The Submission at MCC

Went to the first preview of The Submission tonight and enjoyed it quite a bit. Walter Bobbie has a knack for directing this type of piece, and in a way it has a similar feel to has last/current one-act drama, "Venus in Fur."

The Submission has a cast of four and all are excellent. Jonathan Groff continues to grow as an actor each time I see him. I think this is his best performance yet, and for me his most interesting role. I don't want to give away too much about the plot, but Groff plays an aspiring playwright who writes a play he thinks has a lot of promise, but due to the subject material he thinks it will be better received if submitted under a false name. He runs into trouble when the fake author needs to make an appearance.

Rutina Wesley makes a strong impression. ****Slight spoiler**** She plays the stand-in Groff finds to be the playwright to make appearance during the creative process of producing the play at the Humana festival. ****End slight spoiler****

Eddie Kaye Thomas kind of stole every scene he was in and got most of the laughs. Will Rogers had the most thankless role, but did a fine job too.

The play dealt with themes of race and sexuality, specifically the similarities (or lack thereof) white gay men have with blacks. My slight complaint was it didn't seem like it knew where it end, and I'm not quite sure what we're meant to think of Groff after the final scene. I guess I would rather have something end in an ambiguous manner and lead to discussion though than have things tied of nicely in a bow.

I'll be interested to hear what others think of this one.

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I found it less than satisfactory.

The author can write sharp, smart dialogue, and several exhanges hold one's attention. Other scenes dawdle and droop.

But the tale itself brings its own set of problems, credibility foremost among them.

If the protagonist is so great a writer, he certainly should have had the smarts to at least consider the problems his dishonesty could lead to. If the audience could see what was coming a mile away, why couldn't he?

I didn't believe for one second his actions at the end of the play.

In an attempt to keep the audience in suspense as long as possible on the nature of the fraud, the author has his characters engage in hokey, implausible conduct in his initial scenes, eg. showing/ reading the cover page of a manuscript, without anyone stating it out loud, or reacting verbally to it, as one normally would.

The two leads' choice to engage in deceit is a problem, and the ugly things they have to say alienate an audience even further. The two other characters are underwritten, and have little to recommend them as well.

The play at least had a good message: Honesty is the best policy.

The cast was excellent, and I particularly liked Jonathan Groff's performance.

But alas, I just kept looking at the Starbucks seasonal coffees advertised on one of the sets, thinking how much more agreeable they would be than anything that was happening on stage.