DADDY ISSUES

The laughs come fast and furious in David Goldyn’s over-the-top but very funny ’80s-sitcom-style gay family farce Daddy Issues, now getting its West Coast Premiere on Hollywood’s Theatre Row.

 A particularly well-cast James Seifert stars as Donald Moscowitz, a thirtyish actor still waiting for his big break in 1982 NYC. Heck, Donald would even settle for booking the Friskies cat commercial he’s prepping for at lights up.

Not that young Mr. Moscowitz is feeling supported by his factory owner dad Sid (Jonathan Fishman) in either his career path or his “homosexual lifestyle.” After all, Sid maintains, if Irving Plotnick’s son could “straighten himself out,” get married, leave acting, and father two children, why can’t Donald do the same?

When efforts to convince dear old Dad that Irving’s son is still as gay as a goose prove futile yet again, a lightbulb goes off in Donald’s head.

He can claim to have impregnated his college girlfriend Mary Ellen Maguire exactly ten years and nine months ago, and that since their breakup, she’s been raising their son Ryan as a single mother in nearby Brooklyn.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Donald’s fake news is music to Daddy’s ears, as it is to his overjoyed mother Marion (Pamela Shaw) and his verklempt Grandma (Sherry Michaels), who’s finally been given a reason to live after being diagnosed with a dropped bladder.

Now all Donald has to do is come up with an imitation Mary Ellen and a counterfeit Ryan.

Luckily for our harried hero, ten-year-old Johnny Walker (Solly Werner) just happens to live in the very same apartment building.

And since Donald’s plus-sized gal pal Henrietta Hudson (Noa Lev-Ari) and his drag queen bestie Levi Kraus (Josh Nadler) are both up to impersonating Ryan’s mom, setting up a meeting between Sid, Marion, Grandma, “Ryan,” and “Mary Ellen” should be a piece of cake, right?

Factor in a surprise visit from Johnny’s actual mother (Hannah Battersby) you’ve got a comedy designed to bring back memories of such laugh track-enhanced ’80s fare as Three’s Company, Married With Children, and Who’s The Boss?

Despite a bit more Act One setup than necessary before things get truly wild and wacky post intermission, a talented cast of LA stage/screen vets and newcomers ensure that even when things lag a bit, the next laugh is never far away.

Under Goldyn’s assured direction (this is the sixth Daddy Issues he’s helmed), leading man Seifert makes for the most appealing of gay-everyman leads, Nadler is fabulousness personified as Levi, “Mary Ellen,” and “female impersonator Ophelia Crotch,” and Lev-Ari is suitably bold and brassy as Henrietta.

Shaw, Fishman, and Michaels add to the merriment as a trio of broadly played Jewish archetypes, child actor Werner couldn’t be more engaging in his first professional gig, and the vivacious Battersby does the very best she can as a mother whose alcoholism is supposed to be funny.

Scenic designer Rody Villegas has managed to squeeze Donald’s Hell’s Kitchen apartment (painted “cantaloupe” orange) on the tiny Dorie Theatre stage, and it’s been professionally lit by Katelan Braymer, with Anthony Consuegra’s costumes, Kristin Confer’s wigs, and Goldyn’s sound completing Daddy Issues’ production design.

Daddy Issues is produced by Charles Blondeau. Jesse Fiene and understudy Zach Stephens are production stage managers. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

Like the ‘80s sitcoms referenced earlier in this review, David Goldyn’s one-liner-packed Daddy Issues may come across more than a tad retro now that single-camera, laugh track-free half-hour comedies reign supreme and same-sex marriage is, for the time being at least, the law of the land.

But like the myriad oldies-but-goodies that remain streaming favorites decades after their initial airings, this “blast from the past” still packs plenty of crowd-pleasing comedic punch.

The Dorie Theatre in The Complex, 6476 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood.
www.DaddyIssuesThePlay.com

–Steven Stanley
October 14, 2022
Photos: Charles Blondeau

 

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