A Comic’s Last Laughs in ‘Lenny’s Back’

When you’ve been dead since 1966 and are surrounded by a bunch of stiffs, you have a lot of time to think. In Sam Bobrick and Julie Stein’s thoughtfully funny one-man show, “Lenny’s Back,” a Theatre of Will production at the American Renegade Theatre, Lenny is telling like it was and is.

Daniel Saks’ simple set--black walls, chairs with mannequins (sculpted by Saks)--is dominated by large, flat representation of a gravestone placed on the center of the back wall. The mannequins aren’t sleek young things selling clothes, but dowdy figures with pronounced wrinkles. Their jowls hang like a basset hound’s.

Lenny, (Barry Pearl) who’s buried in the Eden Memorial Park Cemetery in the San Fernando Valley under a marker that reads Lenny “Bruce” Schneider, complains about his so-called legendary status, pointing out that his grave is seldom visited. He paces restlessly, thinking about the past.

Bobrick and Stein’s piece isn’t a replay of Lenny Bruce routines, but an easygoing contemplation about Bruce’s career in comedy, his legal battles, his drug addiction and his place as a pioneer in stand-up comedy. This Bruce talks to his cemetery companions--dead and inarticulate.

Yet under Bobrick’s sensitive direction, Pearl draws out a poignant air, especially during Bruce’s conversations with his mother. Bobrick sets a relaxed pace, and Pearl gives us a laid-back moment with a dissatisfied man.

If Bruce’s reputation for controversy precedes him, the relative tameness of this script should indicate how far removed today’s audience is from the ones he faced when he was frequently battling obscenity charges.

We’re used to hearing much worse on stage, in the movies and certainly in the comedy clubs.

One wonders if Bruce came back, where would he go now?

*

“Lenny’s Back,” American Renegade Theatre, 11136 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Nov. 3. $15. (818) 763-1834. Running time: 1 hour, 10 minutes.