Estrangers in the Night

I have a cure for your heartbreak in my fanny pack: Former lovers Amy McDonald and Patrick Coyle with Stephen D'Ambrose in Pavilion

Related Content

• DFL Sen. Barb Goodwin introduces theatrical smoking ban after constituent complains
  March 5, 2013
• Bill W. & Dr. Bob
  March 6, 2013
• Misterman
  April 2, 2013
• Waiting for Godot is a pleasure
  September 5, 2012
• Dial M for Murder
  February 1, 2012

More About

• Stephen D'Ambrose
• Patrick Coyle
• Bain Boehlke
• Theater
• Food and Cooking

The play that follows is glib and very funny, involving an ill-considered scheme to run off into the woods and start a new race, as well as an even more foolish plot to kidnap Cher. Along the way there is a completely extraneous subplot about a musical biography of Maud and Golden Girls star Bea Arthur, and since this is a play about unlikely heartbreaks, impossible schemes, and unwatchable musical theater, it skirts even closer to not mattering than The Pavilion. In fact, The Big Hoover only matters as much as its audience recognizes itself in the nonsense that happens onstage. Some will recognize nothing, and the play will be an empty series of irrational punch lines.

So much for them; my experience was different. In one scene, John Watkins finds himself terrified in a bar when a stranger hits on him, and responds with a babbling, stream-of-consciousness discussion of the career of Ally Sheedy. In this frightened, ridiculous act, I saw myself, and suddenly the play wasn't quite so glib and empty.