General manager Mike Braschi (Mark Doherty) and dramaturg Jim Foley (Warren Kelley) are at odds in BLAME IT ON BECKETT (photo by Anthony J. Merced)
Dorothy Strelsin Theatre
Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex
312 West 36th St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
Through October 30, $25
www.abingdontheatre.org
Just what is a dramaturg anyway? In John Morogiello’s Blame It on Beckett, Warren Kelley stars as Jim Foley, a jaded, cynical dramaturg for a regional New England theater who spends his days not answering his phone and rejecting works by new playwrights based on their titles or how they’re bound. He gets unwanted help in the form of box-office girl Heidi Bishop (Lori Gardner), a bright-eyed and innocent theater major who dreams of being a dramaturg, convincing slick, smarmy general manager Mike Braschi (Mark Doherty) to let her work for free as a part-time intern for Foley, who is sickened by her youthful enthusiasm and drive. Heidi and Jim are soon butting heads over a six-page monologue in a play by the company’s last best hope, Tina Fike (Anne Newhall), setting in motion sexual intrigue, scandal, betrayal, and other nasty business. While Morogiello and director Jackob G. Hofmann, who previously teamed up on the Abingdon Theatre Company’s widely praised Engaging Shaw, cover fairly familiar territory, essentially moving All About Eve from the stage to the back room, they do so with an energetic wit and engaging characters. They include plenty of inside jokes, the Abingdon itself being a nonprofit theater company hoping their productions make it to the big time. Andrew Lu’s set features a desk, a few chairs, coffee cups strewn about, large piles of unread scripts, a bust of Shakespeare blindfolded — to protect the Bard from seeing what has become of his beloved profession — and various other theatrical paraphernalia, with the audience seated almost claustrophobically on three sides. With solid performances all around, surprisingly lively action, and some very funny lines, Blame It on Beckett is an insightful little comedy about ambition that, oddly, does not list a dramaturg in its program.