"The Female of the Species" & Annette Bening @ the Geffen.

I lived in Los Angeles for 11 years (until this past September, when I moved back to Wisconsin) and had never set foot in the Geffen Playhouse, Westwood's illustrious theater. I popped my cherry last night on the American premiere of "The Female of the Species", a comedy written by Aussie Joanna Murray-Smith and starring Annette Benning, David Arquette and Julian Sands.

Great show. Went with my friend Sam. It was billed as a farce on the Geffen website and I'm not a farce guy. At least, not the quintessential farce guy of slamming doors, slapstick comedy, double entendres, sexual innuedos, and so forth. It HAD some of those elements in it but it was more high-brow than the farces (farci?) I've seen.

Six rows from the front on the main floor...perfect seats. Bening was great. She was totally invisible under the shawl and in the clogs of world-renowned feminist, Margot Mason. I kept thinking of how wonderful it would be to see one of my acting mentors, Jody Hovland from Riverside Theatre in Iowa City, in this role (and star alongside of Jody).

I'm not a David Arquette fan but he played his role well (typical dopey, not-quite-with-it character he's come to be known for playing). Julian Sands only appears in the last 20 minutes or so - I would love to seem him play on stage in something more substantial. Merritt Wever (Showtime's "Nurse Jackie") plays the main antagonist (each character has at least one bone to pick with Bening) but I didn't buy into her - my only complaint of the show. Perhaps it was her acting style, but I kept thinking of the actress in the role as opposed to the character. Mireille Enos, who received a Tony nomination for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe", played Bening's daughter, a tad overdramatic but effective in the role. Josh Stamberg (Lifetime's "Drop Dead Diva") rounded out the cast as the cabbie, a believable Everyman.

Here's an Orange County Register interview with Bening.

According to production notes, "Loosely inspired by a real-life incident, The Female of the Species begins with Margot at her country home attempting to pen her next masterpiece in the peace and quiet. Problem is, nothing's coming. Nothing, that is, except for Molly (Merritt Wever), a former student who is intent on taking Margot hostage as punishment for her mixed message ideology. Enter Margot's overlooked daughter (Mireille Enos), her simplistic son-in-law (David Arquette), her longtime publisher (Julian Sands) and a disgruntled cab driver (Josh Stamberg) ... and all of a sudden a simple kidnapping turns into a battle over who can throw the first punch and get the last word."

The Geffen is gorgeous. I'm easily amused at a play and frankly, any evening of theater is divine.