Los Angeles Times: November 19, 2004

THEATER BEAT

A slinky 'Dance' of the sexes

Sarah Phelps' "Modern Dance for Beginners" captures the desperation of looking for love in the wrong places. And more reviews. Full of pith and vinegar, "Modern Dance for Beginners," Sarah Phelps' sophisticated comedy at the Little Victory Theatre, captures the lubricious desperation of attractive young people who look for love in all the wrong places.

Originally produced in London, this U.S. premiere is the second outing for VS. Theatre Company, whose debut production of "The Credeaux Canvas" was a thoughtful examination of a young artist's wasted sacrifices in the service of a mediocre talent. The characters in "Modern Dance" serve no such vaulting aesthetic; indeed, they are ordinary individuals made extraordinary only by the complications of their loosely connected boudoir antics. Call this an abbreviated "La Ronde," with more laughs.
 
Johnny Clark and Robyn Cohen play the various characters, beginning with confused groom Owen and his jilted lover, Frances, whose confrontation on the day of Owen's wedding is the jumping-off point for a tangled snarl of sexual interactions — between Owen's frustrated new wife and her handsome handyman, between Frances and her just-for-sex lover, between Owen and an anonymous pickup, and between Frances' overbearing boss and his oncologist girlfriend.
Sex and the talk of sex — frank and sometimes frantic — is the business of the evening, and Phelps finesses the mattress maneuvers and pillow talk with sparkling wit. But rude mortality ultimately casts a pall — somewhat obviously — on these hectic pairings. Indeed, a few of the story's belabored turns are uncomfortably reminiscent of the cliffhanging "twists" that lead into a commercial break.

Fortunately, in his finely tuned staging, Ross Kramer keeps the action meticulously realistic, while the impressively truthful Clark and Cohen handle their various characters with understated panache. To be sure, Cohen's slightly nasal twang is an occasional deficit, but she's one of the best stage listeners in memory — and that is no faint praise.

-- F. Kathleen Foley