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| Show | Did He Like It?* |
Synopsis | |
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Len, a legendary but disillusioned music producer has retreated to a cabin in the woods, comforted by his mountains of records. When his estranged son and an ambitious but self-destructive pop star both arrive on his doorstep, Len finds himself caught between their dreams and his own demons lurking in the woods. |
Remembering Too Well Back When Rock Mattered
*By ANITA GATES
Published: June 6, 2008
Picture Michael Douglas in the film “Wonder Boys,” unkempt and used up, though once brilliant and vital. Then imagine (or remember) Goldie Hawn 40 years ago, in her young and kooky mode, possibly kooky to the point of danger.
There you have two of the five characters in “Len, Asleep in Vinyl,” a slight but thoroughly entertaining new one-act by Carly Mensch, a 24-year-old playwright with a gift for characterization. The production is part of the Second Stage Theater’s summer Uptown Series for emerging dramatists.
Len (Michael Cullen), the Douglas type, is a music producer in his 50s who has run away to his isolated cabin. He has just walked out of a live television show rather than accept an award for music he detests. “Rock stars in the ’70s,” he says, waxing nostalgic. “They did liquid Vicodin and killed their girlfriends in cheap hotels.”
The half-naked, out-of-control pop star for whom Len produced the award-winning record has followed him there. Zoe (Megan Ferguson) is the Hawn type, who is clearly meant to represent Britney Spears and her act-alikes. “It’s just chemicals,” she says in defense of her pill-popping. “Like us. Like our brains.”
Len’s sensible son, Max (Daniel Eric Gold), is there too. He says it’s just to spend time with his father, but he really wants Dad to listen to the demo he and his band have made. Len already has a surrogate son, William (Dan McCabe), a townie who helps out in the studio and borrows Len’s treasured LPs. (Wilson Chin’s rustic set is accented with old vinyl-record albums, including the “Woodstock” soundtrack, prominently displayed.)
When Len goes missing, Isabelle (Leslie Lyles), his cigarette-smoking wife, has to be airlifted home from her Caribbean cruise. Her character-defining line, a reference to smoking, is “I’m not afraid of a talking bear.”
The moral of Ms. Mensch’s dark comedy, nicely directed by Jackson Gay, isn’t absolutely clear. But characters comment on details of contemporary life (health insurance, audio books and the beverage Sunny Delight) and seem to suggest that some generations just aren’t good enough to make rock ’n’ roll.
“Len, Asleep in Vinyl” continues through June 22 at the McGinn/Cazale Theater, 2162 Broadway, at 76th Street; (212) 246-4422, 2ST.com.
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