TUNE IN

Playwright Carlos Lacámara tackles university politics, mental illness, psychedelic drug therapy, childhood trauma, and women in academia in the early 1960s, stirs in at least one soap opera-worthy plot twist, and garners more than a few laughs along the way in Tune In, another fabulous Theatre Of NOTE World Premiere.

 Lacámara introduces us to Hobbes University Assistant Professor Samantha Albert (Julianna Robinson) on day one of her class in Psychopharmacology 101.

The topic is curing mental illness, and as far as Sam is concerned, it’s not about “listening to folks talk about killing their fathers and sleeping with their mothers” as the old guard would have it.

It’s about dealing with the chemical imbalance that causes it, and the best way to do that is with a wonder drug called LSD which is, if you can believe it, neither habit-forming, nor can you overdose on it, nor are there any long-term side effects to speak of.

Now all Sam has to do is lock in the funding that’s been promised to her by department chair Stanley, money that would be coming her way forthwith were today’s lecture not interrupted midway through by the sound of Stanley leaping to his death, an inconvenient suicide if there ever was one.

Let the politicking begin.

Assistant Chairman Henry Wilmore (Anthony DeCarlo) might have had the chairmanship sewn up had Stanley (and he by association) not made a mess of department finances, but he’s got stiff competition from his arch enemy, fellow professor Bob Newell (Brendan Broms), and if departmental secretary Cora Shepherd (Alina Phelan) has anything to do with it, it’s her husband Bob (Ron Morehouse) who’ll get the job, no matter that it’s the last thing he wants.

All of this leaves Sam feeling more than a bit unmoored now that a) funding for her research is no longer a sure thing, b) the department’s money troubles mean one of the profs is going to get the ax, and c) as the last one hired, Sam’s likely to be the first one fired.

 Oh, and did I mention that Sam’s been having an affair with Dan right under Cora’s nose, or that her 20something graduate student assistant Philip Hoff (Evan Marshall) is bound and determined to be her first LSD test case, or that Sam’s future ultimately rests in the hands of octogenarian Distinguished Professor Karl Melnitz (Carl J. Johnson), who if he had his druthers would gladly stay holed up in his office watching the latest episode of his favorite daytime soap The Lives We Live than make a decision, not to mention that the LSD therapy Sam is advocating for goes against the work of geniuses like Freud, Adler, Jung, and Erikson?

Did I also mention that I absolutely loved Tune In?

 It’s got adultery, intrigue, sexual politics, a mysterious woman named Lily (Scout Gutzmerson) who keeps popping up in Sam’s mind, back-stabbing academics, more than a couple secrets and lies, a particularly cool LSD trip, and a cathartic final scene that had me wiping tears from my eyes.

 It’s also been terrifically directed by Dana Schwartz and features a powerful, three-dimensional star turn by leading lady Robinson, delicious supporting work by wacky profs Broms and DeCarlo, Moorhouse’s handsome, dynamic cheater of a louse, Marshall in a touching turn as a young man born a couple decades too soon, Gutzmerson’s poignant Lily, an absolutely endearing Johnson as the German-accented Melnitz, and Phelan once again proving why she’s a NOTE treasure as a woman who might not be quite as sweet as she seems.

Schwartz scores sky-high marks for a wide-screen set that had me convinced there were shelves and shelves of books backing the action, but not for Philip’s anachronistic tape recorder.

Matt Richter’s earns an A for his lighting and sound designs minus points deducted for a ring tone that’s definitely not from 1963, and as far as Shaunte Williams’s otherwise fine costumes are concerned, fashion stickler me was bothered to see 1950s hemlines on skirts that ought to stop at the knee like Jackie Kennedy’s did.

Still these are minor quibbles compared to how drawn I was into Lacámara’s play from the get-go all the way up to its cathartic climax.

Tune In is produced for Theatre of NOTE by Joseph Bricker, Clifton J. Adams, Alice Dranger, Kitten McCreery-Navis, Andi Star, and Nick Unquera and features original music by Finn Macewan.

Adams, Dranger, Gutzmerson, and J.T. Melaragno are understudies. Melissa McNamara is intimacy director. Maureen Beld is stage manager.

I’ve been a Theatre Of NOTE fan since I saw Alina Phelan’s award-winning turn as Hamlet way back in 2003, and like 2023’s Kill Shelter and last year’s The AllStore, Tune In turns out to be another World Premiere winner.

Theatre of NOTE, 1517 N. Cahuenga, Hollywood.
www.theatreofnote.com

–Steven Stanley
August 11, 2025
Photos: Jeff Lorch

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

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