'Sensuous' and silly
It’s politics as usual in the Sierra Madre Playhouse bedroom-bouncing farce ‘The Sensuous Senator’
By Carl Kozlowski 01/14/2010
There have been plenty of randy politicians throughout history. There were those caught with their pants down with women — Bill Clinton, John Edwards and former New York Gov Eliot Spitzer immediately come to mind. And then there were those who preferred men — with for Rep. Mark Foley and US Sen. Larry (Meet Me in the Airport Bathroom) Craig, and Democrat Congressman Barney Frank among those caught up in unseemly situations of sexual impropriety.
Now, amid the latest and most drawn-out of these scandals — that involving former Democratic presidential contender Edwards, his love child, his cancer-stricken wife and his campaign-worker mistress — comes the Sierra Madre Playhouse’s timely production of the political bedroom farce, “The Sensuous Senator.”
While the play debuted in 1988 at the Delray Beach Playhouse in Delray Beach, Fla., near the time of Democratic presidential candidate and Sen. Gary Hart’s career-ending affair with Donna Rice, writer Michael Parker has tapped into an apparently timeless topic that continue to draw laughs more than two decades later.
In “Senator,” Sen. Harry Douglas’ campaign for re-election centers on morality and family values. Yet, when his wife Lois goes away for the weekend, Douglas calls his voluptuous secretary, Veronica, to spend the night, only to find she’s busy. Not to be deprived, Douglas calls an agency for an escort for the evening, just before elderly Congressman Clyde Salt locks himself out of his own house and shows up asking to spend the night.
Then Douglas’ nephew Jack comes by to discuss the campaign. As Harry is juggling Clyde, Jack and the escort, Veronica pops in, Lois’ flight is canceled, and a reporter for the National Intruder starts snooping around the house. The amazing thing is that it’s not that far from the truth of Edwards’ real-life situation, in which a secret team of National Enquirer reporters and paparazzi cornered the politician in the Beverly Hills Four Seasons Hotel and chased him into the basement men’s room, where he hid in a stall for nearly 30 minutes before finally facing the music.
“It’s a play about a senator with all these affairs but done as a farce, a wacky comedy, with people trying to hide people in bed as his wife goes out for the weekend and three women wind up in the same house,” says Scott Vinci, a fixture on the Los Angeles comedy and acting scene who plays a confused policeman in the production.
“I think there’s a prowler so I keep interrupting the senator and his wacky hi-jinks. I’m very serious with what I’m doing, but it’s very deadpan and I’ll get some great laughs” Vinci says.
A prolific playwright, Parker has apparently mastered this genre, having created such titles as “The Amorous Ambassador,” “Hotbed Hotel,” “Never Kiss A Naughty Nanny,” “Sex, Please, We’re Sixty!,” and “Whose Wives Are They Anyway?” Ken Salzman, one of the playhouse’s resident directors, helms the nine-member cast, drawing on talent from LA’s best small theaters.
“Actors’ Access sent breakdowns out and they called me to audition, so I went over to Sierra Madre,” recalls Vinci, who is also currently shopping a screenplay he co-wrote called “Taking the Dive,” about a teenage girl lured into a heist in order to pay for an Olympic-diving coach and the boy who tries to save her from a life of crime.
“All I knew about [Sierra Madre] was that it was in the title of a Humphrey Bogart movie. The whole town looks like a movie set waiting to shoot,” says Vinci, referring to the classic film, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”
Vinci appreciates the old-time feel of the Sierra Madre Playhouse, both for its historic charms as a former movie theater turned live-stage venue and for its practicality.
“I like it, because in Hollywood sometimes you have to build the set and get the audience yourself,” says the Texas native, who performs guitar-driven standup comedy at the Improv and is a member of the Blank Label improv troupe.
“In this one I want to just act, it’s all I want to do. I just love making people laugh and nothing makes me happier. If I get paid and people are laughing, all is right with the world.”
“The Sensuous Senator” starts at 8 p.m. Friday and runs through through Feb. 27 at 8 p.m. Friday and Sunday, and 2:30 p.m. Sundays, except this week, at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre. Admission is $12 to $20. Call (626) 355-4318 or visit sierramadreplayhouse.org.
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FANTASTIC! HYSTERICAL! Beautifully choreographed cat and mouse sequence. Women in lingerie, women hiding in closets and under beds. Policemen, reporters, senile congressman, brandy, sleeping pills. Brought in big laughs opening weekend! A must see.