Obie-winning Tony-nominated playwright Lucas Hnath (The Christians, A Doll’s House, Part 2) takes on Sex, Drugs, and Olympic Sports in Red Speedo, the theatrical equivalent of a Raging Waters thrill ride now getting a gold-medal Southern California Premiere at the Road on Magnolia.

 Meet Olympic swimming hopeful Ray (Adam Peltier), who’s devoted his entire life to the sport since the ripe old age of four.

Admittedly, dumb bunny Ray (like Ryan Lochte, on whom he just might be based) has no marketable skills aside from swimming, but so what? His fans love him. The seniors he teaches water aerobic love him. And Summer Olympics fans are sure to love him once he finishes in the top three of tomorrow’s qualifying trial.

There’s just one hitch.

 One of Ray’s teammates has been accused (by Ray no less) of storing “an Igloo cooler full of some sort of performance enhancing whatchamafuckit” in the club refrigerator and Ray’s older brother/lawyer/legal representative Peter (Coronado Romero) is concerned that his younger bro’s coach (Jason E. Kelly) may decide to put ethics first and go public with this information, thereby jeopardizing Ray’s reputation (people will start thinking the whole team is doping) not to mention that of the financially strapped swim club he calls home.

And if logic won’t persuade Coach to stay mum about the drugs, then he’d do well not to forget that other teams have expressed an interest in Ray, now poised to sign a deal with Speedo that will pay him big bucks (and put fifteen to twenty percent of them in his agent/manager brother’s pocket).

All the boy has to do is qualify.

Then Ray drops a bombshell that puts everything in jeopardy, the first but far from the last of Red Speedo’s many unexpected twists and turns likely to keep audience members glued to the edges of their seats from start to finish.

 And we still haven’t met Lydia (Kimberly Alexander), Ray’s disgraced sports therapist ex, currently very much down on her luck no thanks to Peter, though a potential movie deal for her story might change all that.

Morality vs. self-interest, loyalty vs. expediency, the lengths to which athletes and those who profit from them will go for financial gain, even questions of fairness in asking athletes to perform without the field-leveling edge that performance-enhancing drug provide (think of it as affirmative action for the physically disadvantaged)–expect to be pondering all this and more as Red Speedo takes you in one unexpected direction after another on the way to its lollapalooza of a knock-down-drag-out grand finale.

 To playwright Hnath’s credit, nobody in Red Speedo is all good or all bad, though some are better or worse than others, and if you find yourself rooting for one character at any particular point it may not be for long.

Under Joe Banno’s electrifying direction, Red Speedo features a quartet of sensational performances, beginning with rising star Peltier’s adorable redheaded himbo of a Ray, good-hearted and dumb but hardly stupid and entirely human.

Coronado’s wheeling-dealing Peter burns up the stage from his humdinger of a show-opening monolog, Kelly’s terrific Coach may be the play’s most heroic character, but even heroism has its limits, and Alexander’s adds multiple shadings to the badly burned Lydia.

 Stephen Gifford’s scenic design gifts are once again on display in an indoor pool set somewhere between real and surreal, gorgeously lit with rippling water effects by Derrick McDaniel.

Mary Jane Miller’s costumes give each character a just-right look, properties designer Tally McCormack scores points for sports and drug-related paraphernalia, sound designer Christopher Moscatiello punctuates the action with nerve-jolting swim meet effects, and Bjørn Johnson serves up some of the most thrilling, physically-taxing fight choreography in town.

Alternate cast members.Stephen Tyler Howell, Lizzy Kimball, Brian Majestic, and Albie Selznick perform Thursdays at 8:00 from May 31 to June 28.

Red Speedo is produced by Donna Simone Johnson and stage manager Maurie Gonzalez. Susie Lever is assistant director.

From Stupid Kid to A Delicate Ship to Through The Eye Of A Needle, The Road Theatre’s 2017-2018 season has been as flawless as theater seasons get, and Red Speedo concludes it with a starter’s gun bang.

The Road Theatre, NoHo Senior Arts Colony, 10747 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood.
www.RoadTheatre.org

–Steven Stanley
May 27, 2018
Photos: Brian M. Cole

ALTERNATE CAST REVIEW:

 A terrific alternate cast put their own individual stamps on the complex, contradictory characters of Lucas Hnath’s edge-of-your-seat hilarious Red Speedo.

Stephen Tyler Howell’s Ray is sweet, well-intentioned, and perhaps even a bit calculating despite his lack of smarts and particularly impressive after Howell’s twisted, deliberately button-pushing Nate in A Delicate Ship.

 Brian Majestic plays lawyer Peter like a scrappy prizefighter where his brother’s (and his own) interests are concerned, and his opening monolog is its own dazzler.

 It’s easy to buy Albie Selznick’s crusty, weathered, warm-hearted coach as having devoted a lifetime to the sport, though not entirely without concern for his own well-being.

 Last but not least, Lizzy Kimball follows her deliciously trippy Shirley in Through The Eye Of A Needle with a 180-degree turn as Lydia, quirky, edgy, and wounded, and still, heaven help her, hopelessly in love.

Alternate cast performs once again on Thursday July 28 at 8:00.

–Steven Stanley
June 21, 2018

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Lucas Hnath, The Road Theatre Company