Jane Martin takes us backstage at the modern regional theater in the wickedly funny Anton in Show Business. Full of insider jokes and strange situations, the play does have something to say about modern theater, acting and friendship. It follows a doomed-from-the-start production of Chekhov's Three Sisters, presented by a fictitious San Antonio theater. The cast includes a TV star, a New York playwright and a aspiring young Texan. As the production lurches from one disaster to the next (disagreeable directors, loony producers, funding being cut off), the three stars develop a kind of friendship. But the play, thankfully, doesn't get soft and schmaltzy at the end. Instead, one character short-circuits the production's last chance in favor of her own career. Along the way, there's a character seated in the audience, interrupting the proceedings and adding additional commentary on the state of the theater (perhaps it's no wonder she turns out to be a critic).
A lot of the humor comes from the inside ("That's the Actors' Equity office," explains T-Anne, the show's all-purpose stage manager. "Its role is to make sure no more than 80 percent of its members are unemployed at any one time."), which was perfect for the Humana visitors weekend audience. And what better place to roast the critic than in front of several hundred members of the American Theater Critics Association? This may make the play too insular for the general population, but most regular theatergoers are going to get the jokes.
The seven-woman cast dive into each of their roles, bringing up the comic energy at each step. Some are intentionally stereotypical, especially the stream of directors (played by Saidah Arrika Ekoluna and Chick Reid) brought in to save the play. And Chekhov is there as well, reflected in the relationship between the three leads, and in a touching scene near the end, where the trio perform the final scene from Three Sisters in an empty airport terminal.
