Review: BEST LINE WINS at Contemporary American Theater Festival

Of all the gems this year’s Contemporary American Theater Festival has on offer, by far the most polished is Beth Kander’s loving portrait of one of America’s great comic geniuses, Elaine May. “Best Line Wins,” centering on May and her on-again, off-again partnership with fellow comedian (and, later, Hollywood director) Mike Nichols, is an absolute gem.

In terms of name recognition, Nichols wins hands down because of his phenomenal success in Hollywood. Kander points out that Nichols actually got his start as Elaine May’s straight man. The debt he owed to her instinct for comedy was enormous, and it’s wonderful to see how her talent is foregrounded here.

But first, dear reader, a quick history lesson: if you have no idea who Elaine May is, stop reading this and log into your favorite music streaming services, YouTube, even:  look up ‘Nichols and May,’ and you’ll have several comedy albums to choose from, each of them with a number of classic skits from the “Amazing Mrs. Maisel” era which are still drop-dead funny—the only difference being that we might not appreciate just how edgy and risqué their material was back in the day. There’s a classic routine devoted to doctors, for example; then there’s the one about two teenagers anxious to start canoodling in the boy’s car, without any idea what they’re supposed to do or how to do it; then there’s the funeral sketch … or any number of premises which May turned into priceless routines.

“Best Line Wins” shows May teaching Nichols the basics of sketch comedy: the need to accept whatever crazy thing your scene partner says; then taking things further; never stopping to explain things to the audience; and always, always trusting that the audience is hip enough to keep up with you. Anyone with comedic aspirations, who comes to this show, they will have a non-stop 90-minute class on what’s funny, how it's funny, and how to get the most out of any comic premise under the sun.

Ms. Kander has set herself a high bar indeed, writing at a level to match one of the early Sketch Comedy era’s most famous duos, and she absolutely nails it.  It helps, too, that we have a perfect cast for this run: in the role of Elaine herself, Lori Vega is edgy, scalpel-sharp, and as proud and brassy as can be. As Mike, Riley Shanahan yields readily to Vega’s Elaine May; his initial awkwardness and cluelessness is endearing, and his return to May, years later, acknowledges the debt he owed to her.

May’s career, beginning in triumph, met with inevitable push-back from primarily male interviewers—mid-20th century male chauvinism on parade, which Kander duly records. And her later career in Hollywood was marred by a film that was supposed to be her vehicle to Hollywood legitimacy.  The result, instead, was one of the most notorious box-office flops in history: “Ishtar.” May wrote and directed the film, with Warren Beatty as producer and co-star. Produced as it was in the late 1980’s when the Middle East was, then as now, at a boiling point, it was perhaps inevitable that critics would have hated it.

[Cue Your Critic’s Soapbox Speech: the film is actually a brilliant shaggy dog story, and if you know from shaggy dog stories you know that the longer it takes to get to the punchline, the bigger the laugh when it finally comes. The ending to “Ishtar” will have you on the floor begging for mercy, if you’re attentive enough to the nuances of May’s script. End of soapbox, back to review…]

Michael Raiford relies on a wide-open space, with a projection screen (Mona Kasra at the helm for the images themselves), and the stage features a checkerboard floor, curtains and the occasional bar stool or lounge to create the world of 1950’s Chicago, where May got her start. The ever-present landline phone, lipstick red, takes on a life of its own, and reappears with regularity down through the years. Christian Frederickson’s sound design gets off to a brilliant, snarky start with variations on the old standard “Mr. Sandman” and goes from there. Ann Cross Farley’s costumes and wigs for Elaine, meanwhile, manage the transition across decades of history in women’s fashion, which is essential when it comes to telling the time (Men’s fashion? Nothing ever changes, dudes, get over it).

In terms of audience prep perhaps the one essential here, to fully appreciate the play’s ending, is May’s collaboration with Nichols on “The Birdcage,” an American adaptation of the French farce “La Cage au Folles.” Starring Nathan Lane and Robin Williams, May’s adaptation was essential to making the film as successful as it truly was, and as endearing as it is to this day.

My advice for the young-uns reading this: rifle through your grandparents’ LP collection, scour your local vinyl shop for Nichols and May recordings. Check out a few DVD’s of films like “The Graduate” or “Catch 22” to get a sense of Nichols’ work; have a go at “Birdcage.”

Or you could just ignore my geeky suggestions and check out a terrific, hilarious show.

Running time: 90 minutes, without intermission.

Production Photo: Lori Vega and Riley Shanahan as Elaine May and Mike Nichols.  Photo by Seth Freeman.

The 2026 Contemporary American Theater Festival will run through August 2, on the campus of Shepherd University in nearby Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

Reader Reviews

To post a comment, you must register and login.

Need more Washington, DC Theatre News in your life?
Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...