Reviewed by Stephen Radosh
Take one part I LOVE LUCY, one part French Farce and add a heavy splash of message. Shake them together and when you pour it out onstage you get Topher Payne’s PERFECT ARRANGEMENT now being presented by DEZART PERFORMS. Set in the Washington D.C. of 1950, PERFECT ARRANGEMENT provides plenty of laughs delivered by a top-notch cast. But amidst all the humor derived from the social norms of the day there is an undercurrent that is anything but funny. For back then, it wasn’t only the lives and careers of suspected communists in America that were being destroyed, the same was happening to thousands of gay men and women employed in various branches of the government. All in all, not one of America’s more shining moments and certainly not one you would think of as a source of laughter. But Topher Payne uses that incongruity, especially in the first act, quite successfully.
The plot revolves around a gay couple and a lesbian couple who have managed to have their cake and eat it too by creating a ‘perfect
As their characters are more deeply defined and developed, the women in the cast fare better than their male counterparts. Aided by the spot-on period costuming of Michael Mullen and the perfect coiffures supplied by James Geier, they each deliver strong performances. Two of the women,
Under Michael Shaw’s excellent direction, the play never lags and delivers the laughs as well as the emotional punch needed for the final scenes of the play. In the current political climate, the play resonates with a truth and a message which should not be forgotten. It is a production worthy of attention! For more information and tickets visit WWW.DEZARTPERFORMS.COM