‘One of the Good Ones’ Premieres at Pasadena Playhouse: Stage Review

Does “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” rely as a style unto itself, given what number of plotlines within the final half-century have relied on the suitor-out-of-water supper visitor as a linchpin? That trope appeared to have reached its furthest, most subversive excessive with “Get Out,” however there are nonetheless writers who’re drawn to the trope of the unwelcome boyfriend with out truly extending that nervous suppertime trope into, like, horror. Within the play “One of many Good Ones,” which is having its world premiere on the Pasadena Playhouse, playwright Gloria Calderón Kellett (who co-created Netflix’s “One Day at a Time” reboot) treats the essential construction of the 1967 Hepburn-Tracy-Poitier movie as if it’s nonetheless as sturdy as ever. However she does it with what barely nonetheless counts as a twist in 2024, that it’s a white man who’s the odd fish out, presenting himself as on the spot marriage materials for a cherished Latina daughter.

Or ought to that be Latinx, or Latine, or…? That query of latest utilization and semantics is one in every of a few hundred issues that may come to be debated over the course of an hour-and-a-half comedy that finds its laughs largely in exploring racial and/or generational variations. By the point this (largely) four-character piece has gotten to the difficulty of what suffix finest follows “Latin-,” it’s relaxed into one thing that feels extra like a witty dialog than a farcical argument, which is when “One of many Good Ones” is at its finest. The setup feels compelled, even contrived, at this late date. But there’s no denying that the creakiness of the premise offers some primary constructing blocks for a present that will get extra pleasurable because it goes alongside, as soon as everybody stops being compelled to fake that we are able to’t all simply get alongside. Even after it’s established that we are able to, there’s nonetheless rather a lot to speak about.

It helps within the setup that, as Illana and Enrique, the household matriarch and patriarch, Lana Parrilla and Carlos Gomez give good slackjaw. Which is to say, within the early going, when these two are required to all however actually depart their jaws on the ground over their daughter’s selection of beau, they create their finest comedic chops to these exaggerated responses, whereas nonetheless establishing some groundedness that may present higher payoffs afterward. Gomez, one of many unique solid members of Broadway’s “Within the Heights,” scales some contemporary peaks right here as a man who’s transparently benevolent even in his hotter-headed moments — his preliminary matches of pleasure and pique giving technique to the sort of slower burn that provides a transparent indication he’s truly melting. (Nonetheless the easy phrase “Ew” got here off on the web page, Gomez manages to present it an important spin, on a few events.) Even within the character’s much less enlightened moments, the actor deliver such likeable authority to the function that he virtually provides provinciality a superb title.

Parrilla, because the mother,will get to succumb to purpose sooner, because of the emotional shortcut that her tight maternal reference to their daughter offers. However her character can be essentially the most theatrically hyperactive of this lot, having been saddled with menopausal sizzling flashes and a deep insecurity complicated over by no means having realized Spanish, regardless of her Mexican household heritage. Illana borders within the early scenes on seeming unduly flighty for somebody that we’re informed has constructed her personal enterprise empire. Finally, although, Calderón Kellett’s script provides her a few of its starkest and boldest strains — together with the most important applause line of the night time, about how her native California was a part of Mexico. (It comes near being this present’s “Barbie speech,” if we are able to name {that a} factor now.) The sympathy Parrilla engenders in a theatrical setting will probably be a pleasant reset for any attendees who’ve her Evil Queen activate TV’s “As soon as Upon a Time” villainously burned into their brains. Right here, she simply will get to be queen.

As their daughter, Yoli, Isabella Gomez doesn’t get fairly as a lot to do comedically as the remainder of the solid; she’s the straightwoman, for essentially the most half, steadily dribbling out the revelations that make others blow gaskets. There are some inconsistencies to Yoli: She insists on bragging to her mother and father about how good her new man is within the sack (that may trigger an “Ew” from the viewers, in addition to dad), however then she acts disgusted once they joke about their very own marital horniness. And she or he’s purported to be a profitable influencer, in her personal post-collegiate proper, but this skilled over-sharer has by no means despatched a photograph of her caucasian regular to her people, or they’ve simply by no means peeked at her account. She’s portrayed as too candid and fearless to have ever withheld his race for any purpose apart from sheer forgetfulness, which doesn’t fairly monitor for an ideal daughter, both. However Gomez (who labored with the playwright on “One Day at a Time”) shines via even these gaps in characterization — it’s no chore to be rooting for her to search out love exterior the nest.

