“Fully Committed” Reviews

 

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts

November 5 – 21, 2004

 

 

 

By John Farrell

For many actors, the first job they get is waiting tables in a restaurant, For Sam Peliczowski the job is one step below waiting tables. Literally below. He works in the spare basement below one of New York's poshest eateries, answering one of four phones, taking reservations for lunch and dinner at a restaurant that is "fully committed" (i.e., booked solid) two months in advance.

"Fully Committed" Beck Mode's one-actor play that takes the audience into one hectic shift in Sam's life, is a fast and frantic, character-driven high-speed raceway of a comedy, and it is a part that versatile comic actors love. Audiences love it, too. Since it opened in 1999 (and Off-Broadway in 2000) it has swept the theatre world. Last weekend it opened for a two-week run at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts with young actor Jamison Stern in the starring roles.

Roles is the right word, for the actor in "Fully Committed" is not only Sam, a thoroughly likeable and unflappable young man from Indiana looking for theatrical success on Broadway, but everybody else in the play as well. Some thirty or so characters ranging from Sam's soft-spoken father to the restaurant's demanding chef to callers trying to get a reservation to what is clearly the hot restaurant of the moment.

Using body language, more voices than you can count, and a few lighting tricks, Stern runs through an incredibly busy day just one step ahead of the speaker phones, the intercom from the Maitre D' and the clanging red phone, direct line from the chef, balancing his life and the incessant demands of clients, from model Naomi Campbell's assistant to harassed out-of-towners left hanging on hold.

The phrase tour-de-force is over used,. Here it is deserved. Stern moves from phone to phone, from desk to swivel chair, from voice to voice, without a pause of reflection or a moment's hesitation. Her is Jean-Claude, the slightly pompous but rather friendly Maitre D', speaking in French as Sam stands at attention. Next it is Sam's father, who speaks as slow as Bearnaise sauce pours. Then there is Campbell's assistant, as sweet as can be, but constantly calling back to check the most impossible details. Sam plays the hold button on his phone's like Horowitz played the black keys on a Steinway, all the while trying to balance his barely nascent theatrical career of auditions and hoped-for call backs against the demands of his job and the back-stabbing of Bob, his assistant who pretends his car is broken to skip work for his own job interview.

Sam is a loveable young man, and as you get to know him, you start rooting for him as he begins to find ways to use his job to get what he wants. Stern is athletic, good-looking, fast-talking and never looses his cool, in character or otherwise.

"Fully Committed" isn't a knockdown hilarious comedy of stunts: It is fast moving (hard to believe the one act is almost an hours and twenty minutes long) but more about character and personality than gags. It does what a play needs to: takes us into the life of a character who grows and responds to the challenges of his life. Sam Peliczowski should be the patron saint of all those who make their living on the phone.

Director Daniel Goldstein lets Stern have his head in the accurate set, which looks as much like a New York restaurant basement as can be. (It was designed by Gary Wissman, and lit by R. Kent Sheranian.)

The La Mirada Theatre, which is often home to family-oriented productions, makes a point of warning audiences about the adult content of the show, but honestly if you weren't warned you'd never know there was a problem. Certainly teenagers wouldn't find anything in "Fully Committed" they wouldn't see on nighttime television, and Stern's performance is a wonderful example of a good guy winning, for once.

"Fully Committed" is a dessert of a comedy, but with enough substance to make it a delightful evening in the theater, thought provoking and refreshingly brisk. It's a bright look at an underground world that really exists, and probably isn't ever quite this funny.

What: "Fully Committed" by Becky Mode

Where: La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada[

When: This Tuesday (November 9 CQ), Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., this Friday at 8 p.m. this Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., this Sunday at 2:30 and 7 p.m., Tuesday, November 16-Thursday November 18 at 7:30 p.m., Friday, November 19 at 8 p.m., Saturday, November 20 at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m., Sunday, November 21 at 2:30 and 7 p.m.

How Much: $40-$32

Info: (562) 944-9801 or (714) 994-6310

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ACCESSIBLY LIVE OFF-LINE
(Vol. 9-No. 45-Week of November 8th, 2004)

 

