STAGE REVIEW : Very Mismatched Couple in Attic’s ‘Had to Be You’
- Share via
When Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna co-starred in their romantic comedy, “It Had to Be You,” at the old Marilyn Monroe Theatre in 1984, they were perfectly matched, and the play’s show-biz love story enjoyed a bouncy verve.
Today, with different actors, one terrific and one irritating, the imbalance is jarring and the production lays an egg at the Attic Theatre.
As the gruff but vulnerable producer entrapped and ensnared by Cupid’s arrow, Kaz Garas is terrific, with an uncanny likeness to Paul Douglas (who would have been great in this role, too).
But co-star Jenifer Shaw, as a would-be New York actress and screenwriter, is too shrieky, too much the obvious layer of bait and non-stop chatterbox, to ever convince an audience of the play’s fairy-tale conclusion.
Her phone book-thick screenplays that she keeps foisting on the weary producer is funny stuff, but a woman today who can’t take no for an answer and makes a point of imprisoning her quarry is not exactly contemporary.
This didn’t really play in the early ‘80s either, but Taylor and Bologna’s timing was so good it didn’t matter. The director here is Alan Feinstein.
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
