{"id":13258,"date":"2014-07-28T08:36:39","date_gmt":"2014-07-28T15:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=13258"},"modified":"2014-07-28T08:36:39","modified_gmt":"2014-07-28T15:36:39","slug":"the-book-of-liz-is-a-farce-with-serious-undertones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/the-book-of-liz-is-a-farce-with-serious-undertones\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Book of Liz\u2019 is a farce with serious undertones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Woody’s [rating: 2]<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sister Elizabeth Donderstock (AJ Davenport) describes the joys of making cheeseballs to Rev. Tollhouse (Justin Gillman) in \u201cThe Book of Liz.\u201d Photo by Jay Yamada.<\/p>\n

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Brother Brightbee (Stefin Collins) consoles Sister Butterworth (Teri Whipple). Photo by Jay Yamada.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

My silliness-appreciation gland may have malfunctioned.<\/span><\/p>\n

At precisely the wrong time:<\/p>\n

While watching \u201cThe Book of Liz,\u201d a one-act revival written by a comic brother-sister team, David and Amy Sedaris.<\/p>\n

Because my gland wasn\u2019t throbbing properly, I couldn\u2019t fully marvel at the queen-sized Mr. Peanut costume, the Cockney accents of two Ukrainian characters, the Pilgrim-suited alcoholics who staff the Plymouth Crock restaurant, or references to a Chastity Parade that red-flags the \u201cdanger of casual glancing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nor did the intentionally fake beards of the black suited, black-hatted Squeamish clergy, a crypto-Amish spoof, make me chuckle.<\/p>\n

I was, admittedly, among a small stone-faced minority though.<\/p>\n

Many in the sold-out audience laughed loudly, and they applauded vigorously at the play\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

Brian Katz, artistic director, and Leah S. Abrams, executive director, co-founders of The Custom Made Theatre Co., which operates out of the Gough St. Playhouse in San Francisco, obviously believe in the 80-minute farce without qualification.<\/p>\n

This run marks their company\u2019s fourth time.<\/p>\n

It was only my first.<\/p>\n

Amy Sedaris, best known for portraying Jerri Blank on Comedy Central\u2019s \u201cStrangers with Candy,\u201d in 2002 originated the off-Broadway role of Sister Elizabeth Donderstock, a disgruntled nun who runs away from the order because she\u2019s undervalued and bullied by its leader, the Rev. Tollhouse, and newly arrived Brother Nathaniel Brightbee.<\/p>\n

In this production, AJ Davenport plays that devout cheeseball-making nun with mock-seriousness (\u201cCheeseballs are practically my life \u2014 aside from God\u201d) coupled with the comic conceit of wiping prodigious sweat from her face and brow.<\/p>\n

Justin Gillman skillfully injects faux hypocrisy into his role as Tollhouse, and Stefin Collins capably portrays Brightbee as a highly flawed interloper.<\/p>\n

Although all four actors play multiple roles, Teri Whipple becomes the numerical all-purpose champ by taking on half a dozen.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve long found David Sedaris\u2019 style of humor stimulated my funnybone better than Amy\u2019s.<\/p>\n

His writing most often seemed to me personal, witty and sophisticated while hers frequently struck me as off-kilter and sophomoric.<\/p>\n

To me, \u201cThe Book of Liz\u201d feels as if Sister Sedaris pushed infinitely more computer keys and concocted a Saturday Night Live sketch that went on too long.<\/p>\n

David\u2019s fame stems from his radio essay \u201cSantaLand Diaries\u201d (which detailed his experiences as an elf at Macy\u2019s), his countless New Yorker pieces and a series of books, most of which rely on exaggerated tales of his life, his gay lover and the Sedaris family.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Typically he\u2019s droll, although he leaned heavily on gravitas in a New Yorker piece late last year after his sister Tiffany killed herself.<\/p>\n

Not everything in \u201cLiz\u201d is intended to be comical either; intermittently a serious undertone surfaces (\u201cWhy is it I had to dress like a peanut to feel human again?\u201d).<\/p>\n

Maybe I should have been checking my earnestness-appreciation gland all along.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Book of Liz\u201d plays at the Gough St. Playhouse, 1620 Gough St. (in the basement of the Trinity Episcopal Church, at Bush), San Francisco, through Aug. 2. Tickets: $25 to $35. Information: (415) 798-2682 or www.custommade.org.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Woody’s [rating: 2] My silliness-appreciation gland may have malfunctioned. At precisely the wrong time: While watching \u201cThe Book of Liz,\u201d a one-act revival written by a comic brother-sister team, David…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13258","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"