To come out or not come out is the question Beane asks in his scabrous satire of sex and Hollywood. First produced Off-Broadway in 2005, The Little Dog Laughed repeats in L.A. with some actors from the original production. All turn in polished and assured performances.
Brian Henderson plays Mitchell, a successful actor whose agent Diane (Julie White) has purchased the film rights to a hit play with a gay theme she thinks could become another "Brokeback Mountain." Problem is, if Mitch reveals his own hitherto hidden homosexuality, the film will go straight to the art houses instead of the multiplexes -- a fate worse than hell for an ambitious, status-mad woman like herself.
Poor Mitchell, though, is smitten with Alex (Johnny Galecki), a young hustler he has found through an outcall service. Though Alex considers himself hetero (he has a sometime girlfriend, Ellen (Zoe Lister-Jones), he not only sleeps with Mitch but falls for him. When Diane learns that Mitch and Alex intend to announce themselves as a couple, she goes ballistic. Her verbal attacks on Mitch, Alex and Ellen -- and all notions of honesty and morality -- are comically inspired and twisted.
White makes the most of her Machiavellian role, pulling out all the stops in a bravura performance. Henderson, Galecki and Jones support her slickly, making for a swiftly paced, laugh-filled night of theater.
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Johnny Galecki
Brian Henderson Zoe Lister-Jones Julie White
