Love, Sex And The IRS

Could there be a more perfect title to whet the appetite of a dinner-theater audience? Derby Dinner Playhouse's smartly honed presentation of Love, Sex & the IRS, written by William VanZandt and Jane Milmore expressly for community-theater audiences, puts a satisfying farcical feast on the table. The groaning board offers a surfeit of laugh-out-loud helpings involving cross-dressing, gender mix-ups, a nosy landlord, romantic entanglements, tax cheats, and inebriated interlopers.
Consider the premise: Leslie Arthur (Bill Hanna) and Jon Trachman (Alex Wayne) have roomed together for eight years - four in college and four in a New York apartment. Jon and Kate Dennis (Bridget Witzke) are planning to be married in two weeks, but while Jon has been away trying to get a gig for his band, Leslie and Kate have decided they love each other and worry about how to break the news to Jon. Meanwhile, it turns out that Jon has been filing tax returns that list Leslie as his wife, unbeknownst to Leslie. But his tax-cheating scheme is about to be exposed through a visit from an IRS agent named Floyd Spinner (Cary Wiger). Leslie and Kate's dilemma must be put on hold while Jon and Leslie cope with the IRS man by having Leslie dress as a woman and attempt to pass as Jon's wife. Hilarious complications ensue with Hanna, Wiger, and Sandra Simpson - as Jon's out-of-control mother who drops in from Chicago for a surprise visit -- garnering well-deserved kudos for their athletic prowess and superb timing. Wayne and Witzke are also effective in their less showy roles. Janet Essenpreis as Connie, Leslie's pre-Kate girlfriend; David Myers as Arnold Grunion, a justice-of-the-peace whom Jon's mother meets on the subway, and J. R. Stuart as Mr. Jansen, the landlord, round out the adroit cast directed by William Theisen for maximum risibility.