Signature Theatre: Which Way To The Stage?

 It wasn't that long ago, the late summer of 2016, that I began to take attending live theatre seriously.  It quickly became addictive, and while the period between March 2020 and October 2021 was pretty restrictive thanks to the Pandemic, I have seen 163 productions in that time frame.  It's given me a very good perspective on the theatre scene in the greater DMV.  And it's amazing.  But I've already told you that a dozen times before.

This to say, that I see a lot of new works.  Along with a smattering of contemporary classics.  There are certain names of playwright that I don't question: Athol Fugard, Paula Vogel, August Wilson; and there are others whose works don't get nominated for Tony's, but are solid like Lauren Gunderson and Ken Ludwig.  They know their craft, and weave something well constructed and reliably entertaining.  This season, I've come to add Lynn Nottage to the list.

Yet, generally speaking, when I go to see a new work, my expectations are around the B - to C+ report card range.  This is emphatically NOT based on the staging or acting--a new playwright couldn't ask for a better incubator wherein to see their work staged or re-staged.  It's just that the writing isn't very...(so many words to choose from)...Tight.  Intelligent.  Compelling.  On the other side of things, I have attended a couple of plays that were just too Esoteric, but that's another story.

Specific to Signature Theatre, I've attended 5 new works previously over these years, 3 of which I'd grade in the C/C+ range, 1 I'd give a B - to, and one was an A+!  All based on the writing.  This show would definitely get an A!--for the writing.  And upon more reflection, I might even add the "+".  

"Which Way To The Stage?" is about a pair of friends in New York City who obsess on their theatre trivia knowledge and opinions.  They both collect signatures on playbills and are currently obsessed with getting Idina Menzel's.  They also both attend auditions, but neither has landed a role.  Judy sidelines as a real estate broker, and Jeff performs as a drag queen at a local gay bar.  Enter into their world Mark.  Mark is handsome, sincere, in some ways naive...and bi-sexual.  You can see where this is going, but if you thought that this is where the story will end, you'd be wrong.  The writing is funny, witty, intelligent, complex.  The dialogue is rich with story and ideas and often spoken by the actors in moments of obsessive excitement where lines roll over on top of one another--with lesser faire this could be supremely annoying, but here it just feels real.  

My first sign that this was going to be a show to engage in fully came within the first 10 minutes when I realized that I wasn't waiting for the story to begin.  You know what I mean?  Many plays just don't know how to get the ball rolling.  Not a problem with "Which Way To The Stage?".  And here's where the actors come in.  They, to a person, took the words that Ana Nogueira composed and made them their own in a way that I've rarely witnessed from an entire cast.  The chemistry all around was good.  

The setting was threefold starting with the back stage door at a theatre where Ms. Menzel was performing, to a waiting room at a casting agency, to the stage of the drag bar--and then back and forth as needed.  In turns the principles Judy (Leah Platt) and Jeff (Mike Millan) found themselves in conversations that were written like roller coaster rides.  Dialogue that not only spanned the range of emotions, but exposed their love for one another peeling back the deeper truths each held in their hearts about one another and themselves.  The interlocutor, Mark, was the perfect catalyst.  Natural, easy, contagiously candid at times, and impishly enigmatic at others, but always charming and handsome.  The forth actor, Nina-Sophia Pacheco pulled off being three other people with great alacrity creating distinctively different characters: a blitzed Bachelorette, a Casting Director, and an aspiring Actress.  

This was just a wonderful, highly accomplished production that took strong writing and exploited it to the max with an equally talented cast.  Okay, I give--I just talked myself into it:  A+!

Judy (Leah Platt) and Jeff (Mike Millan) at the back stage door waiting for the elusive Idina Menzel's departure.

Judy and Mark (Michael Tocconi) meeting for the first time at an audition for Avenue Q, while another would be actress (Nina-Sophia Pacheco) looks on.

At a later audition, Mark hits on the other Actress.

While attending one of Jeff's Drag Performances, Mark and Judy encounter an inebriated Bachelorette.

Jeff in a drag performance of his new show, an homage to Idina Menzel in a mashup feature songs from "Rent" and "Wicked".