Aficionados of L.A.’s intimate theater scene will find themselves in 99-seat heaven at The $5 Shakespeare Company, Matthew Leavitt’s ever so clever, ever so delightful World Premiere backstage comedy gem.

With tickets for the titular theatrical troupe’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream going at just five bucks a pop, you’d think they’d be raking in the Abe Lincolns.

Instead, $5 Shakes counts itself lucky when even half-a-dozen show up at a given performance, and forget about getting the LA Times or NPR to come review.

Heck, The $5 Shakespeare Company can’t even persuade a blog called Condemned In Hell-A to show up to their “black-box hellhole in the middle of nowhere” on Hollywood’s Theater Row despite the best efforts of company head Jacob (Adam J. Smith), sunk from TV sitcom stardom to the artistic directorship of a no-budget Shakespeare troupe made up of:

Chester (Andy Robinson), who at 70 and counting can still recite Lear by heart but can’t seem to recall his fellow players’ names no matter how many times they’ve met.

 Lilian (Liza Seneca), the company’s resident leading lady, who sticks around season after season because where else is she going to get to play Titania? Or Viola? Or Rosalind?

Randall (Kenajuan Bentley), the troupe’s full-of-himself leading man, who gets his nightly kicks out of fooling his understudy into thinking he’ll at long last get to go on in his place. (As if.)

Louis (Luke McClure), whose training at RADA has him thinking he’s “the king of Elizabethan drama” (Camille’s words, not mine) and incapable of grasping why someone else gets to be Lysander when it’s clearly a role he himself was born to play.

Elena (Carolina Espiro), who’s been trying to make it in the biz far longer than she’d like to admit, which is probably why her pre-show routine of choice is a few shots of peach schnapps. (“It’s like candy.”)

Everett (Emerson Collins), $5 Shakes’ token gay, who dreams of going on as Titania, though if that ever happens it will be by prying the role out of Lilian’s cold, dead hands.

Spencer (Natalie Lander), a bubble-headed blonde for whom The $5 Shakespeare Company is merely a road stop on the way to her big TV break, which is why no one should mind if she answers a call from her agent mid-performance tonight.

 Camille (Cindy Nguyen), whose lack of any discernible talent can likely be chalked up to the fact that it’s her father’s donations that keep the company afloat.

Noel (Jamie Zwick), who’s so proud of his hot manscaped bod that he’ll be playing Bottom shirtless tonight, never mind speaking the speech as Shakespeare wrote it, trippingly on the tongue.

Fortunately for all concerned, this evening’s performance might well prove itself a game changer, that is if they can convince the Parks Department representative in attendance to let them take over as the city’s resident Summer Of Shakespeare troupe.

Let the mishaps begin!

As smart and sassy as it is laugh-out-loud hilarious, Leavitt’s script takes stock characters and gives them unexpected complexity and depth, particularly as interpreted to razor-sharp perfection by ten of the most talented actors in town under Joel Zwick’s adept direction. (That we also get to see them play Midsummer Night scenes in Hawaiian shirts and leis is icing on the cake.)

Scenic designer Chris Winfield gives us precisely the cluttered, cramped backstage area L.A. actors know far too well, then transforms it into the kind of “tropical paradise” you’d expect from a design budget of nil, and Ashphord Jacoway’s costumes, Chu-hsuan Chang’s lighting, Nick Neidorf’s sound design and original music are are  just as terrific.

Sami Kolko Smith is assistant director. MacKenzie Smith is stage manager and Megan Donahue is assistant stage manager.

Previous The 6th Act productions have showcased the company’s knack for innovative Shakespeare, and The $5 Shakespeare Company proves itself every bit the winner. Simply put, this love letter to zero-budget L.A. theater is as entertaining and invigorating as L.A. theater gets.

Theatre 68, 5112 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. T
www.The6thAct.com

–Steven Stanley
February 7, 2020
Photos: Karianne Flaathen

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Matthew Leavitt, The 6th Act