Sun. June 7

 Might as well say it flat-out: We’ve never laughed so hard or so often at an A.R.T. production as we did during David Mamet’s “Romance,” up at the Loeb Drama Center through June 7. This laughter was often accompanied by a wince or a tinge of “should I be laughing at this?” reflection, but it some ways Mamet’s play took me to the same state comic Robert Schimmel does. The topics are outrageous, beyond the pale and hilarious as hell. It’s the great release valve cutting-edge comedy brings.
Mamet, according A.R.T. executive director Robert Orchard, wrote the play about five years ago, partially in response to the common thought: “Mamet’s a great, gritty dramatist, but can he do comedy?” If true, Mamet took up the challenge with great purpose and in “Romance,” created a courtroom farce that is profane, profound in places and effin brilliant. If you know Mamet, former Newton resident, you know the man likes his f-bombs and a (rough) count on press night revealed 64 variations of the world’s favorite curse. None used gratuitously, it must be said.
Orchard said he’d seen the play on Broadway and – yes, he has a vested interest here, of course – but said he better liked the A.R.T. production, directed by Scott Zigler and starring Will LeBow (in photo) as Danny the Judge.

LeBow's done a lot of great acting for the A.R.T. and elsewhere but his stressed-out, sunken-eyed, befuddled, deranged, drug-addled, allergy-afflicted, peace-loving, anti-Semitic pedophile-cum-biosexual/homophobe (with an occasional moment of clarity) is just a marvel of twists and turns. What goes on in his head is like a giant roulette wheel and you never know where the ball will stop. And the expressions on his face, as he delivers these bon-mots are a treat.

When the Defendant, the rotund bearded Remo Airaldi and his Defense Attorney, sharp-jawed Jim True-Frost, want to get a half-hour respite from court – because they, a Jew-hating lawyer and a Christian-bashing criminal-chiropractor, have miraculously concocted a scenario for peace in the Middle East - which seems to involved the Defendant's skill at spine straightening. It seems there’s a conference about Middle East peace going on across the street – we hear the parades and sirens – and if only they could get over there and adjust the leaders they could magically make Palestine and Israel co-exist. No such luck. The Judge, in fact, sings, “No, I will not let you go!” from Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” That’s that. Everyone accepts that exclamation as the judge’s decision. A reasonable one, at that. Given these circumstances, where reason is not often in play.

We’re not sure at the beginning what Remo’s character is on trial for, but we eventually suspect that it may have something attacking a chiropodist. He also may have had an illicit relationship with a buff black man, Bernard (or Bunny) played by Carl Foreman. Bunny, it turns out, has a relationship with the prosecuting attorney, played Thomas Derrah. Hmmm … Something will come to a head here. Something involving ... romance.

But “Romance” is far less a plot-driven exercise than it is a joyous (and scabrous) stab at political correctness, an indulgence adult silliness and an exercise in barely repressed anger - anger expressed as bilious barbs, which is to say, comedy. We say adult because – as a program board notes in the lobby – this play is guaranteed to offend everyone possible. (See: laundry list at the end.) In this, “Romance” recalls Norman Lear’s groundbreaking ‘70s sitcom, “All in the Family,” where America heard armchair bigot Archie Bunker toss the word “kike” around rather freely.

That word – and many worse – are used in “Romance.” The Jew is a “Christ-killer,” the Episcopalian (“a Catholic with a Volvo?”) sends his boy for church-sponsored hockey and it is suggested the priest will most certainly bugger the yonng lad. The Episcopalian lawyer berates the Jewish Defendant for Holocaust obsession: “You people cannot eat a cheese sandwich without mentioning the Holocaust?” Defendant’s retort: We don’t eat them because they have no taste. (He does, however, note his people have a habit of eating Christian babies – you know that old canard.) The Christian lawyer behooves the Arabs to rise up in droves to drive Israel into the sea. And so it goes. Punch. Counterpunch. Punch. Counterpunch.

In terms of actors, it’s LeBow who’s the star of the show. He’s a sad-sack judge who has no idea how he got there, loves the idea he can condemn anyone to death for the hell of it, and takes his outer-garments off when he’s too hot. He spends a lot of time musing as to whether Shakespeare was Jewish, gay, or both. “Was Shakespeare a Jew or was he a normal person?” He is “relieved” to find out that when he confesses his father was a Jew, that the Jewish Defendant tells him he’s not really a Jew because his mother wasn’t Jewish. Hooray for the rules of lineage! The judge praises the Lord for that one. (Note: Although this play embraces equal-opportunity racial-ethnic-religious baiting, Mamet himself is Jewish.)

The tirades, diatribes and barbs all do coalesce into a confessional scene at the end of this 80-minute play. To reveal those conclusions, however, would be revealing too much. There’s some heartbreak - you sort of strangely care about these misfits - and a lot of humor. Robert Brustein, the A.R.T.’s founder, was at the play and proclaimed, “Will LeBow has blown me away!" He, like Orchard, had seen it on Broadway and found this version “twice as funny.” And of his vested interest? Oh, maybe, Brustein said with a smile “but I am retired.”

It’s the A.R.T.’s first production of a Mamet Celebration that continues May 29 – June 6 with shorts by him, Pinter and Shel Silverstein and “Sexual Perversity in Chicago” and “The Duck Variations” June 11 –28.
Performances:  The last shows are today Sunday June 7 at 2 and 7:30. Tickets: $79-$25.

Oh the list of those this play could offend:

LGBT Community
African Americans
Africans
Muslims
Catholics
Protestants
Jews
Lawyers
Bailiffs
Prosecutors
Pedophiles
Doctors
Judges
Rabbits and Rabbit Enthusiasts
Those Afflicted With Swine Flu
NATO officials
Chiropractors
Chiropodists
Palestinians
Arabs
Arab Americans
Priests
Retail Employees
Liberals
Conservatives
Moderates
Shakespearians
Historians (especially US Historians)
Film Buffs New Yorkers
The Swiss
Icelanders
The Japanese
The Polish
The Welsh
Native Americans

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