Surviving Sex
The battleground that is the Los Angeles dating scene is on vivid display in David Landsberg’s “Surviving Sex” at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank. Ripped straight out of a modern tableau where gender roles are ambiguous, women wear the pants, and men are incapable of doing the right thing, “Surviving Sex” is a hilarious look at the erratic love life of accountant Stan Cooper, masterfully played by Jeff Marlow.
Marlow’s Cooper is a Jack Lemmon-esque character, exasperated to no end and often seemingly defeated, but always eventually rising to the occasion to strike back with a clever riposte, or better yet…an outrageous, utterly complete, and spot-on rant about vain women and men who wear toupees.
Cooper’s headaches begin when his new-age girlfriend Denise (Amy Handelman) throws him over after a moment of way-over-the-top passion with a fellow actor in one of her scene classes. I promise you will laugh during this physical romp as Sid (Steve Coombs), a hard-body meathead, and Denise all but do the nasty while Cooper looks on blankly in mute consternation.
Cooper’s tortured existence hardly ends there; however, as a bizarre and beautiful blind date named Lenore (Dana Green) appears to add some spice from the Marquis de Sade’s cookbook. The sight of the gorgeous Lenore in a chemise is alone worth the price of admission, but Cooper wouldn’t know as he falls victim to her fondness for blindfolds and other tools of the trade. She is a wonderful female counterpoint to Cooper’s ambivalence, stalking her prey and taking charge, but in the end, leaving Cooper frustratingly in the lurch. She too, after all, isn’t quite sure what she wants….and so it goes.
But one can always turn to close friends in desperate times and Cooper turns to his best friend Larry (Peter Story) for guidance and security. With friends like Larry, who needs enemies? The sincere and well-meaning Larry goads Cooper into uneasy dalliances fraught with monkey wrenches, but leaves no doubt about his love for his friend.
Several actors “broke the fourth wall” in the show and the audience was an appreciative one, providing steady laughter to the wackadoo on stage. “Surviving Sex” is a perfect antidote to the hostile world of relationships, but don’t look too closely or you may see yourself.
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Theater: Falcon Theater
Web Site: http://www.falcontheatre.com/
Tickets: (818) 955-8101
Dates: through March 1st