It was lovely that so many of their TV cast-mates showed-up on opening night to support them. (In case you\u2019re curious, I spied Madchen Amick from\u00a0Riverdale<\/em>,\u00a0Angelique Cabral and Holly J. Barrett\u00a0from\u00a0Life In Pieces<\/em>, and\u00a0The Village<\/em>\u2019s Daren Kagasoff and Grace Van Dien, who\u2019s even more beautiful in person.)<\/p>\n Betsy Brandt and Toks Olagundoye. Photo by Jenny Graham, as is the one at the top of this page.<\/p><\/div>\n Because of the pedigree of the playwright, and my being familiar with so many of the players, I expected to love Good Boys<\/em>. I\u00a0wanted<\/em>\u00a0to love it. But, sadly, I did not.<\/p>\n I thought the production was good enough overall, but as I read the notes I had written\u00a0during the presentation, I realized that there are very few positive ones. (But there are some.) So let\u2019s get into it all, in no particular order.<\/p>\n The entire presentation was very low energy on opening night. Everything about Good Boys<\/em> needs to be tightened-up a bit\u2014much of the acting, the story itself, and especially the direction by Carolyn Cantor; the whole thing cries-out to be much more dynamic. And\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0of the actors really need to cease pausing at every period at the end of a sentence! Nobody talks like that in real life! Even the set and costume designs did nothing for me.<\/p>\n I had already written the note that this seemed sort-of like a rehearsal, like it wasn\u2019t quite ready yet. And then as we were exiting the theatre, the young guy behind me said the same thing to the woman he was with. (I love when my own thoughts are confirmed by others!)<\/p>\n Photo by Jenny Graham.<\/p><\/div>\n Speaking of similar thoughts, this is how Charles Isherwood of the New York Times<\/em> reviewed the 2008 off-Broadway production, and, I\u2019m sad to say, it totally applies to this current one at the Pasadena Playhouse, as well:\u00a0\u201c \u2018Good Boys and True,\u2019 about a scandal at a prep school, is a standard-issue issue play written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and acted competently by a likable cast. The brouhaha in question, unfortunately, is likely to inspire more stifled yawns than furrowed brows or raised consciousnesses.\u201d<\/p>\n So, for once, I must tell you a bit of the topic of this play.\u00a0Good Boys<\/em> is basically about the fallout from the making of a sex tape by a privileged prep school boy. That\u2019s really all you need to know.<\/p>\n This tale that\u2019s predominantly of sexual harassment and molestation is\u00a0always<\/em>\u00a0relevant, including right now with all the Hollywood scandals that have come to light in the past couple of years. But I feel this actual storyline would have been more\u00a0jolting\u00a0back in 1989, the year in which this play is set. Perhaps because\u00a0of the way-too-many horrific date-rape headlines these days, along with teens and millennials posting almost-pornographic images of themselves all over social media on a daily basis, this scenario does not have the\u00a0impact today that\u00a0the playwright seemed to be hoping for.<\/p>\n But this subject, real or fictional, is always<\/em> disturbing.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s what makes Good Boys<\/em> a drama, despite containing a good dose of humor. But when I read the official description of it when I got home, I was\u00a0shocked\u00a0to discover that it\u2019s being billed as a thriller<\/em>!!! Wha-at?! It\u2019s not even close! I would have been so disappointed if that\u2019s what I had been expecting. (It\u2019s not even much of a mystery<\/em>–I figured-out the tiny drop of puzzlement within a few minutes of the core of the plot being unveiled.)<\/p>\n Ben Ahlers and Dylan Arnold. Photo by Jenny Graham.<\/p><\/div>\n The narrative does start getting a little crazy in the second half, with several characters sharing his or her own account of an abhorrent high school sexual assault. It becomes almost like all the TV competitions nowadays, which you cannot win without a sob story. Except these are all horror stories.<\/p>\n There is\u00a0one<\/em>\u00a0thing I loved about this show.