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“I'm pleased to inform you that your production of LA RONDE DE LUNCH is now Ovation Recommended, as judged by the body of Ovation Voters who have currently attended and scored your production. This identification means that the Ovation voters have placed your production in the top 20% of all productions for this season, based on their scores in the 'Overall Production' category.”
HOLLYWOOD REPORTERLa Ronde De Lunch -- Theater Review
By Hoyt Hilsman, BackStage, November 03, 2009
Bottom Line: Scriptwriter turns his pen on Hollywood via the theater.
Inspired by Arthur Schnitzler's sexual farce, writer Peter Lefcourt has fashioned a hilarious sendup of Hollywood mores and memes, performed by a sparkling cast under the deft direction of Terri Hanauer. Lefcourt has written scripts for Hollywood for more than 30 years, including "Eight Is Enough" and "Desperate Housewives," and apparently has the scars to show for it.
His glittering farce is set at El Pueblo de la Venezia, an overpriced and overhyped restaurant whose denizens are the usual array of celebrity agents, actors, producers, realtors and fitness instructors. Like Schnitzler's classic comedy, the play features the interconnected, serial stories of several characters who meet at the restaurant, at the same table, for lunch.
There is the aging actor (Kathryn Harrold), the producer (Michael B. Silver), the pregnant studio exec (Kate Siegel), the agent (Joe Briggs), the realtor (Gina Hecht), the writer (Brynn Thayer), the fitness consultant (Haley Strode), the lawyer (Robert Trebor), the bimbo (Fiona Gubelmann), the movie star (Jay Huguley) and a delightful Greek chorus of waiters all named Bruce (Daniel Montgomery, Demetrius Keone Thomas, Amanda Kruger, Matt Austin and Clent Bowers).
Although farces about Tinseltown are tricky to pull off -- they often quickly devolve into caricature and come with a heavy dose of anger from envious playwrights -- Lefcourt's play avoids all those pitfalls, as he obviously has been swimming in these waters for years and knows the players intimately.
Like most fine comedy, the play is based on truth; you can't make this stuff up. And the playwright adds another important ingredient to the mix: He maintains an odd affection for all his characters, as shallow, superficial and narcissistic as they might be.
Hanauer does a bang-up job of directing, letting loose a stellar cast of actors to perform at their creative best while still holding a firm rein over the tone of the piece. Her use of imaginative props, music, choreography (Tracy Silver) and costumes (Shon Le Blanc) add immeasurably to the evening.
The cast is outstanding. Huguley is picture-perfect as the narcissistic star, Briggs is a hyperactive wonder as the agent, Gubelmann shines as the bimbo with a 165 IQ, Hecht captures the essence of the Hollywood realtor, Siegel is marvelous as the mommy exec, Trebor is terrific as the lawyer, Thayer nails the lesbian writer role, Harrold is unforgettable as the aging diva, Silver is a suitably desperate producer and Strode is perky perfection as the personal-fitness consultant. The Bruces also feature several standouts -- including Montgomery, Thomas and a silver-throated Bowers.
Venue: The Skylight Theatre, Los Angeles (Extended Through Dec. 6)
Cast: Kathryn Harrold, Michael B. Silver, Kate Siegel, Joe Briggs, Gina Hecht, Brynn Thayer, Haley Strode, Robert Trebor, Fiona Gubelmann, Jay Huguley, Daniel Montgomery, Demetrius Keone Thomas, Amanda Kruger, Matt Austin, and Clent Bowers
Playwright: Peter Lefcourt
Director: Terri Hanauer
Choreographer: Tracy Silver
Costumes: Shon Le Blanc
LA RONDE DE LUNCH
By Deborah Klugman, November 23, 2009
Peter Lefcourt’s amusing Hollywood farce transpires at lunchtime in “the most pretentious restaurant” in town, where everyone meets but no one eats, since the purpose of getting together is less to fortify the body than to pump up the ego and the wallet. Lefcourt constructs his play, inspired by Schnitzler’s La Ronde, as a series of two-person scenes. Each participant in this power-driven game of musical chairs wants something from his or her lunch partner -- and all crave an audience with Clive, a mysterious mover-and-shaker whose films gross hundreds of millions worldwide. Among the players are an aging actress (Sondra Currie) with a Bette Davis complex, a burned-out alcoholic writer (Brynn Thayer) smitten with her personal fitness trainer (Haley Strode), a smarmy agent (Joe Briggs), a sugary but calculating bimbo (Fiona Gubelmann), her prey (a wealthy aging lawyer played by Robert Trebor) and, ultimately, Clive himself (Bryan Callen, in a spot-on performance as the quintessentially smug superstar). No small part of the fun is generated by the waitstaff: a quintet of servers, all named Bruce, who comment, Greek-chorus-like, on the goings-on, as well as interacting with the customers and performing a stylistically different musical parody between each scene. Designer Jeff McLaughlin’s appealing set, Shon LeBlanc’s lively costumes and Tracy Silver’s upbeat choreography add to the production’s beguiling charm. Terri Hanauer directs. Skylight Theater, 1816 1/2 N. Vermont Ave., L.A.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; thru Dec. 20. (310) 358-9936. A Katselas Theatre Company production.
