Review: FAKE IT UNTIL YOU MAKE IT at Arena Stage

At a time when the reckless cruelty of the current administration has been decimating the city of federal workers and shuttering NGOs, there may not be much appetite for a comedy romp about infighting among such agencies. Maybe even less for one that aims to be an all-out madcap, door-slamming farce.

DOGE-era fallout may have made Larissa FastHorse’s new play “Fake It Until You Make It” a tad out-of-sync with the times even a month after its world premiere in Los Angeles.

Arena Stage’s presentation, a co-production with L.A.’s Center Theatre Group, retains its world premiere moniker. And like its predecessor, it has a Hollywood star in its cast, in this case Amy Brenneman of TV’s “Judging Amy” and many other roles, playing River, a well meaning head of a non-profit aiding Native Americans who happens to be white (Julie Bowen of “Modern Family” had the role at L.A.’s Mark Taper Forum). 

Despite Ted Talk-fame, River doesn’t get along with her neighbor, Wynona (Shyla Lefner), an indigenous woman whose agency helps clear the desert of butterfly bush. That the organization is named N.O.B.U.S.H. is the source of endless jokes as she keeps getting calls mistaking it for a waxing salon. 

River keeps moving her plants; Wynona keeps scooping up the other’s pussycat, source of more crude humor. Their head-butting intensifies as they compete for the same grant.

Of the others in the sunny center for aid, Brandon Delsid plays Krys, the flamboyant head of a indigenous gay organization, and another woman, Grace (Burgandi Trejo Phoenix), has just moved in and nobody quite knows what she does. 

Wynona’s boyfriend (Noah Bean) is white but agrees to go undercover as a native to help undercut River’s bid, pretending to be an applicant that didn’t show up. But when the real one shows up (Eric Stanton Betts), confusions begin to pile up, as Krys pretends to be River.

All this amid running up and down the stairs (with the second floor represented in Sara Ryung Clement’s colorful set by two offices that slide in from each end of the stage), many doors slamming, the cat being tossed from person to person like a furball, boxes tumbling and a lot of broad entrances and exits.

Farce done right is a precision game — timing must be perfect, pace is all. Either because the stage is so wide or the snappy screwball exchanges have not been completely nailed in early performances, this “Fake It Until You Make It” doesn’t quite make for optimum farce for all the effort. 

Had director Michael John Garcés cut out some of the door slamming and ducking, and calmed the breakneck turns, it may have made the central issues stand out a little more. At its core, this is more than the kind of simple mistaken identity so common in old plays, In addition, it considers mistaken cultural identity. 

And it’s up to Grace, surprisingly, to set out this slightly more serious, insidious intent: If race is a social  construct, then one should be allowed fluidity in it, just as people ave been more fluid in gender identities in recent years. 

So amusingly, she enters stage in some wildly culturally appropriated costumes (by E.B. Brooks) even as she encourages others to shift their racial allegiances, at just about the time the DNA results come in.

The fun increases even as the confusion never completely untangles, and while it never really resolves aside from a shaky alliance, it provides a more lighthearted way of looking at something people take way too seriously.

While not quite starring, Brenneman is very good, adding a bit of the serious acting she does — pausing, sometimes stuttering on a line — to a role where she’s expected to be little more than a wacky white lady. The rest of the cast is a little more uneven, but Bean carries the comedy well, as does Phoenix. Delsid’s tone can vary a lot but he brings a lot of humor as well. Lefner maintains the serious tone her role requires, but has her own underlying comedy: She can’t see the triviality of her own agency.

“Fake It Until You Make It” may not be the specific comedy we need to address the current government agency moment; but it’s got the stuff to fake it until then. 

Running time is ninety minutes with no intermission. 

Photo credit: Daniel Rader.