Unlike its recent seasons, Boca Stage has no Neil Simon plays in its current line-up. But with America’s Sexiest Couple, boy, does it come close.
Its playwright, Ken Levine, is no stranger to sitcoms, having spent much of his career writing episodes of M*A*S*H, Cheers and Frasier. Still, this Levine stage comedy will bring to mind a couple of Simon classics –– Plaza Suite and The Sunshine Boys — crossed with Cheers’ Ted Danson and Shelly Long and their steamy on-again-off-again-romance characters, Sam and Diane.
You see, America’s Sexiest Couple is about Susan (Kim Ostrenko) and Craig (Wayne LeGette), the stars of Residents, a popular 1990s television medical show, whose on-air sexual attraction was so convincing that its loyal viewers naturally assumed — incorrectly — that they were boinking off-screen too. In fact, their egos were so large the only person they managed to love was themselves. And the rumors of sexual tension between them merely escalated when Susan mysteriously and abruptly left the show at the height of its success.
It has been 25 years since they have seen or spoken to each other, but fate and a solid comic premise brings them together now in, of all places, Syracuse, N.Y., to attend the funeral of their sitcom’s second banana. Their meeting in a downscale Marriott hotel room triggers a long pent-up bickerfest, which leads to — yes, you will see it coming a mile off — their tumble into bed to finally consummate their long-simmering attraction.
The death of their former colleague does more than bring Susan and Craig together. It also sparks an interest by CBS in rebooting Residents, throwing a lifeline to their careers, which have been reduced to doing demeaning commercials and — worse yet — submitting to the indignities of appearing in stage plays. They both miss the adulation and the money that comes from appearing again in a network series, but they’ll be damned if they will admit that to each other.
Levine mines this situation for plenty of laughs, aided by the skilled delivery of Ostrenko and LeGette, two — dare we say it? — old pros. Cleverly, their banter often rises to the snappy level of sitcom as they recall their far-off heydays. It is only late in the 80-minute intermissionless production, as Susan reveals the secret of why she left the series many years ago that America’s Sexiest Couple ventures into darker territory, not very convincingly.
Other than that, however, Boca Stage concludes its first season at the Delray Beach Playhouse on an entertaining note, with a script by Levine that has been-there authenticity all over it. It is aided by the crafty direction of the company’s resident director, Genie Croft, who ups the sizzle level of the play and fosters the chemistry between her two lead actors.
Cindi Blank Taylor contributes an aptly impersonal hotel room set and Alberto Arroyo provides the prosaic costumes, which Ostrenko and LeGette spend the evening getting in and out of. Only the lighting design by Steve Bleich is a liability, with its frequent, puzzling level changes.
Still, a truism of the theater is that sex sells, so Levine was probably halfway towards success with this play by putting “sexiest” in the title. America’s Sexiest Couple may not steam up your glasses, but it is bound to provide you with more than a few chuckles.
AMERICA’S SEXIEST COUPLE, Boca Stage at Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 NW 9th Street, Delray Beach. Through Sat., April 27. $39 to $69. 561-272-1281.