“Le Ronde” skews Hollywood in restaurant vignettes
Le Ronde De Lunch by Peter Lefcourt, billed as an homage to the 1900 farce Le Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler, is a skewer of tinsel town’s players and no one escapes Mr. Lefcourt’s deadly, rapier wit. The action takes place at El Pueblo de la Venezia, L.A.’s trendiest, most expensive restaurant where the players interact in a series of hilarious vignettes, at a table center stage, while the rest wait their turn in frozen positions as a scenic backdrop.
All the regulars are represented: studio execs, actors, fitness trainers, bimbos, lawyers, realtors, etc. The scene changes are handled by a Greek chorus of waiters – “Bruces 1 through 5” and their acappella/rap interludes, choreographed by Tracy Silver, become anticipated highlights.
Director Terri Hanauer’s inventive and creative direction mines every visual laugh while keeping the character development on track. The entire cast is superb especially: Brynn Thayer as The Writer, Fiona Gubelmann as The Bimbo, Jay Huguley as Clive, the Superstar, and Clent Bowers as Bruce #5. For those of you who take this town too seriously, you mustn’t miss this delicious send up.
4 Stars
- Patricia Foster Rye
StageSceneLA.com
Peter Lefcourt skewers Hollywood deal-making—brilliantly—in La Ronde De Lunch, the funniest show you’re likely to see this fall and one of the most terrifically performed comedies of this or any season.
Lefcourt, whose Hollywood satires include the novel The Deal and the Showtime series Beggars And Choosers, knows Tinseltown better than just about anyone else. Here he takes Arthur Schnitzler’s sexual roundelay La Ronde and turns it into a series of “Let’s do lunch” meetings in pursuit of that ever illusive DEAL. Actress lunches with Producer, who then lunches with Studio Exec, who then lunches with Agent, until La Ronde is complete and the deal of deals has been made.
In just the past eleven months I’ve reviewed productions of a) Schnitzler’s original (with two actors performing all ten roles), b) Michael John LaChiusa’s musicalization Hello, Again, and c) Joe DiPietro’s all-male La Ronde, retitled F*cking Men. Unlike b) and c), La Ronde De Lunch keeps most of its cast onstage from beginning to end, playing musical chairs at L.A.’s “most pretentious and expensive restaurant, El Pueblo De La Venezia, specializing in neo-Italian/Santa Fe fusion cuisine”—and when I say musical chairs, I mean musical chairs. Each between-scene interlude features the restaurant’s five waiters (all named Bruce) and assorted cast members cavorting to Tracy Silver’s bouncy choreography which includes a gavotte, some disco, a bit of funk, cha cha, jitterbug, and even a Bottle Dance (a la Fiddler On The Roof).
The five Bruces (Daniel Montgomery, Demetrius Keone Thomas, Amanda Kruger, Matt Austin, and Clent Bowers) serve as a kind of Greek chorus to the onstage deal-making, though thankfully they promise us not to speak “in a low, monotonous, funereal hum.” No, these Bruces are “vibrant, lusty, and gay and never do funereal,” thank you very much.
