Summer is All Fun at The Garage

By John Farrell, Curtain Call Writer

Wet Hot American Summer … The Play? is being presented, through March 21, at Long Beach’s Garage Theatre.

There is no poetry; there is no message; hell, there isn’t even much of a play.

Don’t let that stop you from seeing the production. Buy a bottle of wine or a beer from their combined ticket office and concession stand, get a seat (and because the actors enter from all over the place no seat is safe, mind you) and relax and enjoy, even in you don’t quite understand what is happening, who is who or what is what.

Wet Hot American Summer is a written and directed by Ryan McClary, based on the less-than-successful 2001 film screenplay by Michael Showalter and

. The plot, such as it is, sets the story on the last day of summer camp at Camp Firewood, with a crowd of the usual inept misfits — and those are just the camp counselors.

If you can make sense of the story, you are better than we are. There are more than 19 roles, 11 actors playing multiple parts and action that come in from the audience, through the audience, all around the audience. Don’t worry, you don’t have to pay attention. Just enjoy. The play includes everything from a talking can of vegetables to the crashing Skylab, a homosexual wedding, a final version of Godspell that is actually Les Mis, and a whole lot more very funny, very intense silliness.

Three actors have single roles: Jonelle Holden as the very drunk, very funny Allan Smithee, Maribella Magnana as Acker McBlackberry, her best friend who thinks she is a play director but can’t read, and Jacob Burns as Ken Marino, a Hollywood star who might be a figment of a cough-syrup induced high.

The cast is athletic, assertive and often hilariously provocative. The Garage Theatre does a great job with lighting (Matt Richter is the lighting designer) and the small space is well used, with some of the audience sitting right up on the stage platform.

Don’t go for a theatrical experience. Just go to Wet Hot American Summer to have a good time. That is guaranteed.

Tickets are $20 and $15 for students. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, through March 21.

Details: (562) 433-8337; www.thegaragetheatre.org
Venue: Garage Theatre
Location: 251 E. 7^th St., Long Beach