Effervescent, kibitzing “Bad Dates” at Long Wharf


NEW HAVEN — The trials and tribulations of the single life are examined and dissected in Long Wharf Theatre’s production of “Bad Dates.”
It is an amusing and mostly honest view from one woman’s perspective of what it is like to be a single mom of a teen-age girl trying to earn a living in New York City, while taking a chance and jumping feet first into the deep end of dating pool.
It’s not always a pretty picture, but realistic and often funny. For example, rather than calling some of her dates by their names, Haley Walker gives them by nick-names, such as “the bug man.”
She also goes on a blind date her mother arranges with a gay Columbia law professor who she says is “the least fun homosexual on the planet,” is “snotty and kind of mean,” “on a pretend date with a girl.”
Another date disaster asks her what she is wearing and tells her it makes her look old. Why she continues to torture herself with that lout after those insults is a mystery.
Haley is competently and effervescently played by Haviland Morris. She speaks directly to the audience, in this one-woman show, like she is kibitzing with one of her girlfriends.
Not an easy feat to pull off, delivering a 90 minute monologue about her love life, or lack of one, plus a rather rocky work situation, running a trendy restaurant which turns out to be a front for a group of Romanian Mafia-type criminals.
The play, written by Theresa Rebeck, is wholly set in a rent-controlled apartment’s bedroom, over-run with wild designer shoes, in New York City. Originally written in 2004, it is amazing how much the world has changed in that time. How many upwardly mobile urban professionals still use a phone book to look up a telephone number? Cell phones are talked about, but no computer is in sight.
The bedroom is cozily cluttered, and looks like designer Frank J. Alberino popped next door to IKEA for the décor.
The costumes designed by Jessica Wegener, were many and appropriate for the play, with lots of dresses, and tons of high high heels. The red shoes in particular were lovely — some others, not so.
During the few scene changes in this play they added a fun interlude by having the two set changers, dressed like the blues brothers, do a little dance sequence while moving shoe boxes about. It is a clever idea, with direction by Long Wharf Theatre’s associate artistic director Eric Ting.
Haley’s self-effacing charm and her willingness to take responsibility for her actions, and reactions, make this show engaging and entertaining, as does her engaging the audience in a direct conversation about her love life, or lack of a love life.
Of her relationship with her former husband, she admits, “I was just another person who married a moron.”
Pretty much every woman at one time or another has experienced some of what she goes through in her effort to find companionship with other fellow travelers in the uncharted relationship waters.
A bit of a combination of “Sex and the City” with “Brigit Jones Diaries,” “Bad Dates,” while at times feels a little dated, is a light-hearted romp through the odd and strange world of dating.

BAD DATES

3 Stars
Location: 222 Sargent Drive, New Haven
Production: Written by Theresa Rebeck. Directed by Eric Ting. Set designed by Frank J. Alberino. Costumes designed by Jessica Wegener. Lighting designed by Josh Epstein. Sound designed by Corrine K. Livingston.
Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission.
Show Times: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Sundays at 7 p.m., Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Wednesday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. and Saturday matinees at 3 p.m. through Mar. 22.
Tickets: $32 to $62. For more information call their box office at 203-787-4282, or visit their website at www.longwharf.org
ACTOR…CHARACTER
Haviland Morris …. Haley Walker
By Kory Loucks
Journal Inquirer