Meteor Shower, an absurdist comedy by Steve Martin, is now on stage at Beck Center for the Arts.
The lights come up on a plush, contemporary house in Ojai, California. We soon learn that Norm and his wife Corky have invited Norm’s tennis partner Gerald and his wife Laura for an evening of small talk while they watch a once-in-a-lifetime meteor shower from their backyard patio. The couples have never been together before. The evening begins to spiral out of control when it is revealed that Gerald and Laura have participated in threesomes, Gerald shoots up and takes a line of coke, several meteors land on the house’s terrace with disastrous effect, penis size is discussed, and the repeating of scenes with the same people, but different storylines, takes place. This is definitely not a wholesome, easy-to-follow Neil Simon comedy.
The play premiered on Broadway in late November of 2018 and closed in mid-January of 2019. By Broadway standards, that is a very short run. The reviews were negative. Included were such comments as: “Meteor Shower plunges into the absurd without establishing a philosophical grounding for the mania.” “Meteor Shower is too busy setting up jokes to create the kind of fleshed-out characters and relationships necessary to give the comedy real teeth.” And “Meteor Shower turned out to be a nonsensical and tedious skit that is simultaneously starry and substandard, flimsy and overstuffed.”
The only positive comments concerned the performance by Amy Schumer as Corky, which resulted in a best actress Tony nomination for the comedian.
With the script’s negative track record, why would Beck’s artistic director choose it to produce? Did he think his theater’s demographic would like this offering? That’s doubtful, as the audience is mainly elderly and conservative, definitely not the prime audience for sexual comments and absurdity. Did he think he needed to produce a comic follow-up to last season’s Broadway Bound, which was a Cleveland Critics Circle multi-award cited production?
Unfortunately, there are few modern comedy scripts. Off and on-Broadway theaters have not been producing many comedies. This is an era of political and sociological angst and that is reflected in what contemporary playwrights are writing. But why pick a script that is an almost sure audience turn-off?
In spite of the script, under the direction of Scott Spence, the Beck production has many positives, including some keen farcical interludes.
Abraham Adams (Norm) is blessed with a Danny Kaye-type mobile face, which he uses to milk laughs. His line interpretations are on target. Laura Mielcarek (Corky), has a nice approach to comedy, creating a real character who can swerve onto the wild side with believability. Leslie Andrews (Laura) plays sexy with ease. Leilani Barrett (Gerald) did absurd absurdly.
Cameron Caley Michalak’s living room/patio set was ingenious and beautiful, nicely enhancing the production. Tim Chrisman’s lighting and projection designs and Angie Haye’s sound design were well conceived.
Capsule Judgment: One can only wonder why Beck chose to do this play. As a Broadway reviewer said, “Meteor Shower is a train wreck.” Fortunately, the quality of this production exceeded the quality of the script.
For tickets go to beckcenter.org or call 216-521-2540 X10.
[Written by Roy Berko, member: Cleveland Critics Circle and American Theatre Critics Association]