It’s a good time for comedies, so here’s a quick roundup. Coincidentally, they’re all by women and provide stand-out parts for actresses. (Women can be funny, no matter what Christopher Hitchens says.)
Kristen Johnston delivers a knockout comic performance in Maurine Dallas Watkins’ “So Help Me God!,” which I reviewed in today’s paper. I love it when a performer goes over the top so fearlessly — and within the character’s parameters, not gratuitously. Johnston had been waiting for a role like this. Catherine Curtin also kills in what basically is the Ginger Rogers part, the tough broad always ready with a tart rejoinder.
Last night I finally caught up with “Or,” at Women’s Project. I enjoyed Maggie Siff’s performance as department-store heiress Rachel Menken in “Mad Men,” but never would have suspected she had such comic chops. In Liz Duffy Adams’ play, Siff scored the juicy role of Aphra Behn, based on the real-life playwright and spy — a great combo right there. She gets to do some feverish writing with a quill, canoodles with men and women, and tries to keep a straight face as the wheels of farce increasingly spin out of control. She alone is worth the price of admission.
The area Melissa James Gibson explores in “This” is grayer, tempered by doubts and regrets, but she writes great observational comedy. The parlor game that makes up the bulk of the first scene is hilarious before turning sour, a combination Gibson is a master of. She also rejuvenates the tired character of the quippy gay best friend who can’t find love, with great help from Glenn Fitzgerald’s subtle interpretation.
Also at Playwrights Horizons (the company is on a roll, “The Retributionists” notwithstanding), but in the smaller space, you may want to catch Annie Baker’s sweet comedy “Circle Mirror Transformation,” which returns for a limited engagement on December 15-January 17. Baker follows an acting class in a Vermont arts center, and delineates her characters with sensitivity and affection. Of course she includes lots of acting exercises in the plot — moments when people let their guards down always are a great source of comic inspiration.
Finally, don’t miss Sarah Ruhl’s wonderful, witty “In the Next Room or the vibrator play.” In their scenes together, Laura Benanti and Maria Dizzia have the verve and timing of great comediennes.