FULLY COMMITTED, Becky Mode's play about the so-called 'inside' of taking reservations at a trendy midtown Manhattan eatery, is the current production of McCoy Rigby Entertaiment's 2004/05 season and plays at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts in La Mirada.
      Jamison Stern plays Sam. He's an actor by trade whose 'real' job is taking reservations for a four-star restaurant located on Manhattan's upper east side. His reservation center isn't located in some posh office. It's actually within the bowels of the restaurant's basement. Sam's work space in a large folding table with a few phones plopped on top. His job is to handle the many calls from folks looking to reserve a table or two to have lunch and/or dinner. Throughout the production, we see Sam play his character, as well as playing the other people on the line, in addition to talking to and receiving from the restaurant's 'hotline' via the chefs working upstairs. Sam's a busy man, so he must deal with the VIP's as well as the nosy tourists from out of town that have a notion to eat at the place just so they can tell the folks back home that they ate at this restaurant! Sam takes these as well as others calls though him communications located in this basement and from the other end of the phone(s).
      This play is fairly unique in its own right. Stern plays his characters quite well in a way that can describe this show as a visual radio program. There isn't too much performed on stage that holds out on its own. Most (if not all) of the dialogue can be understood and appreciated without anything that has to be seen. Even if Stern was on a bare stage with only his table and phones, this play would (and could) succeed! Gary Wissmann's set design of a full-fleged restaurant basement is impressive, but isn't necessary. It's just Stern doing his thing on stage for one long act! (No intermission, so act accordingly!)
     Directed by Daniel Goldstein, FULLY COMMITTED isn't as full as it could be. It's more of an appetizer than a complete meal. Nevertheless, it's tasty and isn't filling! For those that are looking for a light snack than a hearty meal, this play will do the trick. For the record, the term 'Fully Committed' is used to state that all reservations for a specific day are filled up! Now you know some restaurant lingo!

     FULLY COMMITTED, presented by McCoy Rigby Entertainment, performs at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd (at Rosecrans), La Mirada, until November 21st. Showtimes are Tuesday though Saturday nights @ 8:00 PM, Sunday evenings @ 7:00 PM, and matinees Saturday and Sundays @ 2:30 PM. Tickets are available at the theater box office in person by calling (562) 944-9801 or (714) 994-6310, or via on line at http://www.lamiradatheatre.com.

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT Friday, November 12, 2004

'Committed' to multiple roles

In La Mirada, a one-man show is a tour de force for its star, who essays 42 characters.

By ERIC MARCHESE Special to the Register

 

The thrill of watching an actor or actress in a one person show is much like that of watching professional racing: The excitement is in the potential risks taken by the participant.

 

Take "Fully Committed," for example: The 1998 comedy by Becky Mode requires one actor to fill the stage, nonstop, for 75 minutes, while essaying 42 characters. It's akin to witnessing a high-wire act: Spectators are constantly asking themselves, "Will he slip up or will he make it?"

 

Check off the latter for Jamison Stern, the actor who has taken on the focal role of Sam Pellachowski in the McCoy Rigby Entertainment staging of "Fully Committed." Stern is young and energetic and, more critically, has previous experience in the role.

 

That expertise shows in a fine, funny, fast and furious staging at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. What's more, under the hand of director Daniel Goldstein, "Fully Committed" has heart - not the gushy, sentimental kind ladled on too thickly, but the type of warmth requisite in a show like this, which might otherwise come off as cynical, even mean spirited.

 

Sam is an actor working as a reservations captain at an exclusive New York City restaurant while struggling to break into show business. He spends his days laboring in the restaurant's bowels - its basement, converted into a workstation (Gary Wissmann's brick walled set brilliantly conveys Sam's efforts to overcome the room's claustrophobic gloom, festooning it with holiday lights and decorations). "Fully Committed" follows Sam during one particularly hairy shift as he juggles phone calls coming at him from all sides from multiple, separate phone lines - an effect well-conveyed by R. Kent Sheranian's lighting scheme and Zach Moore's sound design.

 

As the winter holidays approach, demand for tables at the eatery becomes especially high, increasing the already intense pressures on Sam. Grinding on him are the high-strung French maitre d', an ill-tempered head chef, an overbearing matron given to crying jags and a motley assortment of celebrities and movers and shakers desperate to be seen at a restaurant where the cuisine is so "nouveau" it's off the charts (as are the prices).

 

Each of these characters, of course, is played by Stern - and that's where much of the show's enjoyment is generated. Stern is not only an adept mimic vocally; he creates the entire physicality of each character, even those whose total stage time amounts to mere seconds. Jerry, a fellow actor who uses the same theatrical agency as Sam, is a Mick Jagger-like lad. Maitre d' Jean-Claude is prissy and precise. There are snooty socialites, chuckling Texas oilmen, lachrymose ladies, husky-voiced women who, by phone, sound like men, and one of the play's central figures, Sam's sweet, easygoing dad.

 

Dad would love nothing better than for Sam to come home to South Bend, Ind., for the holidays - if only he can get those days off from work. This story arc not only lends "Fully Committed" the right dosage of pathos; it also allows Mode to cleverly serve up pieces of Sam's life a bit at a time. We eventually learn, for example, that Sam's dad is a widower - and that Sam recently lost out on a major deal with HBO.

