If you've got an ear for crisp dialogue, especially that which has a not-infrequently bitchy edge, you'll need to trot down to Stray Dog Theatre's "The Little Dog Laughed". It's certainly an adults-only show, with nudity and a theme of coming to terms with same-sex attraction. Interesting, isn't it, how the mercenary sub-plot alone wouldn't make it unsuitable for kids?
A rising young film actor - one cannot call him a star yet, even by today's loosey-goosey standards - is visiting New York with his agent, a shark in pumps. He calls, as is his habit, an escort service for a visit from a young "nephew". Hilarity ensues, sort of, but hypocrisy makes headlines.
The fact that this Tony-award winning comedy manages to rise above a stereotype or two and remain funny a decade after it was written, despite the progress in American society about human rights, is a tribute to that dialogue. Sarajane Alverson, the agent with a sense of morality that would leave, oh, Anthony Weiner stunned, tries hard to run the life as well as the career of Bradley J. Behrmann's Mitchell, the emerging heartthrob. Mitchell seems pretty far in the closet, and that's the way Diane, the agent, who's a lesbian herself, wants to keep it. But when the cute young thing arrives at the hotel room, there's a spark from both the guys. This despite the fact that the lad, Paul Cereghino, has a sort-of semi-ex-girlfriend, Paige Hackworth, a refugee from her affluent family in Westchester County.
Alverson has a fine sense of timing with her cracking wise, and occasionally reveals the wisps of humanity Diane lets slip. Behrmann doesn't leave us with much sense of how good an actor the character is, but does very well with showing his deep conflict over his identity. Cereghino shows us a guy at loose ends, planning tomorrow but not next week or the rest of his life, and Hackworth gets good laughs with her monologue about her mother and a scene with the invisible landlord. The two-story rather geometrical set by Rob Lippert works well, and helps with several monologues.
"The Little Dog Laughs" certainly asks serious questions about private lives becoming public. Perhaps we can laugh a little more freely now that some of those questions are getting answered. Not a serious night, to be sure, but quite a funny one.
The Little Dog Laughed
Stray Dog Theatre
Tower Grove Abbey
2336 Tennessee Ave.
Thurs.-Sat. through Feb 22
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