Review: ALMOST PERFECT Winds its Way Through a Guilt-Ridden Affair

Twenty-nine years after it premiered, playwright Jerry Mayer's hit comedy ALMOST PERFECT has returned to the Santa Monica Playhouse playing weekends through September 27 as part of the Playhouse's three-year Jerry Mayer-a-thon, reuniting Mayer with director Chris DeCarlo. Mayer is based in Pacific Palisades and has premiered many of his plays at the venue, but this one is his first play and meant a lot to him personally - a piece that explores marriage with honesty and humor.

Mayer contends 90% of relationships that go bad can be blamed totally on men, who are immature, frustrated and often unreasonable with the woman in their lives. "The first thing that's got to be faced is that men are swine," he says. "Like clockwork, they can be counted on to blame whatever unhappiness they are going through on the woman they are presently with. Not that women are perfect either. ALMOST PERFECT also points out female idiosyncrasies that tend to drive a man up the wall, out the door, and into another's woman's arms."

Says Director DeCarlo, "Experiencing a Jerry Mayer play brings us that much closer to the realization that no matter how serious life may appear, someone is always laughing. It might as well be us." And laugh you will at the inherent foibles of the Apple family!

The plot is simple: we watch as Buddy (Michael Marinaccio) falls for the perfect girl of his dreams, a sexy British shiksa radio ad saleswoman named Boots (Lucy Rayner). One small problem - he's married to Jenny (Ryan Driscoll), a lovely modern Jewish woman who cannot cook well and is overstressed carrying for her self-centered husband and children. Buddy dreams of completing his screenplay about his musical idol Gershwin, but works with his super-salesman Dad Norman (Dan Gilvazen) along with his brother Mike (Wayne Roberts) in the family construction business. But it is very apparent Dad always has the last word and makes all the decisions for the business simply silencing Buddy by putting two fingers to his lips when his opinion does not agree, even when Buddy is right.

To make matters even more complicated, his Jewish no-nonsense mother Ruth (Barbara Keegan) hovers over them as much as she can, always trying to make sure her boys act like mature men, which of course can never happen. They are examples of the typical Jewish Mama's boys, and Buddy's marriage is suffering as his wife is not cut from the same do-it-all cloth.

The family refers to their Jewish heritage quite often, but only Keegan manages to really display any of the "Yente" characteristics so typically found in Jewish families. Perhaps director DeCarlo chose not to over-play religion in the show, but since Dad always refers to the Italian Catholics as the buyers of his new housing development, often in somewhat derogatory terms, it would be good to show a bit more "Jewishness" in his character.

The dialogue throughout is very real and the situation one that must go on in more marriages than we would like to admit. And of course, Buddy's hilarious, guilt-ridden affair continues until he finally realizes his perfect dream girl is Jenny, his wife, at which time his Dad makes him a partner in the firm. Life is really almost perfect for Buddy.

ALMOST PERFECT plays Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3:30 pm through September 27, 2015. Tickets are online at SantaMonicaPlayhouse.com or (310) 394-9779 ext. 1.

The Other Space at Santa Monica Playhouse is at 1211 4th Street in the heart of downtown Santa Monica. Convenient Parking is located directly across the street in city lot #1. By public transportation: take the Santa Monica Blue Bus or the LA Metro Rapid #720 and exit at 4th and Wilshire.

Santa Monica Playhouse is supported in part by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, by the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Arts Commission and by U.S. Bank.

Photo Credit: Cydne Moore

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