Audio By Carbonatix
She lures him into her chamber and keeps him there like a big, hungry spider. First she seduces him, and then he can’t leave because he throws his back out. It’s Christmas Eve and there’s a blizzard raging outside–no cabs, no limos. All the while she works on him, because this is the man she wants. It’s all a nightmare for him, but it’s a dream come true for her. It Had to Be You at the Germinal Stage Denver turns the traditional romantic-comedy formula on its ecstatic ear: It’s Fatal Attraction, only this time she wins.
Romantic comedy’s long and distinguished history has often concerned role reversal–the sexual predator becomes the prey. It still works today because there is something fundamentally amusing about turning convention on its head, because we still think of men as the initiators of romance (if not marriage) and because we still believe them to be more powerful than women. It may not always be true, but it remains part of the mythology of romance, even in our time.
Then, too, most of us like to cheer for the underdog, the person who has lost too often in love and needs a break. In this play by Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna, that role is reserved for a silly, soulful woman named Theda, an actress whose “talent” has never been tapped in quite the right way. Theda is also, as it turns out, a would-be playwright who hasn’t found the right subject matter for her peculiar form of comedy, either.
The show opens with Theda telling us that her dream has come true–so we know what’s coming right from the beginning. The play then becomes a history of her climb out of adversity and into a romance and a career. We see her at an audition, where she fails to get the job but inspires the producer/director of the commercial to consider her for a different ad. She somehow lures him home and into bed. Then begins her assault. At first you just can’t see how she’ll get there from here; she’s like someone attempting to dismantle a skyscraper with a hacksaw.
Victor, you see, has it all–a high-paying job, power, prestige and a string of uncomplicated, beautiful women. He also has an estranged son, stifled talent and a vague disgust with his life. Theda draws him out of himself, makes him call his son at college, inspires him with his own latent desire to write plays and demonstrates to him that life lived on the surface is less than satisfying. Romantic comedy at its best reminds us that there is an investment to be made in life and that those who fail to make it, fail.
It Had to Be You was written by actors, and it’s an actor’s dream to perform. Sallie Diamond stars as Theda, and husband Ed Baierlein directs and co-stars as Victor. They are superb together. Diamond creates a series of irritating mannerisms that serve her character’s abrasive nature. But she is nevertheless wholly believable as the underdog rising to the occasion of her own best interests. Diamond’s Theda is an absurd, driven woman, but she is also wise. Like so many of her theatrical predecessors, Theda understands her own natural impulses much better than her chosen mate understands his. She knows what’s good for both of them, and he doesn’t.
Baierlein’s dandy interpretation of Victor is an almost perfect blend of nerd and ne’er-do-well, of successful businessman and stifled artist, of playboy and exasperated husband. When his character crashes on the shoals of love, Baierlein drives him into a convincing slow burn. The cornered prey’s cynical wit keeps the audience giggling through the evening, but it’s Victor’s burning awakening to life that charms us in the end.
Romantic comedy often joins apparently inappropriate lovers, finding the meaning behind nature’s irrational equations. It Had to Be You does, too, but instead of the usual delightful young lady pursuing the reluctant bachelor, we get an over-the-hill actress chasing an aging playboy–a pleasant tale of modern romance woven out of the thin thread of impossible expectations and the fluff of love.
It Had to Be You, through August 7 at the Germinal Stage Denver, 2456 West 44th Avenue, 455-7108.