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A CurtainUp Review
Bad Dates


I was just another person who married a moron and had a load of shit to deal with.
---Haley
Texas waitresses are a standard comic cliché, but Theresa Rebeck in her amusing new one-woman show, Bad Dates, is able to transcend the cliché. Haley is a divorcee with 600 pairs of shoes and a teenage daughter. After she flees her bonehead husband and former life in Texas, she settles in New York and begins waiting tables in a restaurant which turned out to be a front for a money laundering operation by a Romanian mob. When the Feds busts the mob, the restaurant loses its manager. Since Haley is the only competent person left on the work force she becomes the new manager.

The restaurant becomes hip, and gets a rave in the Times and Haley decides that she's devoted enough time to her career and her daughter and to start dating again. Easier said than done. As most single women know, it can be hard to find a good single man in the city, especially with a time-consuming career.

Bad Dates opens with Haley dressing for her first date and talking to us about her life and expectations for the evening. She tries on outfits, scatters clothes about, and tries on many of her 600 pairs of shoes. The show continues in this vein. Haley dresses, goes out on a date, and tells us about the last date as she dresses for the next one. Naturally, it's a bumpy road and some of these dates that are spectacular failures. Just as Haley finds a man who could be a real possibility, the Romanian mob makes a surprise appearance, and her life goes haywire.

This isn't the most intellectual of shows, but no matter -- there's more than enough humor to counterbalance the fluffiness. The contrivances are made warm and entertaining by Julie White's ebullience. She's a perfect fit for the talkative and warm-hearted character. She draws the audience into her confidence, chatters away about shoes and men and food. By the time events turn sinister, Haley's won our sympathy. How could she not? She's trying so hard to remain generous in spite of blind dates and the Feds.

The set is strewn with clothing and shoes; it's a standard female bedroom, although it's awfully spacious for a Manhattan bedroom. The lighting is soft and atmospheric, ideal for Haley's long soliloquy, and her outfits are carefully chosen. The shoes are the production's costume jewel, however. There are so many -- and they are all fabulous. For a former waitress, Haley is very well acquainted with the world of designer shoes—-Jimmy Choo, Chanel, Blahnik, all are represented. Most of the men she goes out with don't deserve such beautiful shoes.

Actor John Benjamin Hickey has chosen the perfect date fare for his directing debut. Besides being funny and lighthearted, it's a pleasure to watch Julie White perform. If nothing else, women will love those shoes.

BAD DATES
Written by Theresa Rebeck
Directed by John Benjamin Hickey
Starring Julie White
Set Design by Derek McLane
Sound Design by Bruce Ellman
Lighting Design by Frances Aronson
Costume Design by Mattie Ullrich
Running time: 95 minutes without intermission
Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street, 212/279-4200
6/03/03-6/29/03-- extended to 7/06/03; opening 6/15/03
Tuesday through Friday at 7:30, Saturday at 2:30 and 7:30, Sunday at 2:30 and 7:00
Reviewed by Jenny Sandman based on June 14th performance

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metaphors dictionary cover
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