The Little Dog Laughed

I didn't expect to enjoy this sharply satirical play about a vicious Hollywood agent-cum-producer until I realized, after the male prostitute decides not to leave the Hollywood star who has hired and subsequently fallen asleep on him, that The Little Dog Laughed was actually about that elusive thing called happiness. The rollicking script is punched up for laughs, but it's Julie White's perfect timing and her deliveries of Douglas Carter Beane's metaphors that tie everything together. ("My word? You're asking a whore for her cherry!" or "Talking to you is as hard as sowing a button on cottage cheese.") Scott Ellis has directed a swift and substantial production, and I found the rest of the current cast (Tom Everett Scott and Johnny Galecki as the lovers, Ari Graynor as the saucy "girlfriend") to be a highly capable bunch, though I can't say that Galecki's squealing voice didn't annoy me. Also, the ending caught me by surprise: not because it wasn't obvious, but because it actually affected me: all that illusion, all that bullshit . . . can't anybody just love anymore?

[Read on]

Also blogged by: [David] [Christopher] [Patrick]