'Laughing dog' entertaining, not for everyone

Bryan VanDriel
April 11, 2008

Comments Print Email

WHERE TO GO

WHAT: "And the Little Dog Laughed" WHEN: 8 p.m. today and Saturday WHERE: Hensel Phelps Theater in the UCCC, 701 10th Ave. (enter through the Recreation Center) TICKET INFO: (970) 351-2200

When describing the production of "The Little Dog Laughed" playing this weekend at the Hensel Phelps Theater, it might be best to first describe what it is not. It isn't a play you'll want to take your kids to. Or your mother. It definitely isn't mainstream theater that everyone will enjoy or even understand. Though not for everyone, this is a solid evening of entertainment. To borrow a line from the show, "It's excellent, and by that, I mean I only have a few notes."

This is an auspicious undertaking by UNC Theater students Noah Longton and Jake Holt. Representing their senior thesis project, with Longton as director and Holt as stage manager, they received essentially no support from UNC, so they financed this production on their own. That, by itself, is a lot to be proud of.

The show centers on up-and-coming actor Mitchell (James May), and his razor-sharp agent Diane, played by Kat Doyle. Mitchell, who suffers from a "slight, yet recurring case of homosexuality," finds himself falling for Alex (Kalen Boyd), his latest "rent boy." Complicating matters and rounding out the cast is Alex's "friend" Ellen (Jodie Grundin).

The play also is a brutally honest, albeit somewhat tongue-in-cheek, look at the shallowness of the entertainment industry. Named after the Mother Goose nursery rhyme, the title refers to the triteness and completeness of the final solution of both the fable and this story.

The only real problem with this show is the script. Playwright Douglas Carter Beane wrote it almost like it's two separate shows: a comedy for Diane and a drama for everyone else. It's as a comedy that it is most successful. With some of the best lines heard in modern theater ("What we have is kinda like a relationship, only it's enjoyable"), he might have been better writing a straight comedy (no pun intended). Yet the humor may contain too many inside jokes, as when Diane says with a perfectly straight face, "I give you my word as an entertainment industry professional."

This talented troupe shines brightest in two scenes. The first is Ellen's bittersweet first act soliloquy; the second being Diane and Mitchell's extended phone negotiation with unseen people, portraying both what was said and what they wish they could have said. Longton demonstrates real talent as a director, and it's our loss that he is moving on, as it would be great to see more of his work in the future.

In Greeley, we're spoiled by a university that provides us with a steady stream of quality theatrical productions, yet we sometimes have to look a little harder to find the quirky, not-so-mainstream gems like "The Little Dog Laughed." But don't take the kids.

-- Bryan VanDriel lives in Greeley and has been active in the arts for over 30 years.