This review has been reposted courtesy of the League of Cincinnati Theatres. For more LCT reviews click here to visit their reviews page.
If you are looking for a lighthearted night out, The Carnegie Theatre concludes its season with The Underpants, a bedroom farce adapted by comedian Steve Martin. The Underpants is an outrageous, over-the-top story about a young bride who creates a sensation when her underpants fall down while watching a parade for a turn-of-the-century German king.
Randy Lee Baily as Theo, Erin Ward as Louise, Michael Hall as Cohen & Brian Griffin as Versati. Photo by Mikki Schaffner Photography.
The audience does not actually see the scandalous incident. The play opens in the living room of Frau Louise and Herr Theo’s home, a respectable middle-class, newlywed couple. Having just heard of Louise’s underpants incident, Theo (Randy Lee Bailey), a stuffy and pompous civil servant, has come home from work and is mortified — not for Louise (Erin Ward), but for himself, imagining all sorts of repercussions from the embarrassing incident that will affect his job and their overall livelihood. Louise, on the other hand, is not at all concerned.
To make financial ends meet, the couple rent a single room to two boarders, who were attracted by the “wardrobe malfunction” and are willing to pay any price for the chance to live under the same roof as Frau Louise, leading to many comic and somewhat bawdy situations. Versati (Brian Griffin) is a playboy poet who Louise is actually attracted to and Cohen (Michael Hall), is a creepy guy who chases Louise around the apartment. In the thick of all this chaos is the nosey neighbor, Gertrude (Jodie Schwegmann-Meyn), who is the highlight of this Carnegie production as she encourages Louise’s enjoyment and sexual arousal from all this unexpected attention.
All-in-all, the play addresses the roles of men and women, the balance of power in a marriage, and lighthearted sexual tension. The set design by Ryan Howell is appealing and the costumes by Jim Stump deserve kudos–they display the elegance of the period but also add to the absurdity of some of the characters. The cast is loaded with talented local actors who have proved their abilities many times over in past productions, but never quite gelled into a stylistically cohesive unit in this production. Martin’s script is a fast paced ninety minute one-act play, but The Carnegie production was somewhat tepid and drawn-out.
The Underpants continues at The Carnegie through April 26.
For more information on the production, click here.
Behind the Curtain Cincinnati 