And now for a brief taste of each lunch:
Lunch # 1: The Actress (Kathryn Harrold) and The Producer (Michael Silver)
Like everyone else we’re about to meet, glamorous screen legend Gwen Labido is lunching with A Deal in mind. Hers is to star in The Producer’s next picture opposite Superstar Du Jour Clive (no last name needed; the guy gets 22.5 per picture). Unfortunately, The Actress has seen better days. (“They’re not even sending me the bad scripts anymore.”) She’s just come from firing her agent after calling him a “fuckhead,” news that will soon have all of Hollywood buzzing.
Lunch # 2: The Producer and The Studio Exec (Kate Siegel)
This Studio Exec is about as pregnant as a woman can be, but no natural birth for our expectant mother. “Apparently my vagina is different from all other vaginas,” she announces. As for the script The Producer is plugging to her, The Exec is sorry but it’s “dead in the water. The train has left the station. Wave goodbye. Next.” It turns out the studio’s been bought by Canadians and they don’t like movies set in Pittsburg.
Lunch # 3: The Studio Exec and The Agent (Joe Briggs)
The Studio Exec’s got a project that Clive will love. Sorry, replies the Agent, “Everyone’s got a project that Clive’s going to love.” Maybe so, concedes The Exec, but are they anywhere near as good as Moonlight Cantata, a contemporary love story about a couple who both have cerebral palsy? Sorry, Pregnant Exec, but this deal is dead in the water. And speaking of water…
Lunch # 4: The Agent and The Realtor (Gina Hecht)
The Agent has decided to invest in a house in the hills above Sunset. That’ll cost two million easy, The Realtor informs him, unless of course he wants to go over Mulholland. “You mean the Valley?” exclaims The Agent in horror at the thought of an 818 area code. What if The Agent gave the Realtor some top secret info about an upcoming Hollywood divorce that might just put the house of both their dreams on the market—for way under two mil?
Lunch # 5: The Realtor and The Writer (Brynn Thayer)
The Realtor tries kissing up to The Writer by recalling her favorite scene in The Writer’s last movie. Bad move. It turns out that scene was written by the “hack” they brought in after her to write “that gratuitous piece-of-shit scene.” The alcoholic Writer has good reason to drink heavily these days. Her piece-of-shit husband is trying to make their divorce difficult, but if The Writer has her way, hubby “will be lucky if we let him keep the shirt on his back.”
Lunch # 6: The Writer and The Personal Fitness Consultant (Haley Strode)
The Personal Fitness Consultant is worried about The Writer’s diet. “What about minerals? What about kelp? You need to start thinking about your amino acids as well.” The Personal Fitness Consultant’s concern is not just professional. It turns out that she’s considerably more than just a Personal Fitness Consultant to the Writer, though not for much longer if Miss Fitness has her way. “But we did drugs in a hot tub!” protests The Writer. “Our souls touched the stars.”
Lunch # 7: The Personal Fitness Consultant and The Lawyer (Robert Trebor)
The Personal Fitness Consultant has come to The Lawyer with a hypothetical question (i.e. she doesn’t want to be billed). She wants to know if she can get anything out of the sale of the soon-to-be-divorced Writer’s house. “How long did your relationship last,” asks The Lawyer. “Was there penetration?” “Six weeks,” responds The Personal Fitness Consultant, and so what if they’re both women? “There was plenty of penetration.”
Lunch # 8: The Lawyer and The Bimbo (Fiona Gubelmann)
It’s a lunch hour blind date for The Lawyer and The Bimbo, though this Bimbo only looks bimboesque. An honest-to-goodness Bimbo wouldn’t have an M.A. in Romance Languages from an online university, would she? Now if only The Bimbo knew how to pronounce the multisyllabic French words (and names like Kierkegaard) that she’s seen in her online lessons.
Lunch # 9: The Bimbo and Clive (Jay Huguley)
The Bimbo’s won a “Lunch With Clive” contest, which means that we finally get to see the only character who’s remained offstage so far. Taking a seat opposite The Bimbo, Clive reveals his next film project: an adaptation of Ecclesiastes. (It’s from The Bible … and it’s public domain!) “But nothing much happens,” protests The Bimbo. “It’s just a bunch of lamentations!” No, replies Clive, it’s much more than that, and if he could just make the apothecary into a woman—and get a Bette Davis type to play the role …
Lunch # 10: Clive and The Actress
Clive informs The Actress that calling her agent a fuckhead was “pure Bette Davis.” Donning a napkin headdress, the superstar describes the first scene in his Ecclesiastes movie (think of it as “a sort of Odyssey across Judea”), then discusses the character he has in mind for The Actress: a ballsy widow trying to make ends meet on a pomegranate farm. All would seem to be going according to plan until the actress gets a phone call which changes everything and brings La Ronde De Lunch full cycle.
