Word: bullpens
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Since ancient Greek dramatists began chronicling their athlete's exploits, few plays have pleased both kinds of audience. Steve Kluger's comedy, Bullpen, currently playing at the Hasty Pudding Theatre (12 Holyoke St.) attempts to completely satisfy both parties, and almost does...
...play, fittingly, is loosely-focused on life in the Boston Red Sox bullpen. The Sox have just added to their roster a 19-year-old pitching sensation named "The Kid," a Roger Clemens-type, who is scheduled to pitch in that day's game against the New York Yankees. In order to make room for him, they must cut a player from the bullpen, creating a great deal of anxiety among the six principals in the play--a catcher and five pitchers...
Early on, the audience has no problem pegging the players, as if they have come from an ex-jock's "as told to" book. The second-string catcher, named Boomer, is divorced by his wife during the game over the bullpen phone. He, by the way, is played by Peter Fox '72, an alumnus of the Hasty Pudding Theatrical Society. The pitching corps consists of Frito (Bobby DiCicco), a Bruce Springsteen-loving Hispanic; Duke (Wesley Thompson), a self-proclaimed persecuted Black; Moose (Vince Lucchesi), an over-the-hill knuckler; Ripper (Artie Gerunda), a Harvard educated alcoholic; and Tank (Eddie Frierson...
Another problem is that Bullpen is a bit too authentic, and therefore is either a bit offensive or contains too much "shop talk." The language is really too vulgar and the crotch clutching too excessive. The inside baseball jokes often fly over or under the audiences' heads. Still the jokes are not so provincial that only Red Sox die-hards can be heard laughing. The fact that the play is about the Boston club bears little significance in the story...
...same time, this accuracy holds much of the play's charm. The players are believable as athletes, both in appearance and manner. Situated in the bullpen at Fenway Park, complete with green walls, the actors are fully clad in Red Sox uniforms. An especially nice touch is the plastering of bubble gum all over the bullpen. Each could pass for a ball player, and the lone-lefty, Ripper, conjures up images of Boston's beloved spaceman Bill...