Review: Paul Melendy Takes Flight in FEATHERBABY at Greater Boston Stage Company

Paul Melendy doesn’t just walk out on stage at the start of “Featherbaby” – the riotous David Templeton play about a potty-mouthed parrot now being given its co-world premiere in conjunction with the Don Fulton New Works Project at Greater Boston Stage Company in Stoneham through September 28 – he pounces on it, and in the front row of the audience, like the Boston theater rock star that he is.

Indeed, in his nearly two decades as an actor, Melendy has left an indelible impression with comedic and dramatic roles ranging from Man in Chair in Lyric Stage Company’s “The Drowsy Chaperone” to a rubbish-truck driver in “The Garbologists” at Gloucester Stage, and a quirky Ichabod Crane in the one-person show “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” at GBSC.

His current role in “Featherbaby” gives the actor a chance to make yet another distinct impression, this time as a puckish parrot of uncertain gender who’s not always happy with their living situation – especially when their devoted owner, cheery crime-scene photographer Angie (Liv Dumaine) exits her relationship with roommate and harried professional jigsaw puzzler Mason (Gabriel Graetz) to reconnect with a prior lover and move away. When she can’t take Featherbaby with her right away, she leaves the bird temporarily behind with Mason.

That may seem like a simple solution, but not for the territorial Amazon parrot who’s left to live with a human they neither like nor trust and hesitates not for a single moment before letting Mason know just that. Mild-mannered Mason puts up with a lot and has the bird bruises to show for it. When Mason takes Featherbaby to see elephants in person, however, the majesty of the pachyderms captures the bird’s heart and opens it to their interim caretaker, with whom they soon bond.

Under Weylin Symes’s deft direction, Featherbaby is no Polly Want a Cracker parrot sitting idly by, repeating what others say. Instead, Symes keeps Melendy – sartorially splendid in a satin and silk brocade ensemble by Costume Designer Deirdre Gerrard – preening, pecking, and pouting on their frequent descents from their perch, appropriately enough a Morticia Addams peacock chair which sits atop scenic designer Kathy Monthei’s jungle-influenced set.

Templeton’s clever script has shades of “Torn Between Two Lovers,” the hit 1970s song with lyrics including “And all the things I ever said, I swear they still are true. For no one else can have the part of me I gave to you,” in its heart-tugging tale of an attention-craving bird and their humans. Mary MacGregor made that song about a love triangle a hit, and in Stoneham now, GBSC is doing the same with “Featherbaby.”

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