‘Bad Dates’ make for good times

There’s only one troubling aspect about Theresa Rebeck’s “Bad Dates,”

now in its Southern California premiere at the Laguna Playhouse: Why

would any woman who looks like Beth Broderick encounter so many

losers on the social scene?

A while back, Hollywood posed a similar conundrum, presenting

Heather Locklear, who’s pretty much in Broderick’s league physically,

as a woman who couldn’t find the right man. Why is it that the

knockouts repeatedly swing and miss in the ball game of romance, at

least in fiction?

Nevertheless, “Bad Dates” makes for some very good times if you

enjoy a good laugh, and who doesn’t? Broderick takes the stage for

what amounts to a 90-minute one-on-one engagement with the audience,

and soon she has us thoroughly entranced. She’s the only performer in

the cast, and she’s downright terrific.

Broderick, under the direction of Judith Ivey, portrays Haley

Walker, recently divorced with a teenage daughter (whom we never see;

she’s offstage, absorbing ear-splitting music in her room), who’s

dipping her toe into the murky waters of the dating scene. The play

is constructed in a series of episodes, each following the latest of

her unsatisfactory experiences.

Haley, a transplanted Texan who’s worked her way up from waitress

to temporary manager of a New York restaurant (while the owner is

serving time in prison), is a stunning blond with a penchant for

footwear that borders on the obsessive. She possesses possibly the

largest shoe collection this side of Imelda Marcos -- about 600

pairs. A few of her shoeboxes, however, are filled with cash, a plot

development finally clarified near the end of the play.

In the early scenes, Broderick takes us on a guided tour through

the treacherous singles jungle, recounting her experiences with the

“bug man” in a rainstorm, an attorney who’s a real head case and a

fellow introduced to her by her mother who turns out to be, most

likely, gay. Between slipping in and out of dating outfits, not to

mention several pairs of shoes, Broderick conducts a sparkling

monologue with her audience.

Things get a little sticky later in the show when Rebeck

introduces her play’s most outlandish plot point -- Haley’s

connection to the Romanian mafia, the source of her cash-filled

shoeboxes. But things are ironed out quite nicely on this level also

-- this is, after all, a comedy. Broderick -- raised and schooled in

Huntington Beach -- makes “Bad Dates” a delightful homecoming

project. She establishes instant rapport as a beautiful though

somewhat ditzy single mother with familiar qualms about establishing

new relationships, and her interaction with the audience is

exceptional.

She performs this single-handed play against the backdrop of a

richly detailed New York apartment designed by Dwight Richard Odle,

who has established her claustrophobic life by adding a realistic

exterior setting. Costumer Julie Keen has provided Broderick with

some stunning outfits, which the actress slips into and out of quite

smoothly, if unrealistically.

“Bad Dates” will strike a responsive chord for many people of both

sexes who have ventured forth, with some trepidation, into the

unchartered territory of potential relationships. It’s a shoe-in for

90 minutes of laughter.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Bad Dates”

WHERE: Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Rd., Laguna Beach

WHEN: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 16

COST: $20 to $59

CALL: (949) 497-4787