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The toothsome title WASPs in Bed hints at a juicy, stinging social commentary (or a mortifying documentary on TLC), but Nicola Behrman and Richard Willis Jr.’s play about three restless couples arguing, drinking and loving it up in a country cabin is actually, of all things, a romantic comedy. In general, I could really do without romantic comedies and their tepidly unrealistic premises, yet, as presented by Miller, Behrman and director Lisa Marie Meller, WASPs is bearable and — dare I say it — engaging, thanks to a script that focuses on genuinely loving, recognizable human relationships.
The cast, too, is engaging — Kelly Deadmon stars as an appropriately skittish trophy wife to David Alan Basche’s uptight yet upstanding husband. Rick Gifford and a perhaps too-peppy Natasha Malinsky play an affianced couple who are very anxiously waiting until they marry to experience each other’s waspy flesh in bed. Rounding out the cast, winsome, foxy Richard Short and Alysia Reiner as blowhard Cal and mordant Raina do the most to give WASPs any of the bite it has, but despite the heated pre-nuptial arguments and the threat of potential mate swapping, there is little doubt that the plot’s threads will wrap up cleanly. Things do finish up handily indeed for a play with the word “bed” in its title and starting with a smug reminder as the house lights dim to turn off one’s cell phones “…and vibrators.” And there was much disappointed sighing.
The cast, too, is engaging — Kelly Deadmon stars as an appropriately skittish trophy wife to David Alan Basche’s uptight yet upstanding husband. Rick Gifford and a perhaps too-peppy Natasha Malinsky play an affianced couple who are very anxiously waiting until they marry to experience each other’s waspy flesh in bed. Rounding out the cast, winsome, foxy Richard Short and Alysia Reiner as blowhard Cal and mordant Raina do the most to give WASPs any of the bite it has, but despite the heated pre-nuptial arguments and the threat of potential mate swapping, there is little doubt that the plot’s threads will wrap up cleanly. Things do finish up handily indeed for a play with the word “bed” in its title and starting with a smug reminder as the house lights dim to turn off one’s cell phones “…and vibrators.” And there was much disappointed sighing.
