One Man’s ‘Supper’

Auditions, pitches, showcases. In one form or another, they’re the pressure point experiences of the entertainment world, the times in which an artist’s talent is exposed to the most invidious forms of rejection.

It’s not exactly the stuff of musical comedy. But composer-performer Artie Butler takes it on anyhow, in “The Last Supper,” an intermittently entertaining musical comedy that opened Friday at the Coast Playhouse.

The one-man presentation is set in a prospective producer’s office, where Butler acts out his entire script, singing, mugging, telling jokes and playing piano. The producer’s voice interacts with Butler via prerecorded comments, and there are, in addition, prerecorded phone calls from Milton Berle (a sponsor of “The Last Supper”).

Butler’s show-within-a-show is based upon the experiences of eight people who check into a weight-loss resort. Accompanied by extensively orchestrated, prerecorded backing, as well as his own piano, he sings 14 songs, dramatizing each character’s trials and tribulations.

If all this sounds confusing, there were many moments in which that was precisely the case. Butler is an enormously gifted arranger, conductor and composer (the co-writer of “Here’s to Life”). But the creation (with partner Earl Brown) and sole presentation of a full-evening theater piece is a daunting task. And, for all his skills as a writer and charm as a performer, Butler succeeds only in individual segments, failing to bring the work together.

The production falters in two key areas. The script lacks any real sense of dramatic development. And in the rare moments when the story does seem to move forward, its progression is muddled by Butler’s limited ability to define and personify the characters.

Still, there is no denying the appeal of his songs--two or three of which are sure to emerge from the show as attractive ballads in their own right.

Ron Link directed.

BE THERE

“The Last Supper,” Coast Playhouse, 8325 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., $25. (213) 650-8501. Running time: 2 hours.