Actors get ‘Jest’ deserts

Tom Titus

Playwright James Sherman missed the opportunity for a good TV

sitcom when he wrote “Beau Jest” as a stage comedy. There’s enough

potential for funny business here to last at least a season.

Nevertheless, it’s a theater piece and it’s tickling audiences at

the Newport Theater Arts Center, where a young woman is going

comically berserk trying to obey her parents’ fondest wish, that she

find herself a nice Jewish boy.

Sarah (Kristina Leach) literally kisses off her gentile suitor

(Mitchell Cohen, in an ironic bit of casting) to welcome an actor

from a local Chicago escort service (Michael Serna) to impersonate

her Jewish boyfriend and placate her parents (Renee Oran and Sy

Schwartz), as well as her suspicious brother (David Colley).

The trouble is, the escort isn’t Jewish either -- though he’s

played a few Jews on stage, which sees him through the first few

rounds of “Meet the Parents.”

Director Jack Millis sets a snappy pace, and the actors keep it

rolling through some awkward, if not improbable, situations.

Although the play is an ensemble comedy, the stage belongs to

Leach. Frustration, well played, can be very funny -- Leach makes it

hilarious with her facial “takes,” over-the-top reactions and

continual efforts to maintain control over a slippery situation.

Serna is the wild card in this deck. Having been assigned a Jewish

character, this part-time actor plays the role for all it’s worth,

including returning a blessing at dinner which he picked up from

playing Perchik in “Fiddler on the Roof” and tossing in a Yiddish

expression remembered from “Cabaret.”

Oran and Schwartz are perfectly cast as the kvetching parents,

particularly Oran, who has played the mother’s role before. Schwartz

has a great second-act scene that allows him to expand his range

immensely.

Cohen, sensing his girlfriend slipping away, makes a gallant

attempt to win her back in a rich second-act sequence. Colley looms

ominously on the fringe, a constant threat to expose the elaborate

charade.

The growing sexual tension between Leach and Serna may be

anticipated, but it’s beautifully depicted.

The entire production succeeds because it takes some cliched

characters and situations and makes them believable.

Leach’s bachelorette apartment is nicely designed by David

Carnevale and decorated by Terri Miller Schmidt. Mitch Atkins’

lighting and director Millis’ sound designs complete an attractive

picture.

Jewish audience members will obviously get more comic satisfaction

from the various ethnic references, but “Beau Jest” is a play

everyone can enjoy.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His

reviews appear Thursdays and Saturdays.