Seminaris a cartoon of a play about an obnoxious writing instructor, Leonard (Jeff Goldblum), and his four equally unpleasant students, each of whom is shelling out five thousand bucks to have his work critiqued by the foul-mouthed, self-styled master.
Playwright Theresa Rebeck strains credulity in making the point that only tough love can turn backbiting wanna-be writers into professionals, but she is such a skilled and funny writer that she can make you forget your misgivings.
Rebeck is greatly aided in this by her director (Sam Gold) and by her cast: their ensemble work is fast, snappy and slick. Goldblum, who replaced Alan Rickman when Seminar played on Broadway last year, has a rollicking good time in the role of the monstrous Leonard, relishing every insult and wisecrack that he spits out ("If you're going to write, be a fucking man about it. Kerouac wrote `On the Road’ in like a week or something").
Aya Cash plays Kate, whose West Side, rent-controlled apartment serves as the classroom for the weekly seminar. She has been working on the same short story for six years. Lucas Near-Berbrugghe plays Douglas, a name-dropping, social-climbing dilettante; Greg Keller is Martin, a blocked novelist who moves into Kate's pad but sleeps with Izzy (Jennifer Ikeda), a hot chick who uses sex to advance her stalled literary career.
Seminar is outrageous in its excesses, but Rebeck doesn't let that stop her from mounting a warty portrait of the lit game.
