Sean Hayes Excels In Not-So-Divine ‘Act Of God’
Fear not, Angelenos: in the midst of our present political circus, and despite the best efforts of a select few candidates pining away to restore our country to the faith upon which it was founded, the gay will certainly not be prayed away at the Ahmanson Theatre. Starring in the West Coast premiere of “An Act of God” in a role originated off-Broadway by Jim Parsons (“The Big Bang Theory,” “The Normal Heart”), Sean Hayes brings a flamboyant charm and astute theatrical charisma to a one-man show that needs more than a few blessings to stay afloat.
The set-up: God is pissed. His children have taken His commandments to such drastic extremes and skewed perceptions that He feels the message of His love and His role in the cosmological function of the universe has been lost with the passage of time. He feels antiquated, forgotten, and so not fetch. Thus, His spirit inhabits the body of acclaimed television sensation Sean Hayes (who never shies away from his enormous task) to present a revised version of His Ten Commandments that He feels will hit home more solidly with his Los Angeles audience. Is it sacred? Sure looks like it. Is it anointed with spectacle and clarity? Why not. Is it effective? Arguable.
As a vessel of the Lord who happens to be a gay actor in Hollywood, Sean Hayes is a riot. The 90-minute intermissionless production would feel painstaking and infuriating without Hayes’ biting wit and commanding subtlety. But the script begs for more in return than it delivers. The first three New Commandments, explained and illuminated by Hayes as he sits cross-legged on his white couch throne and sips out of his Holy Grail with a bendy straw, are weak tongue-in-cheek attempts to get laughs out of the decidedly non-Christian audience. Indeed, the first third of the show spends too much time on religious humor and perhaps alienates its audience from the full investment it would have were it staged in the Bible Belt.
However, the show — perhaps of its own accord and perhaps out of necessity — takes a topical and more vulgar turn toward the halfway mark and beyond. Commentaries on the supposed piety of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump and gossipy tales of celebrities masturbating flow out of Hayes’ sardonic delivery with ease and land more firmly. As the angel Gabriel, James Gleason reads the commandments with booming sovereignty and provides biblical support for Hayes’ rants with comic stoicness. On the other hand, the angel Michael, played by an energetic David Josefsberg, acts as audience liaison, soliciting scripted questions from various unsuspecting audience members before beginning to ask more provocative questions himself. These questions represent the question on America’s mind and, truly, the true question that the piece raises: why is the world so beyond repair if God is supposedly perfect? Despite his affability and seeming control of everything, when will He finally step in and make everything great again? These questions provide for more somber and introspective, if oddly out-of-place, moments in Hayes’ performance, as God wonders repeatedly just what the Hell is wrong with Him.
Set designer Scott Pask places this talk show-esque rapport in the opening of a multi-layered cosmic tunnel opening up into the heavens. It’s beautiful and ceremonious, perfectly complimenting the quirkiness of the piece and adding an austerity to the aforementioned moments of introspection. Hugh Vanstone’s lighting is divine as well, specifically the moments when the tunnel erupts in flame as God works out his “wrath management issues” by invoking Hell and damnation upon his subjects. Hayes uses his environment well, saddling up and blazing his way through the painfully obvious one-man show tropes of haphazard audience participation and the nails-on-a-chalkboard closing song-and-dance number where God bids the audience a cheery farewell.
It’s too bad that by this point, the audience is glad to see him go. They’ve spent an overly long hour and a half trying to find a match with a script that just feels misplaced and useless, utilizing cliched humor that would land so much better in a place other than Los Angeles. Hayes plays his part well, but it would have worked better if it were a Sean Hayes stand-up comedy special. No flowing robes, no pearly gates, no heavenly chorus — just pure, honest truth that isn’t being concealed by the facade of a one-man show.
“An Act of God” runs through March 13 at the Ahmanson Theatre in the Music Center (135 N Grand Ave, Downtown Los Angeles, 90012). Performances take place Tuesday through Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2 and 8pm, and Sunday at 1 and 6:30pm. No Monday performances. Special 2pm performance on Thursday, March 10, and no 6:30pm performance on Sunday, March 13. Tickets are $25-$130 and can be purchased online at www.centertheatregroup.org, by phone at (213) 972–4400, or in person at the box office.
Contact Theatre Editor and Staff Writer Ryan Brophy at [email protected]
