By Vivien Latham, Special to the Ojai Valley News
Meet Becky and Joe, a middle-aged couple in a middle-aged marriage. Will it survive the arrival of a mixed-up millionaire? Cynthia Killion and Stan McConnell star in “Becky’s New Car” at the Ojai Art Center Theater, 113 S. Montgomery St., showing Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. until Feb. 19.
Meet Becky Foster. She is a warm, friendly, chatty, middle-aged, middle-class, married woman, with a 26-year-old son, and a job at a car dealership where she answers the phone hundreds of times a day, with the same spiel, delivered at a pace that Rosalind Russell would envy. Becky loves her husband, Joe, a roofer, and her son Chris (who still lives at home!). But, after 20-plus years of marriage, she longs for something more.
Playwright Steven Dietz takes us on a journey about the road not taken in this slightly dark but very funny play.
Quoting a theory of her friend Rita: “When a woman says she needs new shoes, what she really wants is a new job. When she says she needs a new house, she wants a new husband. And when she says she wants a new car, she wants a new life.” After meeting socially awkward, widowed millionaire Walter Flood (Taylor Kasch) at work, Becky embarks on a parallel life separated by social status and a three-hour commute.
Cynthia Killion as Becky handles her role with polish, ease, and aplomb. On opening night, after misplacing her cell phone (a prop that seldom leaves Becky’s hand for more than a few minutes), she reacted by pantomiming it, evoking one of the biggest laughs of the evening. Killion breaks the fourth wall throughout the entire play, involving the audience as she discusses her life, her marriage, her problems, even corralling a few patrons to help her with her coat as she dresses for a party. Although she is supported by a terrific cast, this is Becky’s story, and Killion is simply marvelous in the role.
Stan McConnell, as Joe, has some of the funniest lines in the play. His delivery and timing reflect his skills at improv, earning him some of the loudest laughter during the show. Taylor Kasch is endearingly befuddled as Walter Flood, a lonely widower seeking companionship and love. His scenes with Becky are touching and romantic. He treats his wealth with a casual ease that adds to the humor in his character. Becky’s co-worker Steve is also a widower, after losing his wife a year ago. His obsessive comments about her death and his loneliness adds to Becky’s frustrations at her job, but Bill Walthall makes his character sympathetic, likable, and very funny.
Denise Heller plays Ginger, Walter’s elegant and sophisticated neighbor, with genuine warmth, self-deprecating wit, and more than a hint of vulnerability. Becky’s son, Chris (Max Budroe), is a graduate student of psychology; his lectures to his mother about her midlife crisis are comically annoying. Amber Shea Hodge is charming as Walter’s daughter Kenni.
Some of the dialogue was difficult to understand, especially when delivered on the upper platform. Part of this was due to the cast stepping on their laugh lines on opening night, but they will undoubtedly find their rhythm and improve their projection during the run of the play.
The multilevel set, designed by Taylor Kasch and Director Rosie Gordon, represents Becky’s home, her office at the dealership, Walter’s waterfront mansion, and the open road. With the aid of lighting and sound design, handled fluidly and right on cue, and with Director Rosie Gordon’s sure hand guiding the action, the cast’s seamless transitions of time and place keeps the pace going.
Ojai Art Center Theater’s first production of the 2023 season is a delightful comedy that will keep the audience entertained, as the characters take us on a joyride whilst they examine their lives and question their choices in a quest to find a new life.