By: Philip Dawkins
At: Chicago Vanguard at Strawdog Theatre, 3829 N. Broadway
Phone: 773-401-3764; $10
Runs through: Jan. 27
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
The next time you spot out playwright Phillip Dawkins around Chicago, congratulate him on all the campy zingers in Ugly Baby, an evening of two one-act comedies playing at the Strawdog Theatre. Then ask ( with a mock Oliver Twist accent ) : 'Please, sir, I want some more.'
Unfortunately, this request reflects how undernourished you might feel at the abrupt brevity of Dawkins' first part of Ugly Baby called 564 Things to do with a Peanut. It's like a delicious comic appetizer for a full-course meal that is hinted at but never arrives.
Dawkins certainly could have expanded this scene into a gut-filling and evening-length comedy. The premise inspires an instant chuckle:
A high-maintenance male couple ( Stephen Rader and Nick Lewis playing up gay stereotypes to the hilt ) decides to renege on an adoption because the baby is so appallingly ugly. Of course this doesn't sit well with the Indian-American surrogate mother Sepna ( a distressed Jaya Subramanian ) who lashes out at them. Trying to smooth things over is the hyper-positive counselor Julia ( a perfectly perky Cynthia Castiglione ) , who bizarrely cites facts about George Washington Carver to help make sense of the one-act's title.
The cast under Eric C. Reda's great comic direction all expertly execute their cartoonish roles with glee, which only makes you wish Dawkins had dished out more material for them as these characters. The cast also shines in Dawkins' other one-act comedy, Bedfellas, which feels more like a completed work.
Dawkins celebrates even more comic stereotypes in Bedfellas, which shows Jewish groom David ( Lewis ) doubting his impending wedding to Italian boyfriend Sammy ( Castiglione ) following his revelation that his family belongs to the mafia.
Bedfellas' implied message that there should be no shame in growing up in the mafia ( as there should be no shame for growing up gay ) is very muddled ( and not entirely flattering if you think about it ) .
And sure, the Sons of Italy and the Jewish Anti-Defamation League might get snippy about Dawkins' broad characterizations. But the gender-bending casting in Bedfellas seems to make more fun at stereotypes depicted in the media than ones based upon actual people.
Both women in the cast revel in their drag king splendor, particularly Subramanian with her comical fat suit and Marlon Brando-style Godfather wheezing. Yet Rader is the biggest hoot doubling as both grooms' incessantly complaining mothers with extreme accents. And he plays them both while wearing the same black dress ( with a helpful Velcro patch that switches the mothers' necklace pendants of a Star of David and a Catholic Cross ) .
Rader's one misstep ( besides his wayward wig ) is his still apparent armpit hair ( something a Jewish socialite mother, let alone most drag queens, would never show ) . This glitch could also symbolize how Dawkins' Ugly Baby comedies deliver the laughs, even if isn't something quite perfect with both of them.
