Here's a critical conundrum: How do you properly review a cast of actors in a show where each role they play changes randomly from night to night?
That's the appealing gimmick behind Eat the Runt, an off-Broadway comedy where the audience votes on which actor they want to play each role based upon his or her one-line audition.
The play's producers have speculated that there are more than 40,320 different casting combinations, ensuring that each performance is unique. And on top of that, the mix-and-match casting of four women and four men practically ensures that some kind of lesbian, gay or bisexual coupling is bound to occur.
Original author Avery Crozier certainly has a picked a stereotypical setting that allows for such gender-bending complications: the administrative offices of a major modern art museum. That's where Merritt, an ambitious job interviewee for a grant-writer position, must meet with an armada of museum administrators. Some are vying for Merritt's job, while others are clearly turned on by her/him. In order to avoid him/her difficulties, Crozier constructed a script devoid of pronouns and full of androgynous names.
As for the play itself, it's a bit episodic and fidgety, with each actor getting stage time in one of the designated roles ( some being far less showy than others ) . It also becomes clear that certain roles play better to the strengths of some performers.
Since I can't really single out a bad performance in a changeable roster of roles, I can highlight some of the standout performers from opening night.
LaKeith Hoskin is a veteran of the off-Broadway production and he brought a domineering exuberance that outshined everyone in one of the larger museum administrator roles. He clearly relished winning the role audience voted him into and he gave it all he got.
Giving a performance nearly as good was Danny Rhodes who won the coveted loose cannon interviewee Merritt on opening night. Rhodes really got under the skin of his fellow performers causing them to squirm and challenging their views ( including the Ayn Rand discussion he got in with fine fellow cast member Allison Latta about the necessity of 'eating the runt' of mankind's litter so it can succeed and grow instead of stagnating ) .
Remaining cast members Amber Friendly, Dave Urlakis, Lauren Pesca and Millie Hurley each did respectable work.
Director/performer Weil Richmond also appeared in the off-Broadway cast and he seemed a bit low-key—a lot of the humor wasn't as punched up as it could be in his voted-in role ( possibly he was exhausted from just getting the show on its feet ) .
Eat the Runt may not be great art, but it is a lot of fun and plays up the unique ingeniousness of live theater.
Playwright: Avery Crozier and others. At: Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, 777 N. Green. Phone: 312-733-6000; $30-$37.50. Open run