"It's Only a Play" at Park Square Theatre

If you love theater (and if you don't, why are you reading this), you must get to downtown St. Paul ASAP to see Park Square Theatre's production of It's Only a Play, the first show in their 50th season. Written by great American playwright Terrance McNally, this is a play about theater and theater artists. It hilariously makes fun of theater and everyone and everything surrounding it (including too many celebrity references to count), but in the end it's a real love letter to theater that would have brought tears to my eyes in the way it speaks to what theater means to us, if I weren't laughing so much. It premiered Off-Broadway in the '80s but was updated to bring it into the 21st century for its 2014 Broadway debut, and feels as if it may have been updated even since then, so current are the references. Park Square is putting on a superb production in every way, including an impeccable local cast. This feels like a play that was made just for me, and every theater-lover (continuing through October 19).

The entire play takes place over the course of one evening in the swanky bedroom of Broadway producer Julia Budder's NYC townhouse, as she and others attached to the play await the reviews at the opening night party. Playwright Peter Austin is making his Broadway debut, with direction by the hot young British director Frank Finger. Recently paroled Hollywood star Virginia Noyes is returning to Broadway to star in this play, and Peter's best friend James Wicker has flown in to attend opening night (the play was written for him but he's a sitcom star now). Into this mix is added theater critic with an agenda Ira Drew and aspiring actor Gus, who has been hired to take people's coats as they enter the party (the running gag as he brings in coats from various celebrities and casts of Hamilton, The Lion King, etc. is hilarious). We see these characters in various pairs, trios, and larger groups as they talk about the play (spoiler alert: it's not great) as well as their careers, histories, friendships. The all-important New York Times review is released at the end of Act I, and after intermission we find out what it says, which isn't really a surprise, because a rave wouldn't be funny. These friends all blame each other, until they eventually come together to make something new, because it's what they do.

Warren Bowles, Emily Gunyou Halaas, Sally Wingert,
Jim Lichtsheidl, and Daniel Petzold (photo by Dan Norman)

Park Square's Artistic Director Stephen DiMenna is pitch perfect in his direction, with no opportunity for laughs left behind. He gets exceptional performances from everyone in this exceptional cast, with delightfully over-the-top characterizations of these eccentrics, without losing their humanity. I could watch Jim Lichtsheidl talk on the phone and trip over things for two hours, and the role of an egocentric theater-turned-sitcom actor allows for plenty of that and more, as he rarely leaves the room. Sally Wingert is just divine as the drug-addicted possibly murderous has-been actor Virginia, Emily Gunyou Halaas is charmingly ditzy as the wealthy producer who constantly messes up famous quotes, Daniel Petzold is wildly funny and very British as Sir Frank, Warren Bowles fully embodies the theater critic and the contentious relationship with the theater people, Sasha Andreev is beautifully sincere as playwright Peter and delivers some poignant lines about theater, and Nate Turcotte is adorable as the eager and naive young Gus. This cast really couldn't be better, and they all fully commit to this farce of a play (including a delightful running gag about the slippery couch).

Benjamin Olsen's set design is truly stunning, very posh and expensive looking and not quite practical, all pale colors and rounded edges. A couch and a few chairs serve as the main area center stage, with a bed on a raised platform behind it (collecting coats) and a closet and door to the bathroom off to the side. It's gorgeously lit (by Marcus Dilliard), and the sound design (by C. Andrew Mayer) reminds us of the party downstairs every time the door opens (and also the dog in the bathroom). Mathew J. LeFebvre's costumes are extravagant and character-specific, from the men's classic tuxes, to Sir Frank's colorful plaid suit, to Virginia's chic brown jumpsuit with long feathered coat, to Julia's golden gown.

This play is an absolute joy, poking fun at while also celebrating the thing I love most - theater. But It's Only a Play is a play that doesn't take itself too seriously, because after all, it's only a play. And isn't that wonderful, just wonderful?