Review: Adrift in Macao

Adrift in Macao has all the trappings of a hilarious send up of film noir movies and musicals - women in slinky dresses, dangerous men running from the law, even a reference to The Scarlett Pimpernel. Sadly, the new musical is perplexingly ineffective, and alarmingly unfunny. In Christopher Durang's program notes, he says that the piece is "intended as one of my 'entertainments'," a loving and lighthearted parody as opposed to his biting satires that skewer issues of class, religion, and politics. I suspect that Durang puts in a lot more careful effort when he's writing his terrific satires than he did when he was piling the frosting and sprinkles onto this rotten cake. Peter Melnick's music appropriately envokes the sillyness and darkness of the material Macao takes aim at, but there's only so much you can do with lyrics that are dead on arrival.

Primary Stages calls Adrift in Macao "the tale of five quirky characters stranded in a Casablanca-like locale in the Far East." The bunch of five are led by Mitch (Alan Campbell) and Lureena (Rachel De Benedet), as a pair of stranded Americans in a foreign city. They are joined by Rick Shaw, a sleazy bar owner, Tempura, a mysterious Chinese man, and Corinna, an opim-addicted lounge singer. The plot vaguely echoes all the old film noir movies, but never commits to any direction in particular - the characters mostly sit around, waiting for something to happen (I'm not exaggerating). Stale material isn't aided by performers who seem oblivious to the fact that the thing is supposed to be a symphony of winks directed at the audience. Did director Sheryl Kaller forget to let the actors in on the joke? Rachel De Benedet plays the seductive lounge singer completely straight, acting as if she's in a drama rather than committing to (and enjoying) the ridiculousness of the situations Durang has presented. The other actors don't fare much better, with the exception of the indefatigueably funny Michele Ragusa, who plays Corinna as an aging, sardonic Betty Boop who's always jonesing for a fix. Watching her is delightful, but the energy in the house is so low that her jokes barely land, let alone make the huge splash she so deserves.

This is the third piece I've seen at 59E59, and each has been worst than the last. Is this simply a cursed space? The bar is pretty fabulous, with delicious original cocktails at a very reasonable $7, but I'm afraid that next time I'll be tempted to stay there all night rather than venturing into the actual theater.

Primary Stages presents Adrift in Macao through March 4th at 59E59.