Young marrieds don’t get much more appealing than Americans in Paris Abby and Zack, but don’t let their Meg Ryan-Tom Hanks looks and charm fool you into thinking Amy Herzog’s Belleville will be the next big romcom. What the Obie-winning Pulitzer Prize finalist has up her sleeve in Belleville is something considerably darker and more twisted, just one reason the latest from the Pasadena Playhouse is one of the season’s must-see productions.

 Another is its stage-and-screen-star pair of leads, Anna Camp as actress-turned-yoga-instructor Abby and Thomas Sadoski as Doctor Without Borders’ Zack, the late 20somethings leading what would seem to be an idyllic expat life in the colorful, multi-ethnic Parisian neighborhood that gives Herzog’s 2011 play its name.

 Audiences can be excused for thinking that Abby and Jack just might be starring in their own contemporary take on Neil Simon’s Barefoot In The Park, though Corie Bratter could never have imagined coming home to her New York apartment and finding Paul, not at work as might be expected, but pleasuring himself to Internet porn, just the first of Herzog’s hints that all might not be right in Belleville.

Abby’s just gotten back from using Zack’s new credit card to buy Christmas presents for the stateside family she’d dearly love to see were it not for a visa snafu that will keep the couple in Paris until further notice, an unfortunate turn of events given that the City of Love and Light isn’t proving quite the cure for the blues Abby was feeling before their transatlantic move, blues that just might be returning now that she’s decided to go off her meds.

 Then, Senegal-born landlord Alioune (Moe Jeudy-Lamour) drops by, ostensibly to “smoke a bowl” with his tenant, but really to inform Zack that he and Abby have till Friday to pay four months overdue rent or they’re out, and …

Can you say trouble in paradise?

I’m not completely convinced that Herzog’s script can stand close scrutiny as regards Zack’s life between his and Abby’s college-era meet-cute and the med-school grad’s current job doing AIDS research for Médecins Sans Frontières, but this is a relatively minor quibble in what is yet another winner from the playwright who gave us 4000 Miles and After The Revolution.

Indeed, audiences in search of a gut punch or two or three need look no further than Belleville, powerfully directed by Jenna Worsham and featuring some of the finest acting you’ll see around town, in particular an absolutely sensational star turn from Pitch Perfect’s pitch-perfect Anna Camp.

 A less sunshiny leading lady might telegraph the direction Belleville is heading. Camp does not, and like Sandra Bullock in 28 Days and Meg Ryan in When A Man Loves A Woman, the contrast between girl-next-door radiance and the character Herzog has written proves particularly effective as Camp goes the emotional distance to devastating effect.

 A superb Sadoski is handsome, likeable, but with just enough edge to have us on his side even as we begin to suspect Zack’s own demons, and when fireworks are demanded, the Tony-nominated, Obie-winning star delivers the dramatic goods.

Jeudy-Lamour and Sharon Pierre-Louis provide stereotype-defying support as Abby and Zack’s young Muslim married-with-children neighbors Alioune and Amina.

 Scenic designer David Meyer gives us a picturesque, minutely appointed Parisian flat, its stairs leading up from below stage providing a nifty touch. Zach Blane’s lighting is as gorgeous and detailed and varied as lighting designs get, in particular where sunlight and shadows are concerned. Sara Ryung Clement outfits Belleville’s four protagonists as befits each character’s personality and background. Sound designer John Zalewski’s original musical underscoring and just-right effects morph as Belleville itself does.

Jennifer Slattery is production stage manager and Emily Joe is assistant stage manager. Joe Witt is general manager, Chris Cook is production manager, and Brad Enlow is technical director. Casting is by Telsey + Company and Ryan Tymensky, CSA.

Pasadena Playhouse may be just six years away from celebrating its centennial, but with homegrown hits like Our Town, King Charles III, the imported delight that was The Hypocrites’ Pirates Of Penzance, and now the absolutely stunning Belleville, the venerable Playhouse has never felt so young.

Pasadena Playhouse, 39 South El Molino Ave., Pasadena.
www.pasadenaplayhouse.org

–Steven Stanley
April 22, 2018
Photos: Phylicia Endelman

Tags: Amy Herzog, Anna Camp, Los Angeles Theater Review, Pasadena Playhouse, Thomas Sadoski