\u00a0Really<\/em> loved. The abs on the two college-bound guys! (Maybe that\u2019s why I wasn\u2019t seated in the front row–because the powers-that-be were worried I\u2019d rush the stage.) The definition on Ben Ehler is amazing! His abs are so good they look fake! (But believe me\u2014they are\u00a0not<\/em>. Thanks, binoculars!) I\u2019m so glad they included that near-nakedness in the locker room scene, (which could have been much longer, as far as I’m concerned,) even though it’s totally gratuitous. (But no worries about my appreciation of those muscles\u2014the young men are not really<\/em> teen-agers.)<\/p>\n Ben Ahlers and Dylan Arnold. Photo by Jenny Graham.<\/p><\/div>\n As I heard another audience member say that night, all the actors are adequate, but this difficult saga needed so much more. For me, (and I promise–not because of the abs,) Ben Ehlers as the entitled tape-maker, and Dylan Arnold as his admittedly-gay friend, come off the best. There\u2019s just something about Dylan\u2019s performance that seems so easy and genuine.<\/p>\n There is an aspect of this production that had never happened for me before at this iconic theatre; either all of a sudden the Playhouse has terrible acoustics, or the actors weren\u2019t miked, or they just didn\u2019t speak to the back wall. I\u2019m known to have bionic hearing, (so don\u2019t discuss your secrets within a hundred feet of me,)\u00a0but I couldn\u2019t make-out much of the dialogue. We sat towards the back of the theatre, (which I had never done before, so I have nothing to compare it to,) so that might be the culprit. In the first half, I could barely hear or understand Brett Cooper, the actress who plays the girl in the tape in question, at all. But someone backstage must have told her to project in the second act because she really hit all the right notes then. And I think the reason that several\u00a0of Betsy Brandt\u2019s punchlines were so low-key is that she\u2019s just used to doing television.<\/p>\n Okay, here\u2019s a mini-spoiler alert: I love seeing a parent take responsibility for his or her child\u2019s upbringing, which the mother character seems to do at the end. (But the writing really needs to let us in on\u00a0if she helps the girl out or not. The story is\u00a0revealed\u00a0but not resolved.)<\/p>\n That action reminded me of something Peyton Manning did in real life. Acknowledging the evil that your son has done to another human being is what his<\/em> mother should have done. (I\u2019m sure most of you are unaware of the sexual harassment the quarterback perpetrated on a female trainer in college, which his family helped him get away with, so if you\u2019re curious, you can learn about it here:\u00a0 itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/footballkarens-rant-peyton-manning-scandal<\/a>.)<\/p>\n James Carpinello and Betsy Brandt. Photo by Jenny Graham.<\/p><\/div>\n To wrap-up, despite my issues with much of it,\u00a0Good Boys<\/em>\u00a0is still worth seeing. First of all, any<\/em> trip to the Pasadena Playhouse is a worthwhile one. I love that place! And though it\u2019s far from the most riveting story I\u2019ve ever seen, and the performances need to percolate quite a bit more, if you\u2019re a fan of seeing TV actors work right in front of your eyes, this could be the theatre experience for you. (And perhaps some more of their TV pals will even stop by to support them doing the run.)<\/p>\n I just advise you to keep your hopes in check. Here\u2019s the thing about expectations: our low<\/em> ones are usually exceeded, while our high<\/em> ones almost always result in disappointment. So my own very<\/em> high ones may be why this show didn\u2019t quite cut it for me. And now that I\u2019ve lowered\u00a0yours<\/em>, you will almost surely enjoy\u00a0Good Boys<\/em>\u00a0more than I did.<\/p>\n Good Boys<\/em>\u00a0running through July 21, 2019<\/strong> GOOD BOYS Good Boys at the Pasadena Playhouse is one of the few plays I\u2019ve ever seen that’s populated by people from TV series I actually watch! Betsy Brandt from Life In Pieces\u00a0is the star, it\u2019s written\u00a0by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa who created\u00a0Riverdale, and it features James Carpinello from\u00a0The Enemy Within and cute entertainment business newbie Ben<\/p>\n![\"Betsy](\"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2019_Good_Boys_0030-2.jpg\")
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\n Pasadena Playhouse 39 South El Molino Avenue Pasadena 626-356-7529\u00a0www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"