BWW Reviews: IKE AT NIGHT, How Lethargic Was It?

Promotional material for the live theatre talk show Ike at Night describes its star Ikechukwu Ufomadu as the son that Woody Allen and Frank Sinatra never had; a baffling claim that, given the show's Brooklyn roots, might be interpreted as a misguided attempt at irony.

The famous name that most comes to mind during this sluggishly-paced Public Theater entry of the 2015 Under The Radar Festival is Harold Pinter, but don't even think of searching for tension or subtext in the host's style of taking mile-wide mid-sentence pauses.

The point, no doubt, is to send-up the manufactured high energy of late night talk shows by taking the genre to its subdued extreme, but once that point is established, Ike at Night has little more to offer. With no director or writer credited, the actors appear to be working off the cuff. At the performance I attended there were a couple of lines that could be described as jokes (one of which was actually quite funny), but the nattily-dressed Ufomadu's whole shtick is to take molasses pauses on his way to completing every thought.

Designer Amy Rubin does a fine job with her low-budget knockoff of Johnny Carson's iconic digs; the cleverest feature being a picture window that overlooks a row of brownstones. Billed as the sidekick, B. Brian Argotsinger is a kind of minimalist Ed McMahon, nodding politely at the host's bantering and speaking in short, quiet spurts. Jonathan E. Jacobs, The Vintage DJ, spins old vinyl on a pair of portable turntables and says even less.

Between segments there are fake commercial breaks, minutes long, where the audience is stuck watching the performers inaudibly fake conferring with a stage manager (Paloma Wake).

Every performance features real-life guests and on Tuesday night each offered a refreshing breath of humanity and energy. Actor Robin Lord Taylor talked about his role as Oswald "The Penguin" Cobblepot on the TV series Gotham, equality entrepreneur Todd Sears discussed the creation of Out On The Street, an activist organization combatting LBGT discrimination on Wall Street and Dickie and Lucky from The Varsity Interpretive Dance Squad, a troupe dedicated to the belief that "dance is not reserved exclusively for those who are good at it," showed their spirit in a very funny routine.

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