By MICHAEL AUSHENKER | Contributing Writer
As anyone with a Facebook account knows, one risks engaging in shrill, alienating, choir-preaching, partisan discourse when attempting to attack the other side.
It comes as some relief that—despite its baiting title—Jerry Mayer’s latest play, the election year-ready “How To Love a Republican,” does a deft job of being an equal opportunity American sniper.
The comedic play opens Saturday at Santa Monica Playhouse.
Elizabeth Ellson plays Margie McCoy, the apolitical daughter of estranged parents/politically polar opposites, Tim and Ruth McCoy. When Margie starts dating a diehard Democrat running for office, her GOP father schemes to set her up on a date with said Democrat’s Republican rival, complicating Margie’s heart and teeing off her Liberal mother in the process.
Mayer’s cast is so good, it’s truly hard to single out any actor, whether it’s Dan Gilvezan’s Yiddish-spouting, staunch Republican, Irish-American dad, Rachel Galper’s hard-Left, Jewish liberal mom or Matthew Wrather as Congressman Mark Bliss, who turns out to be more complex than meets the eye. As Bliss’ rival Leonard Klein, Adam Mondschein does an outstanding job of bringing his hilarious character to quirky, nuanced life.
On the technical side, Fritz Davis makes the video projections happen, allowing Mayer to sneak in a few digs at various GOP and Dem candidates via some Photoshop-crafted sight gags in the background.
The political content in writer Mayer’s play is so broadly played for laughs, it’s hard to believe that anyone would walk out of the theater too offended. With an IMDB filmography that includes “All in the Family,” “The Bob Newhart Show,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “M.A.S.H.,” the Paseo Miramar resident certainly knows his way around a zinger.
Alternating between clever and corny, the jokes here are mostly hit and occasionally miss. However, a few outright groaners aren’t enough to derail this fleet, light-on-its-feet assessment of politics in 21st century America.
For more information, visit santamonicaplayhouse.com.
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