So after our perfect Italian repast at a nearby eatery, we segued over to the Zephyr Theatre, (a venue where every seat has an excellent sightline,) on Melrose to see a play that opened with a couple telling a gal pal about their\u2026meal in Italy! Great minds.<\/p>\n
In case you never heard of this 1998 play, (which I also did not,) the plot of\u00a0Dinner With Friends<\/em>\u00a0is simple: It consists of two friendly couples, and then one couple breaks up. And it\u2019s basically a comedy with\u00a0a lot of angst.<\/p>\n This photo is not from the actual show, but I wasn’t given any correct ones, so oh well. (L-R) Amy Motta, Marieh Delfino, Jack Esformes,\u00a0and\u00a0Leith Burke. Judging by the constant and hearty audience laughter, the presentation is very entertaining. I have to be honest and say that I<\/em> barely laughed,\u00a0(I counted five chuckles and eight actual chortles from me,) even though I recognized that the lines are amusing. But since, as the title of this e-zine states, it\u2019s not about me, I have to point-out that the majority of the that the opening night audience was downright guffawing, including Fred and Jim, who told me they really enjoyed the show.<\/p>\n However, that laughter was almost all in the first half. Act II gets serious\u00a0and a tad tedious, and at least ten minutes should have been cut from it. But it’s actually a semi-famous play, that has been around for over two decades, (and then became a TV movie in 2001,) so the writing is not the fault of\u00a0this<\/em>\u00a0production.<\/p>\n My friends and I agreed that the acting (by\u00a0the quartet of Marieh Delfino, Jack Esformes,\u00a0Amy Motta, and\u00a0Leith Burke,) is good, which is always a bonus, especially in a smaller intimate theatre. And\u00a0I<\/em>\u00a0appreciated that the actors\u2019 ages matched, which is not always the case. So it was very believable that they could be couples and friends, without the audience having to wonder if age differences are part of the story.<\/p>\n But the\u00a0direction<\/em>\u00a0in the second half doesn\u2019t work well; the actors stop at just about every period in the script, which they do\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0do in Act I. Their lines are actually quick in the funny half, and they keep it all moving. Saying every sentence separately is Mr. X and my pet peeve with actors\u2014no one in real life talks like that. And this<\/em> foursome does such a good job with the\u00a0comic<\/em>\u00a0lines in Act I, that their work in Act II surprised me, especially in the uber-long final scene.<\/p>\n This photo is not from the actual show, either, but they’re all I have, so oh well. Photo by Kerttu Karon.<\/p><\/div>\n Now back to the writing, which actually leaves a lot to be desired in Act II. But\u00a0my friend Jim told me that he liked that the \u201cwriting in the second half keeps you slightly off-balance,\u201d\u00a0and said that he was \u201ccaptivated\u201d by each of the relationships.<\/p>\n But\u00a0I<\/em>\u00a0feel that the script is incomplete. It has no pay-off. And I don\u2019t get the title. It\u00a0does\u00a0<\/em>open with a dinner scene, and then in the second act, they\u00a0do<\/em>\u00a0chop a vegetable or two, and later on there\u2019s a salad for the ladies, but that\u2019s it. The one couple has dinner with the woman in the first scene, but that would be dinner with friend<\/em>, not friends<\/em>. Unless the title means it\u2019s from her point of view, which it does not seem to be.<\/p>\n No matter how picky my literal mind is being right now, Dinner With Friends<\/em>\u00a0is still an enjoyable evening of LA theatre for Southern Californians.<\/p>\n And I love that the producers did not change one woman\u2019s name from \u201cKaren.\u201d Not just because it\u2019s also\u00a0my<\/em> moniker, but because they didn\u2019t buy into the recent nonsense that uses our name to denote a racist with a blonde bob hair-do! So, good for them.<\/p>\n As far as the set goes, I actually enjoyed watching them put together the complicated scenery for each next section. But as much as I did, my friends and I thought there was a much easier way to portray all the locations, which would help shorten the over-two-hour length.<\/p>\n The pretty opening set of Dinner With Friends. I love all the pink and blue! Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n I do<\/em> have a couple of suggestions for them. During part of Act II, in a scene in which just the\u00a0women<\/em>\u00a0are chatting with each other, there are background nature noises to indicate that they\u2019re sitting outside in what I\u2019m guessing is the summer. But the noises need to be lower or the women need to talk louder because they were being drowned-out most of the time.<\/p>\n Also, I\u2019ve never had a problem with a theatre\u00a0program<\/em>\u00a0before, but this one omits the time and settings, which would be very helpful to know. A man from the theatre who gave a welcome speech at the start told us that the second half is twelve years prior to the first, but, as my friends told me, if we had missed that one sentence from him, we would have been totally lost. There are three more<\/em> scenes after that flashback, and they<\/em> take place sometime after that first<\/em> act, but it takes awhile to realize that the setting has now jumped forward. It looks to be at least six months later, but who knows.\u00a0 It was all so confusing to our own trio.<\/p>\n But now that I told you<\/em> about it, you\u2019re mentally prepared for it all. So,\u00a0if you want to see a Pulitzer Prize-winning dramedy, in a still-hip area of LA, (that you should definitely explore before or after the show,) I say go for this one. (But fair warning\u2014if you\u2019re in a troubled, or even a\u00a0potentially<\/em>\u00a0troubled, marriage, this may not be the show for you. Or\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0it? It may make you feel not so alone!)<\/p>\n My main suggestion, though, is that you do not go hungry because the cast eats and drinks and talks about and prepares food throughout! I have to go eat my leftovers now, just thinking about it.<\/p>\n Dinner With Friends<\/em>\u00a0running through April 28, 2024<\/strong> DINNER WITH FRIENDS I had a very fun night out last week-end, having \u201cdinner with friends,\u201d (Fred and Jim,) right before we saw the play\u2026Dinner With Friends. What a brilliant idea! (And it wasn\u2019t even\u00a0mine.) So after our perfect Italian repast at a nearby eatery, we segued over to the Zephyr Theatre, (a venue where<\/p>\n![\"This](\"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/IMG_3544.jpg\")
<\/a>
Photo by Kerttu Karon.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a><\/a>
\n Zephyr Theatre<\/strong>
\n 7456 Melrose Ave.<\/strong>
\n 323-965-9996\u00a0www.OnStage411.com\/Friends<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"