When I see a show at a theatre, I just want to be entertained.\u00a0 I don’t necessarily need to be educated, or dazzled by someone’s talent, and especially not depressed nor disgusted, as many productions are wont to do nowadays.\u00a0 I just want to have a good time.\u00a0 There’s enough of all the rest in everyday life.<\/p>\n
![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Photo_4-XL.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo by Craig Schwartz.<\/p><\/div>\n
And entertained I was a few nights ago at the opening of Immediate Family<\/em>!\u00a0 There wasn’t a down moment in this fast-paced play.\u00a0 I love an evening like that!<\/p>\n To me, the best feeling in the world is laughter.\u00a0 [Note:\u00a0This was interesting to me: Right after I wrote that sentence, I took a break and mindlessly surfed the web for a bit, and, just by chance, came across a quote from my idol, Audrey Hepburn, which read, “I love people who make me laugh.\u00a0 I honestly think it’s the thing I like most, to laugh. \u00a0 It cures a multitude of ills.\u00a0 It’s probably the most important thing in a person.” How about that for validation of my premise?!]<\/p>\n And Immediate Family<\/em> provides laughter, in spades.\u00a0 (And Spades is actually a card game that the cast mentions in the show, while playing a spirited game of whist!)<\/p>\n This play is so quick and clever and non-stop that I didn’t have time to jot down even one little note during the performance.\u00a0 It’s an hour and a half of pure fun, with no downtime.\u00a0 And the story actually means something, too!\u00a0 I was very impressed with the whole production.<\/p>\n I so don’t want to ruin the storyline for you.\u00a0 Going in, I didn’t know one thing about it, at all, (perhaps because, at just three years old, it’s a new-ish play,) and it was perfect that way.\u00a0 (Why other reviewers have to tell you the whole story is beyond me!\u00a0 We get it–you paid attention!\u00a0 Now, stop ruining the discovery for the rest of us!)<\/p>\n Photo by Craig Schwartz.<\/p><\/div>\n So, what to say about it, what to say.\u00a0 I love that the action takes place over just two days.\u00a0 But it accomplishes a lot in those ninety minutes. And with just one stationary set, they have scenes going in three different locations, some at the same time!<\/p>\n All six actors are first-rate, and the direction, by Cosby Show<\/em> mom Phylicia Rashad, is spot-on.\u00a0 John Iacovelli’s set, the first floor of an upper middle class home in Chicago’s Hyde Park, is perfect; it’s totally utilitarian while being so attractive.\u00a0 I especially loved the little peek of the backyard that we on the right side could admire in full.<\/p>\n But, even though the sextet gives great life to the humorous lines, I have to give the most credit to the clever script by Paul Oakley Stovall, where the excellence begins. He based his work on his own experiences as a gay man in a black family, which is known to be a usually difficult scenario.\u00a0 (I’m sure that many people didn’t already know that that was the situation prior to a few months ago, but viewers of this season’s mad hit, Empire<\/em>, are probably aware of it now.) How it plays out in Immediate Family<\/em> is both probable and satisfying. And hilarious.<\/p>\n There was only one slight problem with the whole thing; my pal and I didn’t know who all the characters were to each other for a long while.\u00a0 I know that staged works often don’t like to spell relationships out for the audience, preferring to let us just discover them along the journey, but this one was hard to catch on to.\u00a0 I was sitting a lot further back than I usually do, (which actually provided an excellent vantage point,) so maybe we missed some words at the beginning, which would have explained what was going on. But at first, we thought the main female was the young guy’s mother.\u00a0 Then perhaps his auntie.\u00a0 It turned out she was his older authoritative sister, and I think it would have helped if we had known that from the start.<\/p>\n See what I mean about that portrait? Photo by Craig Schwartz.<\/p><\/div>\n On a much lesser note, those seated close to the stage, or with good opera glasses, may have noticed the details of the prominently-displayed portrait of the deceased parents in the living room.\u00a0 I’m assuming it was there to let us know the heritage of the fam.\u00a0 But it was a tad weird. While the father was clearly a black man, the matriarch looked Asian!\u00a0 I kept going back to check it out again because I thought that was going to be part of the story.\u00a0 But it wasn’t. Even though I have a feeling it’s someone’s actual mother, if they don’t want her uncertain ethnicity to distract us, they may want to replace it for the rest of the run.\u00a0 I doubt they will, but I’m just sayin’.<\/p>\n But those last two notes are negligible. No matter your own ethnicity, age, sexual leanings, hometown, or anything else; if you like to laugh, just go see this show, and enjoy!<\/p>\n Immediate Family<\/em> running through June 7, 2015<\/strong> IMMEDIATE FAMILY This show doesn’t need a lot of discussion from me. If you like to be laugh and have fun, go see Immediate Family at the Mark Taper Forum, while you have the opportunity. Period. But if you need to know why, keep reading. When I see a show at a theatre, I just<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>
\n Mark Taper Forum\u00a0135 N. Grand Ave. \u00a0213-972-4400 www.centertheatregroup.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"