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Thursday, May 10, 2007
‘Hank Kimmel’s Shorts’ @ Jewish Theatre
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: C -
At the end of “Hank Kimmel’s Shorts,” just when the actors should be taking their bows, the ensemble erupts into a standing ovation — for the audience.
Like much of the material that makes up Atlanta playwright Hank Kimmel’s evening of sketch comedy, the gesture isn’t nearly as clever as the creative team seems to think that it is, though anyone who sits through this overstretched, frequently amateurish 2¸-hour program deserves an expression of gratitude from Jewish Theatre of the South.
Taking his cues from Woody Allen, David Sedaris and “Saturday Night Live,” Kimmel is preoccupied with the ironies of contemporary urban life, as seen through the Coke-bottle lens of his perpetually fretful alter ego and narrator (Andrew Benator). Soccer moms, football widows, constipated senior citizens, nervous travelers and agitated airport security officers are the subjects of Kimmel’s gentle ironies, which focus on the umbrella themes of domestic life, community, the workplace and the holidays. Spiked with up-to-the-minute jibes about Don Imus and Rosie O’Donnell, the four segments are bracketed by self-conscious little monologues about the author’s insecurity. Will the audience like it? Will folks come back after intermission? Does anyone really care?
With equal parts affection and anxiety, Kimmel comes across as such a kindhearted observer of human nature that his musings rarely have much bite. What this apologetic playwright desperately needs is an editor to trim his self-referential ramblings down to a reasonable 90 minutes. Director Mira Hirsch is apparently not up to the challenge.
“The Name Game” and “Early Morning Appointment” are built on single jokes stretched to the breaking point, and most of the “On the Job” section fails to make much of an impression at all, the one exception being “My Little Trip to the Airport,” a send-up of the hazards of post-9/11 travel. Kimmel finds more truth in the way two soccer moms (played by Megan Hayes and Marcie Millard) undergo a kind of courtship, or the alcoholic despair of a wife (Millard) who’s been tuned out by her Super Bowl-watching husband (Benator). “Love you, love you, baby,” says the armchair quarterback to the jocks on TV.
Perhaps the funniest playlet is “Your Local Pharmacy,” about a microphone-wielding druggist (Enoch King) who makes loud bloopers about his senior shoppers’ quest for condoms, marijuana and bowel relief. (Potty humor seems to be Kimmel’s métier.) Also nice is the nonverbal shtick of “Neighborhood Dance,” which flows like a silent film.
Whatever the shortcomings of these shorts, it must be said that all of the performers are good — particularly newcomer Benator; the underused King and Millard; and precocious Chamblee Middle School student Benjamin Appley-Epstein. Too bad that set designer Travis George’s replicas of picket fences and American homesteads are as shaky and wafer-thin as the script. All in all, “Hank Kimmel’s Shorts” feels too much like community theater. Is there a dramaturge in the house?
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