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MCAP Returns With Carpet Bombing in Roslyn

Hicksville High School Alum Gets Lead in Local Comedy

By Christopher Grillo

Middle Class American Productions have returned with their 10th original comedy currently amidst a six-show run at The Arena Players Second Stage Theatre on Route 109 in Farmingdale. Penned by John Blenn, an East Meadow playwright, Carpet Bombing in Roslyn offers a revealing glimpse through the spokes of the big wheel of entertainment and into the soul of a newspaper struggling to keep its finger on the pulse of the industry.

Customarily crass and outrageously funny, a production staged by this nervy crew of renegade thespians usually sends up an absurd social commentary on Long Island life. Carpet Bombing in Roslyn unfolds in signature MCAP style, sparing nothing and no one within earshot (and not).

The audience is immediately jettisoned into an unregulated realm of rapid-fire dialogue and witty one-liners, where insatiable appetites and journalistic integrity duel to the death with Nerf light sabres. The first scene opens on the editorial offices of Splendid World Magazine, an entertainment publication, and the typical desktop clutter.

With advertising sales low and competition fierce, this entertainment newspaper sets out to capture what's hot in a Long Island scene apparently bereft of tact and talent. The editors sift through a massive pile-up of mediocre demos from homegrown rock bands and field innumerable "enough-about-me-let's-talk-about-me" phone calls from self-touting pop stars. The sole salesman - Brave Johnny McNamara played by Hans Ochs - earned his namesake after being repeatedly beaten by belligerent advertisers. Add a hypochondriac art director who attributes her tardiness to plutonium poisoning and a displaced spine - Pinky Buttons played by Marivi Wolfe - and it's business as ususual for Splendid World Magazine.

Neil McKenna, a Hicksville High School alumnus, stars as David Betterman, a seasoned entertainment editor, who slings a barbed vocabulary with bullseye erudition. An unrefined diamond in the rough, Betterman nobly remains loyal to an industry fueled by greed and devoid of appreciation for a job well done. Overworked and underpaid, he is immediately pitted against the likes of unprincipled, hot shot interns; an over-indulgent, know-nothing publisher; and arrogant, self-serving musicians. On all counts, Betterman emerges the better man, unfettered and uncompromised by the nefarious enterprise of dollar-seeking serpents.

In his fourth performance with MCAP, McKenna lends his character a natural wit that is at once refreshing and hilarious. He is quick to deflect praise, however, to the "stalwarts" whose acting experience and unabating commitment to original theater have been inspirational.

"This is the best cast I've ever worked with. Several of them were already integral parts of MCAP well before I got there," he said. This role is McKenna's second lead following his stint as a half-witted, country bumpkin rock star in the MCAP comedy Those Swingin' Anzelones. "Mark D'Agostino, Scott Interrante and Christy Lamagna are MCAP stalwarts who always bring everything they've got to the table. Being surrounded by people like that gives you confidence which really translates into the audience."

D'Agostino returns for another side-splitting performance as A. Hugh Bullard, the unsympathetic publisher with a ferocious appetite who rules the roost with an iron stomach. Marching about with a grotesquely ample gut, Bullard merely manipulates deals between meals with a complete disregard for professionalism.

Lamagna plays Jeanie Crozier with equal hilarity. One of Betterman's quirky colleagues, Jeanie has a propensity to embark upon Bohemian binge-fests, emerging from a drug-induced stupor after a week "in Buffalo with the lead singer of the Burpin' Buddhas" or some other loser rock outfit.

Interrante's performance as the eccentric movie star, Ivan Idahoe, erupts into cartoonish mayhem, his water-spouting antics and zany non-sequiturs rivaling the madness of Ren and Stimpy.

In her third appearance with MCAP, Barbara Mackenzie gives a laudable performance as the one you love to hate. She conveys the nobler-than-thou, rock star idiom flawlessly as Alexandra Powers, an arrogant and self-important Madonna wannabe.

Liza Turza as Daisy Greer, Adam Barbasso as Ace Messina and Nancy Kliewer as Lucille Plank also gave praiseworthy performances, tightening the nuts and bolts of MCAP's well-oiled comedy machine.

The playwright himself cameos in Carpet Bombing... aptly as the goosestepping Reinhold Cobb, a ruthless competitor and publisher of an encroaching entertainment rag, the Boston Bomber. Once again, Blenn hefts a clever and empathetic mirror to an industry with which he's familiar, having served as entertainment editor for Good Times magazine for years before launching Long Island Entertainment this summer.

McKenna's grasp of the editorial persona can also be attributed to his experience in the newspaper business as a reporter for the Hicksville Illustrated News, editor of the Levittown Tribune and currently as the features editor for Long Island Entertainment.

His father, however, thinks that Neil has merely tapped a natural talent. "He told my mother, 'See, Anne, I always told you he was an actor,'" he said with a laugh.

There are two shows remaining next Wednesday, November 5 and Thursday, Nov. 6. All showtimes are 8 p.m. and all tickets are $10.

caption 1: The renegade thespians in Carpet Bombing in Roslyn. (Clockwise from top left) Adam Barbasso, Mark D'Agostino, Hans Ochs, Christy Lamagna, Neil McKenna and Liza Turza. caption 2: Scott Interrante and Liza Turza in MCAP's latest comedy.