"Fully Committed" - Frenetic Fun
Catch Vince Gatton's exceptional performance in Becky Mode's "Fully Committed." The off-beat, Off-Broadway, often hilarious one-person show continues through the coming weekend as Barrington Stage Company brings the play to Pittsfield's Berkshire Museum.
Gatton plays Sam, wannabe actor- desperate to support himself, who currently handles dinner reservations at a snappy Manhattan restaurant. The performer flips from French to Spanish to German to Asian and many more accents as he adeptly leaps from one to another of more than thirty high-maintenance characters. Those in need trust and anticipate that Sam Peliczowski will nail a reservation for him/her.
That reservations have been booked months ahead of time causes problems for: Bryce, the personal assistant to model Naomi Campbell; Bunny Vandevere or is it Vandelear of the Upper East Side; Carolann Rosenstein-Fishburn, an aggressive (to be kind) New Yorker....... Diane Sawyer wants a table. Tim Zagat is around and about. The chief chef is impossibly oppressive, demeaning, and snide. Gatton's Sam must also vocalize as his father, recently widowed and a touching soul, telephones from the Midwest, hoping that his son will return for Christmas.
You have to love the set: Brian Prather furnishes this cellar office with desks, hanging Christmas lights, clutter of all kinds, spare restaurant glasses. The ominous red phone rings and a bulb blinks when the almighty chef is on the line. Otherwise, Sam sits amid the boxes and junk as he fiddles with his headset and swiftly juggles calls.
Well-meaning Sam (and Gatton is just terrific throughout), arrives at the outset just in time to gulp coffee as he settles in for the imminent barrage. He moves, without hesitation, from one persona to the next to the next. It's not a stretch for the theatergoer, midway through the proceedings, to begin to visualize the demanding, persistent oddballs who blitz Sam with their whines, needs, and pleas.
It is Sam who must grab a disgusting looking mop to deal with an even more disgusting catastrophe in the ladies room. As his patience wanes, Sam gets that longed-for callback for role at an upcoming Lincoln Center play. Take a breath! He sings a bit of "Lady is a Tramp" as the basement lights shut down and this eclectica and quite irresistible comedy concludes. All the while, Andrew Volkoff's direction is invaluable. Gatton is not sedentary. Rather, he is on the move.
Author Becky Mode wrote for HBO and for The Cosby Show, too. She knows this territory, having acted, waited on tables, checked coats....."Fully Committed" is her first play, and it premiered in New York in 1999. She has written a clever piece which oozes satire through exaggeration/amplification.
Gatton must exercise great control to manage chaos and confusion with seeming ease. His is an enviable performance. While "Fully Committed" has often been staged at different locales in this country, it's tough to imagine going one-up on the current BCS production.
www.barringtonstageco.org; (413) 236-8888
Gatton plays Sam, wannabe actor- desperate to support himself, who currently handles dinner reservations at a snappy Manhattan restaurant. The performer flips from French to Spanish to German to Asian and many more accents as he adeptly leaps from one to another of more than thirty high-maintenance characters. Those in need trust and anticipate that Sam Peliczowski will nail a reservation for him/her.
That reservations have been booked months ahead of time causes problems for: Bryce, the personal assistant to model Naomi Campbell; Bunny Vandevere or is it Vandelear of the Upper East Side; Carolann Rosenstein-Fishburn, an aggressive (to be kind) New Yorker....... Diane Sawyer wants a table. Tim Zagat is around and about. The chief chef is impossibly oppressive, demeaning, and snide. Gatton's Sam must also vocalize as his father, recently widowed and a touching soul, telephones from the Midwest, hoping that his son will return for Christmas.
You have to love the set: Brian Prather furnishes this cellar office with desks, hanging Christmas lights, clutter of all kinds, spare restaurant glasses. The ominous red phone rings and a bulb blinks when the almighty chef is on the line. Otherwise, Sam sits amid the boxes and junk as he fiddles with his headset and swiftly juggles calls.
Well-meaning Sam (and Gatton is just terrific throughout), arrives at the outset just in time to gulp coffee as he settles in for the imminent barrage. He moves, without hesitation, from one persona to the next to the next. It's not a stretch for the theatergoer, midway through the proceedings, to begin to visualize the demanding, persistent oddballs who blitz Sam with their whines, needs, and pleas.
It is Sam who must grab a disgusting looking mop to deal with an even more disgusting catastrophe in the ladies room. As his patience wanes, Sam gets that longed-for callback for role at an upcoming Lincoln Center play. Take a breath! He sings a bit of "Lady is a Tramp" as the basement lights shut down and this eclectica and quite irresistible comedy concludes. All the while, Andrew Volkoff's direction is invaluable. Gatton is not sedentary. Rather, he is on the move.
Author Becky Mode wrote for HBO and for The Cosby Show, too. She knows this territory, having acted, waited on tables, checked coats....."Fully Committed" is her first play, and it premiered in New York in 1999. She has written a clever piece which oozes satire through exaggeration/amplification.
Gatton must exercise great control to manage chaos and confusion with seeming ease. His is an enviable performance. While "Fully Committed" has often been staged at different locales in this country, it's tough to imagine going one-up on the current BCS production.
www.barringtonstageco.org; (413) 236-8888
posted by Fred Sokol at 7:01 AM
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