Wendy Herlich is many things, but “awkward” is not one of them.  In her new show An Evening of Awkward Romance currently playing at The Tank Ms. Herlich proves that she is not only a gifted writer with the ability to create short sketches which manage to be sweet, funny and (yes) awkward all at once, but she is also a deft comedic actress who can play any number of roles ranging from whimsical to deadpan with equal results: an audience that finds itself erupting in laughter as one scene after the next plays out.

An Evening of Awkward Romance (Stefan Schick and Wendy Herlich)

An Evening of Awkward Romance directed by Ruthie Levy is a series of several scenarios, all which pair Ms. Herlich with Stefan Schick as potential love interests – sometimes of the “was right there all along” variety, sometimes of the “um, am I missing something here?” type. Over and over again the two find themselves in situations where love not so much blossoms as sneaks up, tiptoes, or sometimes even runs away.   What’s so charming about these stories – both collectively and individually – is that you’ll find yourself touched by the sweet poignancy of the situations just as often as you’ll find yourself smiling, chuckling or laughing out loud at moments which range from the recognizable to the somewhat absurd.

The pair hits it out of the park with the first scene: two co-workers sit side-by-side proof reading credit card applications all day.  They share a love of identifying typos and cringing at mis-aligned spacing which makes them seem perfect for each other.  Socially awkward (she more than he) they find easy banter when poking fun at the font her sister used for the wedding invitation (Bernard Condensed) and she swoons as he notes “Even with these silver embossed bells, the font still screams “Halloween Invite” to me …”

Their road to awkward romance ends not so much with an exclamation point but rather with an ellipse; the perfect conclusion to this tale of two proofreaders.

Subsequent stories of romance are well done and live up to the title, aptly showcasing  the broad range of both actors.  A few vignettes hit the mark perfectly such as the young 11 year olds who are not “boyfriend/girlfriend” but nevertheless have a first date that goes pretty much the way a lot of dates have gone even for adults.  Their complete misunderstanding of sex leads the young girl to wonder if she could be pregnant; the answer, provided by her date, of how babies are REALLY made was a moment so funny that it was worth the price of admission.  Director Levy did well to allow the actors to channel children rather than ape them; by doing so the actors were charming and believable rather than forced.

A few skits flowed a little less briskly.  Two long-married people entertain the idea of bringing romance back into their lives but can’t begin to think how; his  notion of hiring a babysitter to take the children OUT so that they can stay IN and watch TV is cute, but the skit as a whole didn’t zing as much as the others.  This is more a testament to the high quality of the overall body of work than the deficit of the particular sketch.

Overall An Evening Of Awkward Romance is a delightfully funny, wonderfully written and charmingly executed bit of theatre that left the audience satisfied and still chuckling as they left the building.

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A commercial, if it’s a good one, will do a few things: 1) Grab your interest 2) Make the product look good – or surround the product with other things that look good  3) Include an addictive catch phase 4) Tell a complete story that wouldn’t exist without the product 5) Finish up in under sixty seconds.

Avenue of the Americas, a play all about how advertising can affect society – specifically one very impressionable young woman – is a lot like a commercial.  It’s interesting, looks good, is full of recognizable catch phrases, and finishes up in under sixty minutes.  And, like a commercial, the initial message simply acts as window dressing for the real message hidden beneath.

Clockwise from top left: Virginia Bartholomew, Leo Goodman, Chris Davis, Laura Yost, Timothy J. Cox (Photo by Nick Ronan)

Young Katie White (Laura Yost) didn’t have the best of childhoods – orphaned at a young age after a brutal accident took her parents, she grew up in a mental hospital with the TV as her best friend.  Weaned on commercials and using catchphrases as conversations starters she convinces herself that she’s the head of her own advertising agency.  Come to think of it – she’s not that much different than most kids whose overworked parents left them emotionally orphaned and doomed to be cared for by a babysitting television set.  Who cares if this winds up churning out a generation of commercial-quoting kiddies?  They’ll have whiter teeth, shinier hair, and be able to mop up that spill faster than the woman standing right next to them who also managed to spill something but is holding an inferior brand of paper towel.  At least that’s what seems to be the underlying message of Avenue of the Americas.

In the character of Katie, playwright Martin Blank gives us a tabula rasa through which he shows us what our daily interactions might look like if we overtly parroted back all the subliminal messages we’re receiving (and even giving)  throughout the day.  Katie’s behavior is laughable but really – the larger point here is that advertising in and of itself is doing no less a job on all of us, we’re just making those brand-associated statements a little less obviously.  Truth is, even as commercials are forced to become more wily in order to stay at the forefront of our media they’re having no less effect on our subliminal process.

The story of how Katie (in a Being There send up) manages to wrangle the top position at an advertising agency with absolutely zero experience save for what she’s observed and absorbed from years of television watching is engaging enough.  She does this by using very little else but catchphrases and short phrases she appropriates from random people.  This dovetails with the overall theme nicely.  Again, in order to sell the product you need to create a story that wouldn’t exist without the thing you’re selling.  And what Blank is selling here is the concept of a society that makes choices based on whatever is most hummable, repeatable, or distracting.

What makes Avenue of the Americas work is director Katherine M. Carter’s pacing.  Each scene is served up in a palatable sixty second-ish dollop that gets you where you need to go without giving any thing extra.  Each scene opens, makes its point, and bam! you’re on to the next one.  In between these scenes sometimes actual representational commercials are offered up – fun, cute, quick – showing us exactly the type of commercials that would come from the mind of a gal who’s been locked away in a mental ward until the age of 30 who now gets to create ads for a living.  In other words, they’re not all that different than commercials you’ve seen already this week.

Bringing the whole production together is the terrific design team who created a polished look and feel.  Using very simple elements the lighting (Dan Jobbins) sound (Jillian Marie Walker) and projection (John Jalandoni) designers have the show humming along nicely, and give the piece a unique ambiance.

Like a commercial, on the surface, Avenue of the Americas will go down easily and not make much of an initial impact.  But subliminally, it will sharpen your awareness to exactly how infused our society has become with soundbites, false ideals and jingles.  Scratch the surface of Avenue of the Americas, and you’ll find a stronger message hidden in between the lines.  And now, back to our show.

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