kitchen. This is the payoff for all the travails that Gordon puts his subjects through. The kitchen is completely redone with gleaming new state-of-the-art stoves and ovens. The prep area is revamped to make the food flow much faster from cooking to prep to tables. Gordon gives them new flatware and plates and, most importantly, a new menu. He takes Peter’s to a family-style menu with the emphasis on traditional Southern Italian dishes like lasagna and fettuccini alfredo. Of course, the staff is thrilled with the makeover, but Peter is not sure that it will work. Gordon opens the restaurant’s doors wide and, when the menu is a huge success, takes his accolades from the staff and family. The final scene is Gordon cautioning them that only by pulling together and everyone pulling their weight can their restaurant achieve its potential, but if they do, that potential is virtually limitless.

On the whole, this was a satisfying show. It has all the familiar elements, protagonist, antagonist, conflict and resolution. The show rests firmly on Gordon Ramsay and he shines in the spotlight, narrating what the audience is feeling, albeit with more profanity. His dialogue is bleeped at least once every time he opens his mouth, but he carries such authority in the kitchen that rather than blanching at his cursing, you agree with what he’s saying. I’ll certainly be set the DVR for this one.

***

Ratings:
***** - Worth a viewing party with your friends, bring popcorn, blog about it the next day
**** - Record it for later, but don't miss it
*** - Fine if it's on after a show you really like
** - A perfectly fine show, TiVO it, but if it's deleted, no biggie
* - Ugh, why is this on the air?
No Stars - Write the network and scream at them for wasting the public's airwaves

Reviews

I haven't been updating much (or at all), so a friend of mine suggested that I blog about media I consume. Since the fall TV season starts this week, I'm kicking off my new show reviews. I'll only review shows that I watch, but I'm giving a try to a lot of shows this year. I'll also try to review Kansas City theatre. I go to a lot of shows, both professional and community, so if you do theatre and I review your show, feel free to comment back. Also, if there's a show you think I should see, let me know. I'll give it a try and review it here.

Here's a listing of the new TV shows I'm watching this year:
Monday
Aliens in America - CW (great, though slightly cliched, idea. Execution looks good)
Chuck - NBC (appealing cast and fun premise, widely praised by critics)
Journeyman - NBC (lead actor is talented, execution may not be great)
Tuesday
Cane - CBS (Jimmy Smits and a fine cast make this look good)
Reaper - CW (looks hilarious, despite some vocal opposition people I know)
Wednesday
Kitchen Nightmares - Fox (see review)
Pushing Daisies - ABC (fun conceit and production design make me look forward to this show)
Bionic Woman - NBC (reimagining of 70's show from producer of Heroes)
Life - NBC (features Damien Lewis, who was great in Band of Brothers)
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Viva Laughlin! - CBS (this show is a musical produced by Hugh Jackman, star of film and Broadway. He also has a small role. If it gets three episodes I think that will be longer than anyone expected it to run)

Also coming up this week: Bad Dates at the KC Rep. Seeing it Wednesday, so look out for the review later this week!