Which Way to the Stage, Signature Theatre, Arlington, VA

 

Dani Stoller and Mike Millan as Judy and Jeff in Which Way to the Stage. Photo Credit: Daniel Rader.

Full disclosure: I am (and have been for years) completely one of the “theatre nerds” for whom Which Way to the Stage was written by Ana Nogueira. The comedy, which premiered off-Broadway last spring, is currently playing at Arlington’s Signature Theatre, where it continues through January 22. The play is performed in the Signature’s intimate Ark space.

Judy and Jeff are best friends: she’s an auditioning actress desperate to be cast, he’s an actor who fills some of the void in his employment by working as a drag performer. Their quest is an autograph from Broadway star Idina Menzel, appearing in the Broadway production of If/Then at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. They aren’t just fans, they are super-fans, almost stalkers, waiting by the stage door night after night, hoping their idol will emerge and provide them with her sacred signature.

On an audition, Judy meets Mark, an actor with a model’s good looks, for whom auditions inevitably result in job offers. He expresses interest, though at first insecure Judy isn’t sure whether the note he slipped into her bag was meant for her or for another actress at the same audition. She tells him about the vigil she and Jeff keep at the If/Then stage door. Mark joins them one evening. He’s intrigued by Jeff’s work in drag – Jeff has been performing as Barbra Streisand in “Yentl,” but is working on an interpretation of Idina Menzel, incorporating her characters in Rent and Wicked. Judy and Mark go to one of Jeff’s performances, but Judy leaves early because of an early audition the next day. Mark and Jeff chat after the show and Mark expresses his interest in Jeff, thwarting the straight-woman/gay-best-friend dynamic that has been at the core of the Judy/Jeff relationship.

Of course, this causes major conflict between Jeff and Judy, as well as between Jeff and Mark, since Jeff knows that Judy will blame him for stealing someone who has flirted with her and Jeff feels a certain amount of guilt about that. Jeff insists that what is holding Judy back is confidence, that what she needs is to embolden herself by trying drag herself. She does, triumphantly, lip synching to “Rose’s Turn” from Gypsy, as performed by Bernadette Peters.

The play features some of the most realistic dialogue I’ve heard in a new play in a long time, delivered at times in rat-a-tat-tat fashion in some of the most realistic deliveries I’ve seen by actors who have mastered the lines, the attitudes, the timing. The lines come organically out of the characters’ thoughts in real time with no artifice whatsoever. I was totally engaged.

But I am not the average theatre-goer. I understood all of the in-jokes, the references that most in the general audience would not. First and foremost, how many in the general public know the actress Idina Menzel? Those who know her, probably do so because she sang the Oscar-winning “Let It Go” in the Disney film “Frozen,” or perhaps because John Travolta massacred her name when introducing her on that Oscar broadcast as “Adele Dazeem.” (That mispronunciation probably caused more to be aware of her than if he’d gotten it right.)

To fully enjoy Which Way to the Stage, it would be helpful to know that Idina Menzel first came to prominence in her Tony-nominated performance as Maureen in Rent in 1996 (a role she repeated in the 2005 film), followed by her Tony-winning turn as the green-faced Elphaba in Wicked in 2003. If/Then followed in 2014.

In addition to a passing acquaintance with Rent and Wicked, it would be helpful to know a bit about Avenue Q and two of its characters, Lucy the Slut and Princeton, as well as the iconic musical Gypsy. And that the leading role in Gypsy was played on Broadway by Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone. (Jeff and Judy argue about which one was better, though they agree that both were better than Imelda Staunton, who played the role in London.) It would be helpful to know that drag performers sometimes specialize in performing roles of singing actresses, icons known by their first names only: Barbra, Liza, Chita, Bernadette, Patti, Idina.

Ethan Heard, Signature’s new associate artistic director, makes his Signature directorial debut with this production. His direction is sure-handed, allowing characters who could easily have become stereotypes to be fully-realized individuals. The design team (Richard Ouellette, scenery; Frank Labovitz, costumes; Jesse Belsky, lighting; Ali Pohanka, wigs) does excellent work here, down to the finest details.

As previously mentioned, the actors deliver the dialogue in an ultra-realistic means. Dani Stoller as Judy is an energetic mess as the insecure Judy, transforming from a caterpillar to a butterfly when she takes the stage in her “drag” performance. Mike Millan not only manages to create a singular character in Jeff, but also a hysterical drag performance as Idina. The scene in which he alternates speaking and synching with the real Idina is a masterpiece of comic timing. Michael Tacconi as Mark effortlessly creates a character who doesn’t know just how privileged he is, being cast in roles without the desperate yearning the other acting wannabes have, but recognizes that he has an ambiguity that allows him to charm the ladies and the gay men without missing a beat. Nina-Sophia Pacheco is triple-cast as an auditioning actress, an inebriated bachelorette/bride-to-be, and a casting director, and makes each one a separate character.

The play is just under two hours and is performed without an intermission. Although, as stated earlier, I found the dialogue to be exceptionally written and performed at what sometimes seems a breakneck pace, either an intermission is needed or, preferably, some judicious editing could take off ten minutes or so. Nogueira has special talents for writing dialogue and creating characters. I would like to see what she comes up with next.

For “theatre nerds,” this is a must-see. For the rest of you, I guarantee you laughs, even if you don’t understand all of the theatrical nuances.