Off Broadway Theater Review. Robert M. Massimi.

“Ode To The Wasp Woman” at Actors Temple Theatre is a very up and down play that has as many good things in it as it does pitfalls. The story has its premise in four actors who died prematurely. Sean Young who plays Susan Cabot, Douglass Everett Davis is George Reeves, Payton Georgiana is Barbra Payton and Josh Alscher is Alfalfa from “The little Rascals” fame.

Rider McDowell has written this interesting play that points to the difficulty of making it in Hollywood; once you make it, if your lucky enough, it is staying on top that becomes the real challenge. As a childhood star, Carl Switzer could not find success beyond The Little Rascals, George Reeves was typecast and had difficulty getting any jobs after his role in “Superman”. Both Switzer and Reeves would die from gunfire. In the case of Barbra Payton and Susan Cabot, their lives would take a turn for the worse because of life circumstances.Payton would face sexual abuse as a thirteen year old and her wild ways led to her downfall once she became a starlit. In Cabot’s case, her world would fall apart when she delivered a baby that would be a Dwarf. Obsessed with making her son, Timmy taller by using human growth hormones, it drove him insane at the same time. He would eventually kill his mother in a fit of rage.

Rider McDowell who wrote and directed this play has some inconsistencies in both. Some of the blocking in this play are questionable, as is the sound in the play. Where simple movements become overdone, the prerecording in the play were awful. The lighting was very supportive throughout the evening (Maarten Cornelis) and the costumes were well done by Pearl Gopalani. In Christian Fleming’s scenic design, the constant changing of the room was a distraction to the flow of this production.

While there were four stories, two were exceptional; the first (Alfalfa) and the third (George Reeves). Payton Georgiana and Anna Telfer were outstanding as were Davis and Alscher. As the lead bill Sean Young at times struggled with her lines and her acting consistency.David Wenzel was consistent in his various roles as was Rita Louise. Jonathan Hartman was erratic in his performance throughout the play.

As a former investigative reporter, Rider McDowell gave us that feeling in his play. He approaches the writing with a macabre angel to it. The lives of the actors before us are laid out as a TV police show with not a lot of emotion from the actors which stems from the shows direction. In the shows 120 minutes we get a potpourri of the four actors lives and not a lot of depth to them.