Curious Theatre’s season-opening comedy, “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” has everything going for it: a great title, big-buzz playwright, enviable ensemble and fanciful special effects.
Yet it just doesn’t ring true. The evening is as capricious as those pesky service bars on your cellphone: Sometimes the signal comes through strong and clear — and sometimes, it’s a total disconnect.
Sarah Ruhl’s play, more odd than funny, is both overreaching and underachieving, with big segments that just don’t serve a story that gets lost in theatrical self-indulgence.
Director Dee Covington’s staging trades on 1940s film noir, which doesn’t make sense in a play that’s emphatically about modern life. In a risky conceit that doesn’t pay off, her actors perform the entire play in a melodramatic, hyperbolic style that just makes what’s already weird . . . weirder. The play never settles on a world it wants to live in. Worse, it’s a comedy that’s often not all that funny.
The premise is great: A lonely, mousy woman in a cafe (think a grown-up Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz” meets Adrian from “Rocky”) picks up the ringing cellphone of a man she doesn’t realize has died while sitting right there at his table.
Jean is an ordinary woman, nearing 40 and mired in an uninteresting life. But Gordon’s sudden death affords her the chance, however inappropriate and unearned, to insinuate herself into his colorful afterlife. Someone to talk to. Perhaps even fall in love with. Thus begins a bizarre journey into romance, black-market organ-harvesting and umbrella dancing (don’t ask). One you’d assume was born out of the wacky mind of David Lindsay-Abaire (“Fuddy Meers”).
The play is peppered with easy barbs on the contradictory vagaries of modern life. Now, every play is in some way about seeking human connection; the observation that cellphones and social networking have actually made it easier for us to maintain physical distance from one another is not a new one. What would be new is if, for once, a playwright would actually celebrate the ways in which Facebook, iPads and the like have actually made our lives better.
The needy and nerdy Jean (Emily Paton Davies) makes it her life’s mission to post- humously reform Gordon’s sullied character. She meets his eccentric mother, wife and mistress, and, like a comforting angel, she invents lies to make each believe Gordon loved them more than he did.
Jean starts up an innocent romance with Gordon’s far better brother, but that she’s more “in love” with bad dead Gordon than good living Dwight (Scott Bellot) is the most identifiably human aspect of this whole stew.
This is Davies’ play to carry, and she does it with a determined sense of childish naïvete — and that holds any chance we might truly connect with her in any real or complex way at arm’s length.
The play quickly loses momentum. It’s not a good sign when you’re hoping the dead guy might show up — just to liven things up. He does, of course, and the great William Hahn almost singlehandedly resuscitates the night like a jolt from a defibrillator.
There are several intentionally over-the- top support performances by some very good actors, but the only one that rings particularly true is C. Kelly Leo as Gordon’s profoundly unloved wife.
Brian Freeland’s cinematic sound effects are compelling, and Michael Rey Duran’s inventive set design takes those little signal- strength bars on your phone and juts them out of the ground all over the stage like tectonic plates.
But the exasperating and tangential second act is a series of meandering and surreal flights of theatrical fancy, signifying not much of anything.
What are we to make of Jean’s Eurydice- like journey to the underbelly of Oz? Her romantic attachment to a dead man she never met? Was her purpose in all of this to comfort the living — or to release her own inner Indiana Jones?
I dunno. It’s a play that’s meant to keep you guessing — and instead leaves you scratching your head.
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
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“Dead Man’s Cell Phone” **1/2 (out of four stars)
Noir melodrama. Curious Theatre, 1080 Acoma St. Written by Sarah Ruhl. Starring Emily Paton Davies, William Hahn, Kathryn Gray, Scott Bellot, C. Kelly Leo and Trina Magness. Through Oct. 16. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. $24-$37. 303-623-0524 or
This weekend’s best bet: “Happy Days, A New Musical”
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Forget Beckett. This “Happy Days” is a new musical based on the hit TV series that brings back Richie, Potsie, Ralph Malph and Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli. Return to 1959 Milwaukee, where the beloved Arnold’s drive-in malt shop is in danger of demolition. The gang teams up to save their favorite hangout with a dance contest and a wrestling match. This family-friendly musical launches a new collaboration between Stapleton MCA and the Aurora Fox Theatre to bring free theater to the community in an outdoor setting. Yep — free. Saturday, Sept. 18, through Sept. 26. At Founder’s Green, East 29th Avenue and Quebec Street. 303-739-1970 or
This weekend’s other theater openings
“The 39 Steps” Quirky British send-up of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 spy thriller, with four actors playing more than 50 roles. Through Nov. 14. Presented by the Denver Center Theatre Company at the Ricketson Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets, 303-893-4100 or And here’s
“Cherry Docs” A neo-Nazi skinhead is charged with murder, and Legal Aid has assigned him a Jewish lawyer who is forced to examine the limits of his own liberalism. Through Oct. 24. 401 Pine St., Fort Collins, 970-498-8949 or
“I Am Nikola Tesla” Murray Ross’ original play is set in contemporary Colorado Springs, where a lonely and obsessed Nikola Tesla aficionado attempts to re-create the magnifying transmitter Tesla invented there in 1899. Through Oct. 3. Presented by TheatreWorks at Bon Vivant Theater, 3955 Cragwood Drive, Colorado Springs, 719-255-3232 or
“The Love List” The recent Town Hall Arts Center production moves to the Avenue Theater. An adult comedy about two middle-age friends who create a list of the things they want in the perfect woman. But what happens when she materializes? Through Oct. 30. 417 E. 17th Ave., 303-321-5925 or
“Rent” A musical about love, friendship and community in AIDS-era New York City. Mature subject and themes. Not recommended for under 13. Through Oct. 17. Town Hall Arts Center, 2450 W. Main St., Littleton, 303-794-2787 or
“The Second City’s 50th Anniversary”Chicago’s storied comedy troupe returns to Denver with a new show featuring songs and sketches written by famous alumni such as Tina Fey, Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert. Through Oct. 10. Presented by Denver Center Attractions at the Galleria Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets, 303-893-4100 or . And here’s
“Sunset Boulevard” ***1/2 Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, based on the 1950 film of the same title, about silent-film star relic Norma Desmond, whose encounter with a disillusioned screenwriter provides a possible opportunity for a comeback. Through Oct. 10. Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd., 720-898-7200 or And here’s
“Tap Dogs” National touring production of the Australian dance sensation. Described as “a rough, tough, rocking theatrical entertainment.” Created by Olivier Award-winning choreographer Dein Perry, with a construction site set by designer/director Nigel Triffitt and a driving score by composer Andrew Wilkie. Opens Tuesday, Sept. 21, through Sept. 26. At the Buell Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets, 303-893-4100 or . Here’s
Complete theater listings
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This week’s video podcast
John Moore takes you to the Coors Field infield, where PHAMALy actor Regan Linton was given the 2010 Hal O’Leary Inspiration Award from the Colorado Rockies’ Charities. Filmed Sept. 1. Run time: 8 minutes.
The Running Lines blog
Catch up on John Moore’s roundup of theater news and dialogue:
