Noël Coward meets Neil Simon in Ken Levine’s sexy new romcom romp Guilty Pleasures, now getting a laugh-packed West Coast Premiere at the LAX-adjacent Kentwood Players.

What better locale could there be for a romantic sex farce than a Love Boat-style Mediterranean cruise ship where comparative literature prof Jinx Berman (Tara Alexandra Brown) is hoping to rekindle marital magic with her Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright husband Larry (Lou Saliba), though unfortunately for the hanky-panky-starved Mrs. Berman, all hubby can think about is coming up with a “goddam idea” (his words, not mine) for his next social injustice-exposing play.

Not that Larry isn’t aware of his three-month-long lack of “concupiscence” (again, his word, not mine, though I like it), but unless he can come up with subject matter so powerful that Audra McDonald will sign on as its star, there’ll be no shagging under the sheets (or anywhere else for that matter).

As for Jinx’s suggestion that he forgo doom-and-gloom in favor of something frothier, well guilty pleasure or not, romantic comedy just isn’t Larry’s thing.

What just might be Larry’s thing would be a night of ecstasy with Hollywood’s biggest star, dumb-blonde bombshell Charlene Uranga (Kate Brady), who as luck would have it just happens to be aboard ship with her “lying, cheating prick” husband Peter Drake (Marshall McCabe), aka America’s handsomest news anchor, though considering the obvious friction between them, any thought that their on-the-rocks marriage can be saved by a Mediterranean cruise ought best to be tossed out the porthole.

The time could therefore not be riper for the unhappy marrieds to seek companionship elsewhere, and given that Larry and Jinx have given each other permission to fool around with each other’s “free pass,” i.e. Jerry’s with Charlene and Jinx’s with Peter, that might be just as easily done as said.

Let the shipboard hijinks begin!

Like Levine’s On The Farce Day Of Christmas, Guilty Pleasures gives the Emmy-winning writer of such sitcom classics as M*A*S*H, Frasier, and Cheers the chance to once again reveal his gift for setup-and-punch, and with Jonathan Fahn filling in for sitcom king James Burrows in the director’s chair, the West Coast Premiere is guaranteed a live laugh track every punchline of the way.

If Jason Alexander and Woody Allen ever had a love child, he’d likely look and sound a lot like Guilty Pleasure’s Saliba, who captures Larry’s neuroses to do his two imaginary papas proud, and Brown (think Frasier’s Peri Gilpin meets Wings’ Crystal Bernard) makes for the loveliest and funniest of comedic foils for her husband’s hilarious hang-ups.

A cross between the late great Peter Jennings and CNN hottie Anderson Cooper, the terrific McCabe exudes slick self-assuredness and smarmy charm as Peter, and the delightful Brady, who might easily be Cameron Diaz or Kate Hudson’s younger sister, sizzles as va-va-voomy paparazzi favorite Charlene Uranga.

Last but not least, Jason Owsley’s prerecorded social director “Etienne” makes occasional announcements over the ship’s loudspeakers in a French accent so far over the top, he could have me eeen steechezzz seemplee by reading the phone book.

There’s nothing at all “community theater” about Mimi Hrivnak’s set (a couple of smartly appointed cabins that revolve individually to reveal a pair of matching dining room booths) or Daniel Kruger’s just-right costumes or Michele Goffeau’s shipshape props or Michael Thorpe’s expert lighting or Emaline Johnson’s equally fine sound design.

Guilty Pleasures is produced by Howard Male and Saliba. Levine and Zahra Zarebi are associate producers.

Melissa Fahn is choreographer. Ariella Salinas Fiore is intimacy director. Richard Santilena is stage manager and Dierdre O’Connor is assistant stage manager.

Recent years have seen a significant increase in the number of plays whose goal seems more about educating or enflaming audiences than to entertaining them, so much so that after a while even the most socially conscious theatergoer may tire of being hit over the head with message after message after message.

Thank goodness then that there are still playwrights like Ken Levine whose only goal is to provide a much-needed gift of laughter to Angelinos starving for laughter, and if escape from today’s headlines is what you’re after, you won’t find a better cure for the current-events blues than Guilty Pleasures.

Kentwood Players, 8301 Hindry Ave., Westchester. Through April 4. Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00. Sundays at 2:00.
www.kentwoodplayers.org

–Steven Stanley
March 15, 2026
Photos: Chris Farina

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

Tags: Ken Levine, Kentwood Players, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Theater Review, Westchester Playhouse