Ethan Coen usually makes movies with his brother Joel, but in the theater he tends to go it alone. His latest venture there is a raunchy comedy called “Let’s Love!,” which had its world premiere Wednesday at the Atlantic Theater Company.
The title suggests a forgettable Off Broadway musical from the early 1960s. That retro tackiness is probably Cohen’s intention, complete with an exclamation point.
“Let’s Love!” is not so much a play as three short sketches about 1) picking up strangers at a bar to have sex, 2) hiring an off-duty cop to beat up your ex-boyfriend and 3) going on a terrible first date that miraculously turns into true love. Pulling the three stories together is a louche lounge singer (Nellie McKay) who addresses the audiences and changes her costume (by Peggy Schnitzer) between each skit. McKay writes her own songs and also plays the piano, the accordion and the harmonica with equal adeptness.
What’s very entertaining about “Let’s Love!” and even a bit jolting is that three of the female characters (Mary McCann, Aubrey Plaza, Mary Wiseman) get all the dirtiest lines. In other words, Cohen is writing female characters like no other playwright today. In light of all this feminine off-color, it’s no surprise that four of the male characters (Chris Bauer, Dion Graham, Noah Robbins, CJ Wilson) emerge as very reactive, if not a little colorless at times.
Alpha women, beta men. There’s a world view in there somewhere.
It is only the wall flower of this male quartet, a Jewish nerd named Howie (Robbins) who makes much of an impression. He’s the victim date of the jilted Susan (Plaza) who had hired the cop (Bauer) after that plot went totally awry. They meet on JDate, even though she is not Jewish. Being a literal ballbuster, Susan manages to get a $50 bottle of wine out of Howie without having sex. Recovering from that fiasco, Howie kicks off the third sketch, which features what has to be the Worst First Date Ever (with Dylan Gelula) recorded on stage or onscreen. Only he’s not Howie here. He’s merely called The Boy, something that I learned not in the theater but later after reading the script.
Under Neil Pepe’s brisk direction, “Let’s Love!” is also worth seeing for three remarkable comic performances: McCann’s broad at the bar, Plaza’s vengeful girlfriend and Robbins’ two nerds, whatever they’re being called.