Is Nico Greetham, as Marcos, somebody who’s value these modern-day Capulets capitulating? Not essentially at first, the place he reveals up as a good-looking white caricature straight out of the Eighties’ “The Official Preppy Handbook.” He’s offered as an egghead so clueless he apparently didn’t understand his very race can be thought of risible. However they do have an excuse — not an excellent one — in that she did inform the mother and father that he was a Cruise, regardless that they took it as a Cruz, and never “like Tom,” as they amend his surname within the wake of the shock. He additionally grew up in Mexico, with the twist being that he is aware of espanol meticulously, in contrast to his unilingual potential mother-in-law (sure, you’ll get the inevitable gag of a super-caucasian man announcing “Los Angeles” like an historic Spaniard). And he can supply a extra academic-sounding historical past of American imperialism than the parents can, regardless that he appears like he was dressed by Lisa Birnbach. He does lastly begin wisening up in regards to the scenario at hand, with strains like: “Whereas I acknowledge the present vibe is heavy, I really feel mild inside the gravitas.” Acted otherwise, it could be a probably thankless function, however Greetham in the end will get a shocking variety of good laughs out of it, earlier than and after his cheerfully woke intellectualism thaws into one thing extra recognizably human.

To say {that a} new play betrays a sitcom sensibility most likely sounds just a little pejorative, underneath most circumstances. Amend that to Norman Lear sitcom sensibility, although, and the curiosity stage rises, not less than in case you’re a sucker for the sort of comedy meaning to humor us with humanism.  Calderón Kellett could be very a lot a graduate of the Lear college, having been the co-creator and co-showrunner of “One Day at a Time,” in its Lear-derived, Latina-focused reboot for a couple of profitable seasons. In one of the best Lear custom, all of the characters sort of commerce off being the sensible and noble or ridiculous ones in any given argument. That doesn’t at all times make for essentially the most constant characterizations, nevertheless it does really feel deeply honest in the way in which that each sitcoms and life must be, the place everyone in a tradition conflict is in the end well-motivated and nobody will get to win the rap battle each time.

Regardless of going for some fairly broad tropes within the setup, Calderón Kellett is proving herself worthy of carrying the late grasp’s torch into the realm of theater. And for all its aspirations to encourage, this can be a present that may rise or fall on its provocation of snickers. “One of many Good Ones” has greater than sufficient good, conscientious ones to get pleasure from a life past the San Gabriel Valley. That may doubtless proceed not less than for so long as a manufacturing has a director nearly as good as environment friendly as sustaining an unflagging power as Kimberly Senior, who finds an easy fluidity in navigating the play’s critical and foolish moments.

Talking of how the play will or gained’t journey, there’s one very homegrown, or not less than location-based, ingredient that works particularly properly on the Pasadena Playhouse: the truth that it’s set in Pasadena, within the sort of grand, wood-filled home that appears too neo-Craftsman-y to name a mansion, however which counts as one nonetheless. In case you dwell in Northeast L.A., it’s the sort of home you at all times want you’d be invited over to however by no means are, so 80 minutes or so spent in Tanya Orellana’s artful facsimile could be the subsequent neatest thing.

But it surely’s not the lounge that’s going to make the time spent go by in a breeze. It’s the discuss, which feels truthfully conversational as soon as the manufactured chaos simmers right down to a mere boil. That’s to not say it ever stops avoiding punchlines — and there are some excellent ones, like: “Come on, Marcos. Colonize that pinata.” (You’ll should see the play to see the way it will get there.) Sure, it seems like an elevated sitcom, and one that would stand some tweaks to floor it a bit extra within the realm of the stage. However the important thing query is: if “One of many Good Ones” had been the pilot for a sequence, would you need to come again and grasp with these people subsequent week? Extra doubtless than not, the reply will probably be sure.

‘One of many Good Ones’ Assessment: Pasadena Playhouse’s Cross-Cultural Comedy Brings a Norman Lear Sensibility to the Stage

Pasadena Playhouse, 686 seats, $48-122. Opened March 17, 2024. Reviewed March 17. Operating time: 1 HOUR 30 MIN.