San Diego Arts"The Little Dog Laughed" at Diversionary Theatre
Sublime bitchiness Many, many very good play-writers have had their turn at heaping scorn and sarcasm on the movie industry, which really doesn’t even notice. I thought I had seen the ultimate when David Mamet gave us “Speed-the-Plow.” Well, there’s a new contender. Now playing at Diversionary Theatre. Don’t blame me if you procrastinate and can’t get tickets for I shall now proceed to rave. Douglas Carter Beane is no Mamet, but he’s got some leverage Mamet didn’t have, an outed gay audience primed to savor not only the raging nihilism but also the virtuoso bitchiness of Hollywood combat. This movie star headed up the status ladder is in New York at his agent’s insistence to see and be seen around a play that might turn into his career-defining movie role. Boy-next-door straight actor playing heavy dramatic gay character has awards written all over it. Except this actor really IS gay, even if he looks to be the last to know. His habit of hiring male hustlers to join him in his hotel room, which he only does now and then, is just, oh, a diversion. A novelty he learned in the Boy Scouts: “The merit badge that dare not speak its name.” As fate and theatrical plots often have it, the particular hired companion of the moment turns out to be an old American theatrical icon: the Whore With a Heart of Gold. (This is one of several stereotypes employed by Beane and director Robert Barry Fleming to excellent effect.) In due course, star and tart (he isn’t really gay either, he insists) began to explore a life together but, given the insecurities and pride and whatever, it’s looking like a lot of work is going to be needed. And that’s when the show’s compass, its ballast and rudder and main propulsion unit, takes over. The agent. What a part! And what an actress Fleming has found to play it! (More on Karson St. John directly.) Within the first few minutes of the play, she has the audience singing along on “Moon River.” Whenever some swirling sentiment seems to be sticking, she’s back to restore the purity of the cynicism. And when the plaguey problems of the little people (there’s also the hustler’s girlfriend to manage) intrude, then she drops in like a Moliere deus ex machina and executes a warm and happy ending appropriate for the occasion. For some reason, the author has this paragon of unapologetic venality confess early that she’s a Lesbian. Nothing comes of this – “Who has time?” she asks, rhetorically – and I find it gratuitous. But, hey, you won’t find me complaining about anything, really, that author, director and actress do with this part. Karson St. John, splendidly dressed by Jennifer Brawn Gittings, drapes her long, lean, expensive body over some piece of Jungah Han’s chic set, purses her lush lips, widens her bright eyes and simply displays the divinity. She’s so exactly right and so capable of floating the audience on clouds of swooning glee that she sometimes forgets to hold the next line until enough of the laughter has cleared. Take your time, darling. None of us have anything better to do. Brian Mackey plays the movie star with cool competence. Bryan Bertone manages a believable boyishness as the hustler but he doesn’t really grapple with how anybody in such a trying trade could maintain so much sweetness. As the girlfriend (they’ve been together since high school but now, she says, they’re 24 and life is hopeless) who has herself turned a trick or two, Kelly Iverson starts strongly but trails away into sullen distraction. None of this particularly effects the play’s churning drive toward that fluffy ending. There’s not even time here for irony, just a sense of Corruption’s Express rushing past in the dark night of the soul.
 Welton Jones About the author: Welton Jones has been reviewing shows for more than 50 years, 35 of those years at the San Diego Union-Tribune and, now, nearly 10 for SanDiego.com, where he wrote the first reviews to appear on the site. More by this author Subscribe to Arts:
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