Under Terri Hanauer’s inspired direction, the entire cast give colorful, memorable performances, making these not so sympathetic characters surprisingly likeable (though not perhaps if we had to deal with them in real life). As The Actress, Harrold is every bit as beautiful as she was playing Lauren Bacall in the 1980 TV movie Bogie, and a heck of an actress to boot. Producer Silver gets to throw a delicious tantrum—which he does, deliciously. Siegel is so movie star gorgeous that it’s a pleasant surprise to discover what a deft comedienne she is. Full-of-himself Agent Briggs’ imitation of the sound his Mercedes is making is almost worth the price of a ticket, as is the sight of him licking his upper lip in an attempt to seduce the Exec. (Briggs also gets quite possibly the biggest laugh ever from a much-told Celine Dion joke.) Hecht too is a hoot as The Realtor, who can’t help crying when recalling a scene from The Writer’s last movie, and whose excitement level builds steadily the closer she comes to acquiring The Writer’s house.
Thayer gets possibly the best of all ten roles as The Writer, becoming increasingly drunk as her two lunches progress, and she milks every possible laugh from her character’s heavy imbibing, so heavy in fact that a half-gallon bottle of Stoli is her “dressing on the side.” Thayer’s also got a great bit involving that bottle of Stoli, a small bottle of drinking water, and a lime or two. Strode is delectably perky as The Personal Fitness Consultant who can’t stop stretching even during lunch. It’s great fun to watch Trebor’s Lawyer pepper The Fitness Consultant with questions, as if he were cross-examining a witness, and later to see his face crumble as he realizes that his sex date with The Bimbo isn’t going to happen. Gubelmann underplays The Bimbo to perfection, especially as she rattles off four-syllable words, blithely unaware of how she’s massacring them. As Clive, Huguley is every full-of-himself actor that has ever entered a Hollywood eatery, and the British accent is icing on the conceited cake.
And then there are the Bruces, Montgomery’s sassy Bruce #1, Thomas’ cheeky (in more ways than one) Bruce #2, Kruger’s adorable Bruce #3, Austin’s sweetly hunky Bruce #4, and Bowers’ divalicious Bruce #5. All five are terrifically talented triple-threats, whom Lefcourt’s script, Silver’s choreography, and Hanauer’s direction show off to their best advantage. (Bowers gets applause for holding a note longer than humanly possible in a bit which also involves a bunch of breadsticks.)
The playwright has filled his script with one-liners galore. Here are just a few:
•The Producer: What’s the restaurant’s policy on under-the-table blow jobs?
Bruce # 1: We charge a small corkage fee.
•The Writer (describing the butt lift her spouse got last year): He came back home looking like Donald Duck.
•Clive (to The Actress): I’ve IMDB’d you and there’s nothing on your résumé with a 2 in front of it. You’re not on the A-list. You’re not even on Craig’slist.
Set and lighting designer Jeff McLaughlin has transformed the Skylight Theatre into just the kind of trendy restaurant that any Hollywood celeb would be happy to lunch at. Shon LeBlanc’s perfectly chosen costumes and the uncredited sound and music design are first-rate as well.
You don’t have to be an Hollywood insider to love La Ronde De Lunch, though there couldn’t be a better town for it to be staged in than this one. The show’s been extended up into December, and has the potential of being both a popular (and a cult) hit. You won’t find a tastier treat in any L.A. theater between now and who-knows-when. Order your tickets before they sell out. Hollywood’s going to be buzzing about La Ronde De Lunch. It probably is already.
The Skylight Theatre, 1816 Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles. Through December 6. Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00. Sundays at 7:00. Reservations: 310 358-9936 www.katselastheatre.org
--Steven Stanley
November 13, 2009