Stephen Adly Guirgis’s The Motherf**ker With The Hat proves a terrific showcase for the young professional actors studying at the Gloria Gifford Conservatory at the school’s spiffy new digs on Hollywood Theatre Row.

 Meet recovering druggie Jackie (Danny Siegel rotating in at the performance reviewed), whose fresh-out-of-prison life would be a whole lot simpler albeit less exciting (sexually and otherwise) were he not still hooking up with coke-snorting firecracker Veronica (Nancy Vivar).

Take today, for example, when what should he spot on his bedroom table mid-coitus but some motherf**er’s hat, and what should he smell on the unwashed sheets of the bed his mother gave him but the incriminating scent of Aqua Velva and dick.

 A need for moral support soon has Jackie visiting drug counselor Ralph D (Keith Walker), whose volatile marriage to Victoria (Leana Chavez) could use some counseling of its own, followed by a stop at Cousin Julio’s (Christian Maltez) in hopes of figuring out how to deal with Veronica’s infidelity without resorting to murder.

And this is just the start of what ought to have been a great big Broadway hit back in 2011 if not for a title so unspeakable on radio/TV (and so unprintable in the New York Times even with asterisks) that even the best PR masterminds found themselves stumped about how to get the word out.

Fortunately for both its writer and audiences across the country, there’s been life after Broadway for The Motherf**ker With The Hat, its current Hollywood staging proving a couldn’t-be-better showcase for a dozen-and-a-half of Gloria Gifford’s most promising young talents, five per night.

Audiences with sensitive ears might want to pass on a show that lets loose with the F-word from the get-go (“F**k your f**kin’ b**ch-**s mother,” responds Veronica to Jackie’s first accusations of infidelity, “and her b**ch-**s big deal second-hand bed, and f**k her b**ch-**s son, okay?!”) but then again anyone who sees Guirgis expecting Disney hasn’t done their homework in advance.

 For those going in forewarned, The Motherf**ker With The Hat turns out also to be a perceptive, thought-provoking examination of the ways we human beings deal (or refuse to deal) with addiction, the nature of long-and-short-term relationships (and friendships), the many shades of human sexuality, and the possibility that there just may such a thing as “the love of one’s life,” though in Guirgis’s universe, this may be more a curse than the blessing it’s cracked up to be.

Under Gifford’s sharp direction, powerhouse pair Siegel and Vivar burn up the stage with Jackie and Veronica’s potent mix of anger, lust, jealousy, outrage, and maybe even love.

 Walker’s dynamic Ralph D seems at first glance as straight-edged as his George Murchison in this past spring’s A Raisin In The Sun, but appearances can be deceiving just as Chavez’s spirited Victoria proves far more than the shrew of first impression.

Last but not least, by playing against Julio’s reputation as the family maricón, the fabulous Maltez takes Jackie’s health food-loving, married-to-Marisol cousin beyond gay stereotype to hilarious effect.

 GGC’s latest benefits enormously from an ultra-wide playing area that allows set designers Lucy Walsh and Chad Doreck to create three distinct rooms with no need for time-consuming set changes.

Lauren Plaxco and Walsh’s character-appropriate costumes are winners too as are Kasia Pilewicz’s spot-on hair and makeup designs (special snaps to Veronica’s humongous do), though Chris Rivera’s lights on/off lighting comes across more actors’ showcase than professional production.

Back on the plus side, song choices are great, in particular an inspired use of Lionel Richie’s “Still.”

Sharing roles with Chavez, Maltez, Siegel, Vivar, and Walker are Raven Bowens, Billy Budinich, Haile D’Alan, Chad Doreck, Joshua Farmer Keturah Hamilton, Benito Paje, Lauren Plaxco, Cynthia San Luis, Samiyah Swann, Joey Marie Urbina, Lucy Walsh, and Jade Ramirez Warner.

The Motherf**ker With The Hat is produced for Jamaica Moon Productions and the GGC Players by Doreck, Plaxco, and Warner.

Broadway may not have been ready for a play that dared not speak its name, but theater gods be praised, The Motherf**ker With The Hat has been chalking up hit after hit on the regional scene since then, its latest incarnation now shocking and delighting audiences in equal measure on Hollywood Theater Row, unprintable title and all.

Gloria Gifford Conservatory, 6502 Santa Monica Blvd. (at Wilcox), Hollywood.
www.gloriagiffordconservatory.com
www.tix.com

–Steven Stanley
August 5, 2018
Photos: Matthew Caine

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Stephen Adly Guirgis, The Gloria Gifford Conservatory