The quirky young writers who populate Peter Quilter’s new comedy may have funny things to say, but engaging characters and amusing one-liners aren’t nearly enough to suggest post-World Premiere life for Bestseller, that is unless the author of Glorious! and End Of The Rainbow can provide them with something every playwright should have in his bag of tricks. A plot.

To Quilter’s credit, Bestseller’s set-up is a promising one.

20something Alex (Eric Myrick) heads off to the English countryside in search of inspiration at the Writer’s Retreat run by elderly eccentric Maureen (Wendy Worthington), guest house quarters he’ll be sharing with frisky chick-lit romance novelist Shelley (Alexandra Ruth Wright) and dark-hearted horror-thriller writer Alex (Ian McQuown).

Unfortunately, rather than take advantage of having placed two handsome single straight men and one beautiful single-ish woman under the same roof and serving up some potential romantic-triangle action, Quilter gives us the following:

The three young writers compare creative philosophies and processes as Maureen pipes in to offer words of wisdom. They attempt to dine on their host’s inedible vegetable stew, no matter that if Maureen’s cooking is indeed as awful as this, no one would stay longer than a few days, let alone come back year after year. They go out for a morning run. They finish what they set out to write. They return home.

And that’s about it as far as “plot” is concerned.

Fortunately for audiences, stealth weapons Julia Davis and Sam Spanjian pop in repeatedly to act out Shelley’s, Damien’s, and Alex’s works in progress.

Best of the bunch is Shelley’s “Jessica Gets Shipwrecked,” a comic two-hander that has Davis’ Paris Hilton-esque Jessica and Spanjian’s dark-haired Spanish hunk Sergio stranded on a deserted tropical island to tantalizing effect.

Though hardly representative of the horror genre that we’ve been told is Damien’s stock in trade, “The Necklace Of Death” scores plenty of laughs too with Eastern European jewel thief Maya (Davis) deciding to bump off her oafish accomplice-in-crime (Spanjian as a bulked-up Tibor) before the entire Bestseller cast shows up for bang-up grand finale.

Rather less successful is Alex’s short story about a wife (Davis as Tatyana/Crystal) who discovers in the midst of some rather acrimonious divorce proceedings that her estranged husband (Spanjian as Victor/Brandon) has arranged for the house they’re still sharing to be split down the middle with a brick wall.

All of this adds up to a series of scenes that may score enough laughs to hold an audience’s interest but miss just about every opportunity to make us care about the characters we’re observing.

Director Jane Page keeps things as lively as possible, McQuown, Myrick, and Wright are all three as talented as they are appealing, and Worthington makes Maureen a warm-hearted, dry-witted treat.  (Kudos to all four for their assortment of spot-on regional English accents.)

Not surprisingly, the deliciously over-the-top Davis and Spanjian steal every scene they’re in, aided by Kim DeShazo’s fabulous costumes, Anthony Gagliardi’s wacky wigs, and a whole bunch of accents.

Scenic designer Christopher Scott Murillo’s homey English country house, Stacy McKenney Norr’s rich lighting design, Patty and Gordon Briles’ multitude of props (from typewriter to weapons to seaweed to inedible slop), and Corwin Evans’ sound design mix of pop tunes and dramatic effects are all top-notch.

Bestseller is produced for International City Theatre by caryn desai. John Freeland, Jr. is production stage manager and Sebastian Villar is assistant stage manager. Casting is by Michael Donovan, CSA. Richie Ferris, CSA is casting associate.

With major rewrites, the germ of an idea that has inspired Peter Quilter’s latest comedy might make for a play that regional theaters would want to produce and audiences would tell friends to see. As a work in progress, however, Bestseller’s occasionally hilarious moments do not add up to a satisfying whole.

International City Theatre, Long Beach Performing Arts Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach.
www.InternationalCityTheatre.org

–Steven Stanley
June 14, 2019
Photos: Tracey Roman

Tags: International City Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review, Peter Quilter