They Say the Lights Are Bright Off Broadway

Hop, Skipping and Jumping around Gotham

Comments (0) By Steven Leigh Morris Wednesday, Apr 8 2009

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ENTER LAUGHING is one of only a few musicals off-Broadway; written by Joseph Stein and Stan Daniels, it’s based on Carl Reiner’s semi-autobiographical novel about the theatrical ambitions of a terrible actor named David Kolowitz. An ode to 1930s New York, it comes rife with stock Jewish humor based on its protagonist’s sexual awakenings and delusions of artistic grandeur. Add to the mix the sundry guilt-trips of his family, particularly David’s mother (Jill Eikenberry), his father (Michael Tucker), his boss (Ray DeMattis) and an ensemble that spins the jokes and songs with such wry ease under Stuart Ross’ direction, the show wraps itself around you like a warm shawl on cold winter’s day. Josh Grisetti plays geek David, trying to make it on the stage. When told by his director (Bob Dishy) that he must stop speaking and even mouthing the lines of his scene partner, his attempts to restrain himself result in a kind of flush-faced agony and inadvertent squeals that show Grisetti to possess the physical dexterity and comic temerity of Buster Keaton. After the theater decides to stop charging David for his apprenticeship, he exults with a line that should ring all the way to Los Angeles: “I get to act for free!” York Theatre Company at the Theatre at Saint Peter’s, 619 Lexington Ave., New York. (212) 935-5820. Closed.

THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES L.A. publicist-producer David Elzer’s labor of puppy love just keeps going and going. Writer-director Roger Bean’s jukebox musical, set in 1958 and 1968, was born in 2001 at Milwaukee Rep and enjoyed an unusually lengthy run in L.A. before transferring to New York’s Westside Theatre, where it’s been packing them in for months. (It also had a brief run in Laguna Beach.) It tells the story of four sassy cheerleaders asked at the last minute to perform at the Springfield High prom. Farah Alvin, Beth Malone, Bets Malone and Victoria Matlock croon, in pitch-perfect harmony, ditties ranging from “All I Have To Do Is Dream” to “It’s My Party.” Wrapped in scenic kitsch, the quartet’s comic timing and improv skills with audience participants are equally well-honed. The New York Times called it irresistible, The New Yorker described it as “candy-coated nostalgia.” Elzer insists that the confetti content of Act 1 is merely a setup for the quartet’s 10-year reunion in Act 2, which — echoing Vanities — demonstrates how their sometimes competitive friendship can sustain through divorces and other life crises. The crowd I saw didn’t appear to be shelling out $100 a pop for the musical’s darker aspects. Westside Theatre/Upstairs, 407 West 43rd St., New York; Mon.-Wed.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Wed., Sat. & Sun., 3 p.m.; indef. (212) 239-6200.

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That the lighter-hearted fare is drawing much stronger press notices, and audiences, than the darker fare supports the commonplace that New York audiences are seeking escape from these economically icy times.