Despite some stage pizazz, ‘Play Dates’ hopelessly dated

Sam Wolfson's new script "Play Dates," now being mounted at Las Vegas Little Theatre, is so thin, it's barely there.

Wolfson wants to take an intimate look at intimate relationships. Trouble is, he doesn't have much to say abut them.

He begins with two 5-year-olds who vow to stay together forever. Things fizzle. In the second act, the nerd from the first (played by Frank Gambino Jr.) is all grown-up and a host for a television call-in relationship show. Winds up, the host is just as lost and needy as his callers.

Wolfson gives his subject matter some stage pizzazz, but his observations feel decades behind the times. To stop the 5-year-old from being interested in another guy, the boy says, "He has full-blown cooties." (Haven't we heard that before?) Someone's asked how he manages to stay content. "By giving up," is the answer. ("Annie Hall," anyone?) When a naive woman is asked if she wants Ecstasy, she mutters nervously, "No thank you. We're trying to quit." ("Leave It to Beaver"?)

The moral is, I guess, that intimacy is tough, but worth it.

I don't see how director Walter Niejadlik could have rescued the material, but he does succeed at milking it for more than it's worth.

The production, with a competent seven-member cast, has an energetic spirit that encourages smiles.

Gambino is a likable underdog who also has the charisma to make you believe he's a major TV personality. Daryl Scott Thomas is equally adept at portraying a mischievous, narcissistic 5-year-old as he is a man trying to keep sexual spontaneity in his 10-year marriage. And Paul Cieslewicz as a gruff athletic coach bellows beautifully as he rambles on (in between slugs from a flask) about his miserable marriage.

Ron Lindblom's amusingly gaudy sets are colorful and varied, while Ginny Adams displays a knack for subtle light changes that help exposition scenes slowly slip into sensuality.

There are laughs in "Play Dates." But I felt I'd heard most of them before. I couldn't figure out why this play exists.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at vegastheaterchat@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.