Review: THE UNDERSTUDY at Hub Theatre Company of Boston

A Broadway star is not likely to be found running lines with the understudy. Indeed, marquee-name actors seldom even know who’s covering their role. The classic 1950 film melodrama “All About Eve” aside, a real-life Margo Channing probably isn't giving a second thought to any Eve Harringtons lurking backstage.

Playwright Theresa Rebeck switches out the melodrama for comedy, however, in “The Understudy,” her 2008 play depicting a put-in rehearsal for a fictional Franz Kafka play that brings simmering tensions to the surface among three interlinked characters: Jake (Christhian Mancinas-Garcia), a Jean-Claude Van Damme-esque action star making his Broadway debut;  Roxanne (Lauren Elias), a stressed-out stage manager; and Harry (Kevin Paquette), Jake’s new understudy who has a past with Roxanne.

Through August 2 at Club Café, Hub Theatre Company is presenting a raucously funny production of “The Understudy” under the knowing direction of Paula Plum, the veteran Boston actor and director whose own early acting career saw her understudying bold-facers including Academy Award winner and Lynn native Estelle Parsons (“Bonnie and Clyde”) and Lawrence-born Tony Award winner Maryann Plunkett (“Me and My Girl”).

Rebeck – whose play “Mauritius” premiered at the Huntington in 2006 where her “Bad Dates” has been given two mountings, in 2004 and 2018 – is best known as a television writer on various of the “Law & Order” franchises. She’s also well familiar with the on- and offstage world of theater as creator of the NBC-TV drama “Smash,” which inspired last season’s short-lived Broadway musical of the same name.

Elias – Hub Theatre Company’s producing artistic director – is terrific as the exasperated  Roxanne, who abandoned her dreams of being an actor in favor of the steady paycheck of a stage manager. And she wasn’t the only one doing the abandoning. Six years earlier, Harry almost literally left her at the altar – walking out just two weeks before they were to be wed.

That bit of backstory adds to the tension between Roxanne and Harry, whose anxieties leave him intent on knocking down those around him like a well-rolled bowling ball. Harry’s none too happy about being a stand-by for Jake, whose acting talent he mocks despite the impressive opening week box office for Jake’s film – “Trucknado” no less.

The competitiveness between the actors leads to their frequent clashes and leaves Jake resenting Harry for lording his talent over him. It isn’t smooth sailing for the lovelorn Roxanne, either. At first, she’s unsettled having to work with her onetime fiancé and being subjected to his opinions, at one point raging, “You have no rights. You’re an actor – not even an actor, you’re an understudy.” Before long, though, and after sharing a passionate clinch with Jake, she’s primed and ready to relaunch her romance with Harry.

Rebeck’s sharply written script gets the comedy right, especially where it concerns the Kafkaesque play, and cannily captures the carping so common among competing actors. Also spot-on is the handling of an unseen lighting and sound manager who may or not be high and never fails to frustrate Roxanne.

The Hub Theatre Company production is far better served by its design team, including scenic designer Peyton Tavares, prop designer Samantha Mastrati, sound designer Gage Baker, Costume Designer Kara McGuinness, and lighting designer Emily Bearce. Especially worthy of mention are projections designer Justin Lahue and projections assistant Maggie Shivers, whose work cleverly uses Club Café’s walls to envelope the audience in the story.

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