PLAY REVIEW : ‘Dates From Hell’ More Like Dates From ‘50s Sitcoms

About 10 minutes into Karen Ann Knotts’ “Dates From Hell,” at the Huntington Beach Playhouse, one begins to wonder what’s playing on the Bravo Channel. Then the realization dawns that this is not television. It’s live theater.

Still, for all of its almost three hours, it looks and sounds like television. And very old television at that.

Knotts, according to a press release, based her script “on real-life experiences.” What startling honesty--to admit that her life has been little more than a rerun of “Love American Style.”

The “dates” that stumble, crumble and mumble throughout this work-in-progress are in that nether world of relationship unreality that television writers have been mining since the ‘50s.

Knotts throws in a dating service (run by Mrs. Greenbaum, who turns out to be really Saudi Arabian), and therapy sessions, including one fairly serious re-enactment of a childhood trauma that has no place here except to fill space. Her scenes are the snippets of video technique, separated by lengthy blackouts that can’t be edited out in spite of the viewer’s ardent efforts.

Under Phil de Barros’ much too leisurely direction, there is a lot of the same physical shtick one can see on any sitcom, and his actors give stalwart television-sized characterless performances to match the script. There’s not much more they can do. To further complicate things, there are too many valiant females and flawed males involved in these dating wars to garner sympathy for any one of them.

The potshots Knotts takes at the singles scene are punctuated with high-class gags ranging in tone from cow flatulence to one girl’s nightmare about dating Judge Lance Ito. There’s a lot on Knotts’ mind, but none of it seems of enough importance off the tube that is its natural habitat.

Out of a large cast that is basically solid as far as they’re able to go, Scott W. McKinlay and Debbie Parker, as a flip TV comedy writer and the very serious woman who beds him before reeling him in, make one very short scene come startlingly to life.

They bring real humanity and honest characterization to a cafe meeting where McKinlay, in a bid to allow his serious side to come through, wears a clown suit and red bulb nose. It shouldn’t work, but they actors make it so real and truthful their talent overrides the juvenile material.

* “Dates From Hell,” Huntington Beach Playhouse, Huntington Beach Library and Cultural Center, 7111 Talbert Ave., Huntington Beach. Today and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends Sunday. $8. (714) 375-0696. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.

Debby Cali: Alicia

Lori Chapel: Joey

Debbie Parker: Betsy

Lisette St. Claire: Suzanne

Jerry DeCapua: Jerry

Philip Lance: Don

Scott W. McKinlay: Roger

Tim White: Darryl

Louisa Arnold: Mrs. Greenbaum

Stephen Silva: Leopold

Laurie Doyle: Waitresses/Jogger/Nurse

Steven Avakian: Jogger/I.D./Baseball Announcer

Dwayne Strivens: Jogger/Gary

Frederick C. Shumake: Man/John

A Huntington Beach Playhouse Black Box premiere production of a work-in-progress comedy by Karen Ann Knotts. Director: Phil de Barros. Executive producer: Malcolm Armstrong. Producer: Kent Johnson. Production design/costumes/stage manager: Bronson.