Theatre: Blue Surge For thousands of college students in their senior year, now is the time they turn their heads from halcyon days of dorm parties and MTV’s Undressed marathons and turn their heads to the real Real World. You know the one where you have to get a real job and pay bills and what’s that? You were a communications major? Well, cheer up and go see Rebecca Gilman’s Blue Surge, now playing at the Public Theater, where you can see people who are (probably) a lot worse off than you realize just how very poor they are. Curt (Joe Murphy) and his buffoonish partner Doug (Steve Key) are cops setting out to bust the local whorehouse. When the hookers cry entrapment, the charges are dropped and natch, the guys ask the girls out. The only problem here is that our hero, Kurt, happens to be engaged to Ms. Artsy WASP 2002, Beth (Amy Landecker, who’s talent is wasted here) and is hoping, we gather, to move up the social ladder. The Class War is the heart of this play. Kurt wants to bring teenage prostitute Sandy (Rachel Miner) up from the proverbial gutter, while Beth, inspired by her ‘artistic values’ wants to bring Kurt out of his middle class tedium. In sharp counterpoint to the social climbing threesome Doug and his hooker wife Heather (Colleen Werthmann) are poor, but accepting of their lot in life and so, achieve happiness. What makes this play so rich is Rachel Miner’s nuanced performance. There is nervousness to her performance that belies the jaded persona her character is trying to affect. Her Sandy is a girl trying to be a much older woman, a teenager forced to be an adult by circumstance and with Gilman’s authentic dialogue, she weaves magic with her jittery white-trash accent. That a rising star fills the starring role, however, is not enough to ignore the flaws in this production. Joe Murphy’s Curt is no match for Miner’s brilliance and there seems to be too much emphasis on the ‘dumb’ in his ‘dumb schmuck’ shtick. Curt’s fiancée is such a minor character that she would be better off left out, her scenes feel like compulsory snippets of what life is like on the right side of the tracks. In addition some of the production values in this show are inexplicable. While it is explained away within the play, Richard Woodbury’s sound design, seems determined to remind you, ‘These girls are hookers!’ with it’s clichéd (and frankly, tired) saxophone solos and Walt Spangler’s set is lorded over by a suspended black monolith straight out of 2001 for no particular reason. Robert Falls’ direction is dead on. The show is as snappy as a fresh pickup line. Go see this show while it lasts, it’s subtly disturbing and lingers with you long after you’ve left the theatre. While the message: “It sucks to be poor” isn’t exactly the stuff of greatness, it’s worth the $45 bucks- especially if you appreciate the irony in that. Blue Surge is now playing at The Public Theatre’s Anspacher Theater (425 Lafayette Street). Tickets are $45 and may be purchased by phoning Tele-Charge at 212.239.6200

posted by Japhy at 4/25/2002 12:22:00 AM || #