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‘Take Me Out’ to Marietta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW: “Take Me Out.” Through March 27.
Baseball, apple pie and hot dogs: That’s what America is all about, right?
If you believe that, you probably think Harry Truman is still president.
According to Richard Greenberg’s “Take Me Out,” the story of a baseball star who decides to come out of the closet, America’s favorite pastime (and by extension the very soul of the republic) is really a festering sore of racism, homophobia, greed and hypocrisy.
Well, blow me away. Anyone who reads the papers knows that’s not exactly an original idea.
“Take Me Out,” which won the 2003 Tony Award for best play, is precisely the kind of work for which phrases like “scathing indictment” and “withering expose” were created. Except when they take their clothes off, which they often do, none of Greenberg’s characters, including the gay hero, end up looking too good.
An overblown potboiler posing as social critique, “Take Me Out” is too serious for its own good, has too many agendas and is as flawed and lacking in self-awareness as most of its characters.
That said, Theatre in the Square’s gutsy new production is as irresistible as a tabloid tell-all. It’s also likely to be one of the season’s most talked-about shows.
Narrated in memory style by Kippy Sunderstrom (Daniel May in top comic form), a player for the fictional New York Empires, “Take Me Out” replays the events following a news conference in which poster boy Darren Lemming (Brandon Dirden) admits he’s homosexual.
When the team goes into a slump, pitcher Shane Mungitt (Travis Young) arrives to reverse the losing streak. A man with a dark past, he’s all bottled up. Then one day, he gives a news conference and slurs his black, Latino and Asian teammates. As a coup de grace, he says showering next to a “faggot” makes him nervous.
Uh-oh. Remember John Rocker?
It’s a disappointing stereotype that the team’s No. 1 bigot is a Southern redneck. At the same time, the Latino players call the Japanese player a “Nip,” and when a teammate tries to embrace the Japanese hitter with genuine affection, he gets called a “faggot.” Welcome to the United Nations of prejudice and homophobia.
Everyone in this cruel game is a mess. Lemming (played with sly coolness by Dirden) ends up wishing his best friend dead and harasses Mungitt in the shower. Mungitt becomes a victim of his own ignorance and the public’s impulse to judge. Portrayed with sadness and an authentic dialect by Young, he’s the ultimate loser —- twice abandoned by society.
Fortunately, Matthew Myers brings great comic zeal to the part of Mason Marzac, Lemming’s gay financial adviser who ends up becoming baseball’s most ardent poet.
Director Alan Kilpatrick coaxes superb performances from his cast. These actors act like baseball jocks, and no one looks uncomfortable in the long, uninhibited nude scenes. Linda Patterson’s uniforms are crisp white and bright blue. And John Thigpen’s set easily converts from locker room to sleek communal shower.
Greenberg’s emotionally adrenalized characters do little to illuminate the complex personalities and politics of the sport. Better writers and filmmakers have waxed poetical about the game.
But it’s a testament to the spunk of Marietta’s Theatre in the Square that it has programmed this edgy script without apology. Like Lemming and Mungitt, the theater knows a thing or two about controversy and sensationalism.
After the theater produced “Lips Together, Teeth Apart” in 1993, the Cobb County Commission cut all public arts funding because of homosexual references in the Terrence McNally play. The elected officials said gay themes weren’t compatible with county values.
Twelve years later, it’s no small victory that our artists are setting the standards of taste —- not the politicians.
The verdict: Shock jocks make uneven play irresistible.
THE 411: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Through March 27. $20-$25. Theatre in the Square, Alley Stage, 11 Whitlock Ave., Marietta. 770-422-8369, www.theatreinthe square.com.
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