Bootstraps Comedy Theater opened The Book of Liz by the Sedaris siblings, David and Amy, on May 11, 2007. If this were a TV show, I would tell you to settle down in front of the tube with a big bag of popcorn, hit the mute button, and enjoy 90 minutes of some outlandish mugging by five very talented actors. If the drama teacher in Acting 101 told the students to come up with a script that would showcase their versatility, the result would be The Book of Liz, some of the most inane drivel I've witnessed in several years. Rarely has so much talent and energy been squandered in a single performance.
Bootstraps is a fledgling, three-year old troupe of not-long-out-of-college students, augmented by a handful of area professionals, which has developed the bad habit of selecting sophomoric scripts: >O?A New Age Sexiology (2005 Out-of-the-Loop Festival at the WaterTower), Breast Men (2004 Festival of Independent Theaters/FIT at the Bath House), Sunny and Eddie Sitting in a Tree (2006 FIT). Only Jack Heifner's Dwarf Tossing at 2005 FIT measured up as a well-crafted script. One out of five is not a great track record.
Bootstraps manages to assemble some of Dallas' best talent in some of its worst plays. The Book of Liz is no exception. Sister Elizabeth Donderstock (Arianna Movassagh) is an Amish-type maiden residing in the cloistered religious community of Clusterhaven. She keeps their finances afloat by making her famous cheese balls. Feeling unappreciated, she strikes out for greener pastures. Along the road, she meets a Ukranian with an English accent and dressed as a peanut. His job in Kiev was de-clawing cats. When Liz suggests he get a similar job in this country he laments, "I'd have to start from scratch." Now isn't that special!
Liz lands a job at a restaurant run by a group of recovering alcoholics. Poor Liz has a sweating problem and visits a doctor who suggests an operation. Fortunately for Clusterhaven (as we learn later), she doesn't take the doctor's advice. Then Liz is offered a job as manager of the restaurant but refuses the job because it would mean wearing a short skirt. Disillusioned, she returns to Clusterhaven just in time to save it from extinction. Seems they couldn't duplicate her recipe and are about to go under. Upon Liz's return, the secret ingredient is discovered: Liz's sweat. Now isn't that special! Clusterhaven is saved, and all's well that ends well.
Arianna Movassagh, Randy Pearlman and Lisa Hassler do star turns, the latter two in multiple roles. Movassagh has a rubber face, and she can be funny without uttering a word (and in this play, the fewer uttered, the better). Hassler, clearly the most versatile of the cast members, can shed an outfit and an accent and morph into another in the blink of an eye, and Pearlman is just all-around superb in any role he plays. Jeremy Whiteker is a hoot in his two roles, and Brian Witkowicz is also fun to watch. Just imagine what this cast could do with a well conceived and well-written script.
