Review: Pasta
American Renegade Theatre, 11305 Magnolia Bl., NoHo, 818-763-4430
by Jeff Nelson
What a difference a play makes. This lesson was made quite plain recently when we saw two very different productions currently entertaining local audiences. Pasta, at the American Renegade Theatre, is a limp situation comedy about very little at all, while The Big Knife is an incisive drama that penetrates to the heart of a big subject—the struggle to keep one’s moral compass intact when surrounded by corruption.
We had high hopes for Pasta, for if ever there was a theater with potential, the American Renegade is it. Housed in a lovely old Spanish Revival building, the Renegade is run by a dedicated and enthusiastic group of players and administrators, headed by Artistic Director David Cox, one of NoHo’s visionaries. We were much dismayed, then, to discover that Pasta was nothing more than a mildly amusing comedy that barely held the attention of the few audience members present the night we attended.
The problem with Pasta is the play. The story is the tale of Artie (R. J. Bonda), the irresponsible boyfriend of Roxanne (Nancy Hammill). It seems that Artie owes his bookie money, and a rather unsavory character named Slimy (Marius Mazmanian) has come to collect. To complicate things, Artie and his simple-minded cousin Doober (Paul Roache) must rehearse for the Annual Pasta Pageant at work, and Roxanne has to visit her dying ex-husband. None of these elements ever seem to mesh—instead, the play changes gears abruptly from the mildly sinister appearances of Slimy to the pat banter between Artie and Roxanne to the oh-so-wacky rehearsals for the Pasta Pageant. But the threat from Slimy is not real enough, the relationship between Artie and Roxanne is not deep enough, and the sight of two men dressed as boxes of pasta is not funny enough to get us to care one bit about any of it.
Not that this is the fault of the actors. Pasta is played with an almost evangelical earnestness, but the strain this play puts on the actors is just too much. Nevertheless, Paul Roache gives a fine character study as Doober, and Nancy Hammill is empathetic as Roxanne. Jeanette O’Connor livens things up quite a bit with her portrayal of Walter, a stamp collector who might be Carol Channing’s wayward, alcoholic sister. But these admirable performances are just not enough to make this plate of Pasta filling, and we hope the Renegade will serve better fare in the future. ♦