Tiny Bubbles
Opening Night: July 16, 2012
Closing: August 13, 2012
Theater: The Medicine Show Theatre
TINY BUBBLES concerns what happens when a longstanding drinking friendship between two men, both gay — the high-flying Danny and the more grounded Kirk — gets complicated after Kirk decides to join AA. All manner of unpredictable things occur when one man’s sobriety plunges his disconcerted drinking buddy into a dream world in which he alternately lives as a cloistered nun — and as a ‘Mad Men’-like exec partial to three martini lunches.
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July 29, 2012
These are hard times for drinkers, and Richard Willett’s “Tiny Bubbles” cares. If you are the kind of person who enjoys a refreshing alcoholic beverage, you probably know the look of condescension (disguised as sophisticated tolerance) certain to come your way when you dare to order a single glass of white wine at lunch. Accordingly you may yearn for the days — half a century ago and epitomized by the television drama “Mad Men” — when the three-martini midday meal was followed by the three-martini cocktail hour, and no one seemed to worry much about it. In the New Directions Theater’s likable if shaky production of “Tiny Bubbles,” now at the Medicine Show Theater, Danny McKenna (Jay Alvarez) appears to be transported to that time. He loves it; he wants to stay. But he learns some sociocultural lessons.
READ THE REVIEWJuly 17, 2012
"Oh, Jane, za days are so-o-o long." That, we are told in Richard Willett’s new comedy "Tiny Bubbles," was Catherine Deneuve’s reply to Jane Pauley when asked why she smokes. In this case, though, it’s Willett’s antic and forced play zat’s long (nearly two intermissionless hours). Oh, there are glimmers of fun scattered throughout, and some interesting issues are raised. Unfortunately, the playwright seems afraid of exploring them.
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July 17, 2012
Richard Willett’s new one-act play, Tiny Bubbles at Medicine Show Theatre, skips often between past and present, and even between comedy and drama, as it looks at the friendship of two gay men, Danny McKenna (Jay Alvarez) and Kirk Wesson (Tim Elliott) who break their monotonous work weeks with bottomless martinis and reenactments of scenes from old movies. While the work, directed by Eliza Beckwith, has strong performances and some witty dialogue, it ultimately suffers from a lack of focus.
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