Word: falana
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Enter foul-mouthed Morton Hell (Steven Black) and his four Yahoos (living incarnations of Morton Downey Jr. and his obnoxious studio audience); Felicia Falana (Christina Estabrook), a Sally Jesse Raphael-like monster woman whose concern for her interviewees is as genuine as her hair piece; and Phylicia Butterworth (Starla Benford) and Chuck Buck (Michael Starr), early morning talk show hosts who sit on giant coffee cups and are equipped with saccharine sweet salutations...
Even when Durang does come through with a witty line, he buries it in script which takes the joke too far and detracts from its effectiveness. "Sorry, I don't mean to act like I have an opinion," says a momentarily sincere Felicia Falana to her TV audience. Funny, really funny. But when she goes on and on, asserting, among other things that she "agrees with everyone," the line just loses it humor. By stating the obvious in what seems like a deliberate over-kill of the lines, Durang weakens some of his best satire...
...play certainly has moments which work, and some on-target performances which are really fun to watch. Christine Estabrook creates a delightfully caustic Falana who is rapidly loosing her cool after 20 consecutive hours on the television, and Michael Starr has the sleazy, pretty boy Chuck down to a science. The eventual crossing between "reality" and the world of TV--when Cecilia becomes trapped in the television set after "accidentally walking into a talk show"--is truly frightening...