One Slight Hitch

It isn’t every day you guess the exact setting of a play before the production even starts, but the stage of One Slight Hitch, playing at Newport Playhouse through May 15th, is instantly recognizable as middle-class-Ohio-80s. A killer soundtrack and bubblegum-colored outfits confirm the time and place within moments of the play starting,

Lewis Black, one of the grumpiest, most belligerent haters of all things (including pumpkin-spice air freshener and his own audience) writes a piece of theater about modern marriage without a single curse word in it, to our chagrin. A middle class family in a Cincinnati suburb is observed on the wedding day of the middle daughter, Courtney, as she embarks on “forever” with Harper, a writer she met in London who promises to be a boring but safe match. P.B., the youngest member of the family, narrates the story and punctuates it with her disc-man toting dances to “Bette Davis Eyes” and other classics that will have you nodding along.

A ranting and at times belligerent Delia, mom of the bride played by Sandra Nicastro, is the closest hint to Black’s own disposition of emotional rollercoasters and outbursts of unsolicited opinion. Nicastro exudes an authentic motherly care for her daughter while projecting onto her the wedding she never had. Courtney (Olivia Sahlin) has listened to her mind over her heart, we are made to believe, in choosing the impeccable option. Her ex-boyfriend Ryan lingers in the memory of her family as the one-true-love, who, you guessed it, shows up to the house on the wedding day as part of his modern-day-Kerouac hitchhiking journey. Older sister Melanie (Genevra Stewart) is the kind of woman who will test the love of one of these men by propositioning him —  a nurse in a stripper’s outfit who doesn’t care if she ever marries.

The star of the production comes in the form of an obliviously kind, overbearingly understanding, and stereotypically midwestern dad of the family, Doc. Played brilliantly by Richard Bagley he holds the production down serving as the  ph-balance to the borderline painfully piercing voice of P.B. A sweet twist at the end of the play rewards him for his gentleness. The recognizable set, sweet American family set-up and annoying little sister pumping music to get away from it all is something we can all identify with. And the music! I wanted a soundtrack CD for the play, which is executed with precise timing, to the credit of director White.

If you have an evening off and want to enjoy some family entertainment in the form of dinner, a play and a cabaret at a down-to-earth local theater, Newport Playhouse is sure to please. The production appeals more to individuals looking for an evening activity than to theater aficionados. S long as this is clear to all attending, all will have a good evening with One Slitch Hitch.