 

The anti-dad, in this case, is the chef, who functions as Sam's nemesis. Stern combines a toned-down Jack Nicholson with the acerbic qualities of comedic actor Paul Lynde; the result is a self-centered culinary artiste who's nasty, rude and even sadistic. He communicates with Sam via a private line that links to a bright red phone in the basement. Equipped with a red light and buzzer, it's so annoyingly insistent, it takes on a personality of its own.

 

Mode's script raises and resolves plenty of story lines, including Sam's holiday plans, the fate of Sam's unseen cocaptain Bob and an enormously satisfying comeuppance for the chef. Stern and Goldstein even work in a well placed, well-timed reference to the musical "Peter Pan" that at Cathy Rigby and Tom McCoy's venue serves as a welcome and hilarious in-joke.

 

Stern's onstage persona as Sam is that of an intensely bright, likable, good-natured fellow, and in the role, Stern registers recognizable emotions, yet subtly. Nevertheless, he's able to work himself into a frenzy where the script demands, and more than once his performance suggests a caged hamster in a wheel, running futilely in place, accomplishing nothing.

 

The term "Fully Committed" refers to a restaurant being booked solid. Used here, the term can also apply to the character of Sam, so devoted to a job wherein he's so ill-served - and to any actor who takes on such a deliberately schizoid-inducing challenge as Mode's script.

 

Freelance writer Eric Marchese has covered entertainment for the Register since 1984. CONTACT US: emarchesewriter@aol.com

 

 

COMEDIC SCHIZOPHRENIA: Jamison Stern plays Sam Pellachowski, reservations captain at an exclusive New York restaurant, and 41 other characters in the La Mirada staging of the 1998 comedy "Fully Committed." MICHAEL LAMONT

 

 

'FULLY COMMITTED' • When: Through Nov. 21. 7:30 p.m. TuesdaysThursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2:30 and 7 p.m. Sundays • Where: La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada • How much: $32-$40 • Length: 1 hour, 15 minutes (no intermission) • Suitability: Teens and adults (for profanity) • Call: (714) 994-6310 • Online: www.lamiradatheatre.com Article

 

 

 

 

Fully Committed (McCoy Rigby Entertainment) 

by Frances Baum Nicholson

There is sometimes a fine line between entertainment and drama. A show with immense theatricality may not necessarily stand up as a play. Take, as case in point, the production of "Fully Committed" now offered by McCoy Rigby Entertainment at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts.

The play, by Becky Mode, depicts a day in the life of a struggling actor who works as a reservations operator for a trendy four-star restaurant in Manhattan. The young man, left alone in the restaurant's basement, must balance the demands of quirky patrons, the alternately stuffy and panicked maitre d', the oficious chef, and even his own lonely father, all the while waiting to hear about a call-back which could change his career. As such, it isn't all that different from the dozens of "struggling actor" plays one has encountered.

What makes the difference in "Fully Committed" is that one man - in this case Jamison Stern, who has virtually made a career of the part - plays not only the young actor, but all 20 or more people he speaks to on phones and intercoms during the course of the evening. It's quite a feat, and Stern's ability to create separate voices for each character and keep their personalities separate is remarkable.

Yet, in the end, what one remembers is not the work itself, but the performance. The vaudevillian aspects win out over the drama. It's an entertaining evening one could liken best to a very polished, subtle circus act: fun to watch, but not particularly profound.

Certainly, the entire thing is set with great polish. Gary Wissman's cluttered basement room is a natural for the storyline. Zack Moore's sound enhances the production. Director Danny Goldstein has taken what could easily have been incredibly static and given it movement and energy. The entire enterprise has been done just about as well as could be managed. If only it was as good as its trimmings.

The show is short - not surprising when you see what it is Stern is called upon to do - and done without intermission. Stern is amazing in the part, and in his ability to suspend the audience's disbelief. Still, what one hears the departing audience lauding is not the show, but the performer. If light entertainment is one's goal, that's just fine. Unfortunately, this production was touted as being a great play. That particular claim simply doesn't stand up.

What: "Fully Committed"  When: Through November 21, 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays, with 2:30 p.m. matinees Saturday and Sunday  Where: McCoy Rigby Entertainment at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Boulevard in La Mirada   How Much: $40 - $32  Info: (562) 944-9801 or (714) 994-6310, or www.lamiradatheatre.com

 

 

 

Listing

 

 

Fully Committed

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts  
14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada

Jamison Stern takes on the popular solo vehicle about a harried reservations operator at a trendy Manhattan eatery.

Through Nov. 21
Sundays, 2:30 p.m., 7 p.m.
Tuesdays, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m.
Thursdays, 7:30 p.m.
Fridays, 8 p.m.
Saturdays, 8 p.m., 2:30 p.m.

Price: $32-$40
Tickets: Box office: 562-944-9801.
Information: 714-994-6310

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