Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Amy Staats’ skin-deep EDDIE AND DAVE is playful but ultimately tiresome

• By drediman
• January 23, 2019
• No Comments

Omer Abbas Salem, Amy Staats, and Megan Hill in Atlantic Theater Company’s production of “Eddie and Dave” by Ms. Staats. Photo by Ahron R. Foster.

Last night, Amy Staats’ Eddie and Dave opened Off-Broadway at Atlantic Stage 2 courtesy of Atlantic Theater Company. I was a big fan of Ms. Staats’ satire Miles for Mary – I saw both of its incarnations at the Bushwick Starr and Playwrights Horizons, respectively – which I adored for its biting, unforgiving view of a high school fundraiser gone haywire. Unfortunately, none of that play’s delicious, razor sharp edge is in evidence in Ms. Staats’ latest, another satire chronicling the love-hate relationship between the Van Halen brothers (the legendary rockers, guitarist Eddie and drummer Al) and lead singer David Lee Roth over the course of their long careers.

The gender-bending setup is certainly enticing – Ms. Staats has scripted for the Van Halen brothers and Mr. Roth to be played by women. The prospect of watching actresses run amok with their macho-infantile rock star characterizations was one I was looking forward to. Indeed, I really wanted to like Eddie and Dave and was hoping for quirkier and more slicing depictions, much along the lines of the TEAM’s hilarious RoosevElvis (in which actresses played, you got it, President Roosevelt and Elvis; it too played the Bushwick Starr).

Although the cast clearly has a ball with the play, the text doesn’t go much further than skin-deep, resulting in a tiresome comic sketch that feels cartoonish and way too long (even at a running time of only 90-minutes). Director Margot Bordelon and her cast try their best to bring buoyancy to the piece and maximize its playfulness. But at the end of the day, Ms. Staats plays it too safe with this one.

SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED

EDDIE AND DAVE
Off-Broadway, Play
Atlantic Theater Company (Atlantic Stage 2)
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through February 10