Writer tries to grow up in comedy It Must Be Him

9/02/2010 02:35:18 PM

NEW YORK – The spectacle of a morose Hollywood writer who is down on his luck shouldn't really be funny. But Kenny Solms, himself a successful, longtime Hollywood writer, takes the concept and runs with it in his amusing new comedy, "It Must Be Him."

Solms' somewhat biographical play, about a middle-aged writer whose life is falling apart, is now performing off-Broadway at the Peter J. Sharp Theater. Peter Scolari stars as the whiney, increasingly desperate television writer, Louie, who is also gay and wildly imaginative. Liz Torres is sarcastically funny as Louie's faithful housekeeper, Ana.

Solms has mined his years of writing classic TV variety shows for inside humor on lifestyles and quirks of Hollywood writers and actors. Louie's creative juices have soured to the point where he can't even tell when his work is terrible, plus he's going broke, and his fancy Beverly Hills house is falling apart.

Meanwhile, seeking a permanent relationship, he keeps pining for men who are much too young for him, such as his platonic houseguest, Scott, charmingly portrayed by Patrick Cummings.

Louie is visited by a series of imaginary muses, including his deceased parents and an old girlfriend from high school. Alice Playten is endearing as his supportive mother, and Bob Ari has blustery fun as his gruff father. Playten and Ari ground the proceedings with their parental concerns over Louie's dilemmas.

His kindly agent Ross, played with sympathetic humor by John Treacy Egan, has to keep shutting down projects that veer wildly off course. The love story that Louie is trying to write as a screenplay somehow becomes a musical that devolves into a raunchy parody of gay S&M behavior.

Daniel Kutner has directed the play with a light touch, as multiple characters smoothly interact during the scenes where Louie casts his movie or reimagines it as a musical.

Scolari, normally so appealing in his comedic roles, seems somewhat uncomfortable with this character. He gives Louie many enjoyably neurotic moments, but there's not much to really like about Louie. His never-grow-up attitude quickly becomes annoying, as does his unnecessarily outsize, Peter Pan-like white nightshirt.

Larry Grossman wrote music and Ryan Cunningham provided lyrics for the songs that accompany Louie's flawed creative attempts. The rest of the cast is energetic and perfectly able, notably Harris Doran as Louie's slacker-type assistant, Stephanie D'Abruzzo as the old girlfriend and Edward Staudenmayer in two small roles.

Solms' dialogue is laden with clever quips but the too-pat ending isn't really a surprise, and one wishes the cast had been given meatier parts with which to work. "It Must Be Him" has a lot of laughs, but could use more depth.