Skin Deep
by Jon Lonoff
“Warm-hearted comedy … the laughter was literally show-stopping. A winning play, with enough good-humored laughs and sentiment to keep you smiling from beginning to end.”--TalkinBroadway.com
“It’s a little Paddy Chayefsky, a lot Neil Simon and a quick-witted, intelligent voyage into the not-so-tranquil seas of middle-aged love and dating. The dialogue is crackling and hilarious; the plot simple but well-turned; the characters endearing and quirky; and lurking beneath the merriment is so much heartache that you’ll stand up and cheer when the unlikely couple makes it to the inevitable final clinch.”--NYTheatreWorld.Com
“In a country obsessed with weight, plastic surgery, dating and infidelity, it is little wonder that a playwright has come along to tackle all of these sticky subjects in a new satirical comedy called Skin Deep. This particular production has the virtue of having vital components on firm ground. The crowd delighted in every one-liner the night I attended.”--ELJArtsAnnex.Com
In
Skin Deep, a large, lovable, lonely-heart, named Maureen Mulligan, gives romance one last shot on a blind-date with sweet awkward Joseph Spinelli; she's learned to pepper her speech with jokes to hide insecurities about her weight and appearance, while he's almost dangerously forthright, saying everything that comes to his mind. They both know they're perfect for each other, and in time they come to admit it.
They were set up on the date by Maureen's sister Sheila and her husband Squire, who are having problems of their own: Sheila undergoes a non-stop series of cosmetic surgeries to hang onto the attractive and much-desired Squire, who may or may not have long ago held designs on Maureen, who introduced him to Sheila. With Maureen particularly vulnerable to both hurting and being hurt, the time is ripe for all these unspoken issues to bubble to the surface.
Character descriptions:
MAUREEN MULLIGAN is a full-figured, earthy, attractive, lovable lonely heart. She lives in Forest Hills, Queens, is a devout Catholic and works as a dental hygienist.
SHEILA WHITING (neé Mulligan) is Maureen’s very beautiful sister, fashionable, flamboyant and full of advice. She grew up with Maureen and six more brothers and sisters in Queens and went on to marry old Connecticut money and move to New York’s Upper East Side. She genuinely wants what she presumes is best for everyone.
SQUIRE WHITING, JR. is a handsome “government relations” lawyer in the prestigious family firm. Full of charm and self-mocking humor. He doesn’t take himself - or much else - too seriously.
JOE SPINELLI is an endearing, unlucky, lonely guy from Bensonhurst.
Comedy. 2m, 2f. Single Set. Acting Edition. $9.95
Author Biography:
Jon Lonoff’s writing credits range from an adaptation of Aesop’s Fables for marionettes to a training film for Sunoco gas station attendants. His theatrical and film work has included The Garbage Cantata (with Barry Keating), a musical about recycling, commissioned and produced by Riverbarge Productions, published by Samuel French, Inc., and later produced for video by the United Nations; The Dark Knight, an independent film (produced and directed by Eric Farber) which won the Silver Award for Comedy at the Houston WorldFest Film Festival and was subsequently developed into an NBC-TV movie; and Key Changes and Other Disasters(with Hank Levy), awarded Best Musical Revue by the Naional Association of Cabaret and Concert Artists. He is particularly proud of his work as co-writer and co-editor of a documentary film about Nepal, Top of the World, (with Bill Kern, produced by Second Type Productions) which has won awards at film festivals all over the world.
Jewtopia
by Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson
"Hilarious! Raucous! Merciless! …Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson know their territory well and assault it with unflagging comic energy! Enlisting Andy Fickman as director ensures an equal-opportunity satire…when Jewtopia hits its mark, which is frequently, it’s outrageously funny!"--Los Angeles Times
"Entertaining!...Wild!...Raucous!...Wolfson and Fogel fill the stage with overwhelming energy…they come across as natural clowns, alternately vulnerable, charming and animated. Certain to hit home with all observers, whatever their religion!"--Variety
"After a quarter century of Neil Simon and his imitators, the playwrights redeem the formula with edge! Displaying a commercial sensibility that is almost obscene, they combine the swaggering generation y, nailing two demographics at once! The result is irresistible The young authors play the parts with sassy abandon! The script throws every ingredient on hand into the comedic chicken soup!"--Time Out New York
"Crazy! Hilarious! A laugh riot! Fogel and Wolfson bring an easy charm to their roles! A fresh take on an old theme, played for a new generation. We predict that
Jewtopia will fun forever."--The Journal News
Jewtopia tells the story of two 30 year old single men, Chris O’Connell and Adam Lipschitz. Chris, a gentile, wants to marry a Jewish girl so he’ll never have to make another decision. Adam Lipschitz, a Jew, wants to marry a Jewish girl to please his family, but can’t get a date to save his life. After meeting at a Jewish singles mixer, Adam and Chris form a secret pact. Chris promises that he will help Adam find the Jewish girl of his dreams and show him “
Jewtopia”, but only if Adam will help Chris shed his gentile-ness and bring him undercover into the Jewish world. Stereotypes collide, cultures clash and chaos ensues!
Comedy. 7m. Acting Edition. $9.95
Fatboy
by John Clancy
“Brazen…daring…highly entertaining.”--Jason Zinoman, The New York Times
“Make room for Fatboy. Meaner than Stalin, hungrier than Idi Amin, deadlier than Pol Pot, he is the grotesque composite of every despot who ever lived...he is also savagely funny...Some plays ridicule their audience; others inspire political action.
Fatboy may be the rare work that does both.”--Jorge Morales, Village Voice
“This is brilliant political satire, hitting the zeitgeist right where it hurts...A ground-breaking piece of American absurdism, a transatlantic take on the Ubu tradition that goes beyond imitation to seize and transform the myth for a new age of American power.”--Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman
"Clancy's 2004 Edinburgh Fringe hit adaptation of Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi comes just in time for the Wall Street meltdown and one of the most surreal election campaigns in American history."--Steven Leigh Morris, LA Weekly
Fatboy is a brutal comedy inspired by Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi. This satire on modern America’s insatiable appetites--from gobbling up 72oz. steaks to small nations--is presented as a live-action Punch and Judy show. In this fast-moving, shocking, profane, dead-on, funhouse mirror reflection of the world today, the brutish allegory known as
Fatboy, along with his monstrous wife, Queen Fudgie the First, stands trial for war crimes. Despite overwhelming evidence the court refuses to convict and succumbs to
Fatboy's “persuasive” tactics.
3 m, 2 f. Acting Edition. $9.95
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