Tom Baran originated the role of Nathaniel in The Night Carter was Bad.

Probably the hardest thing about writing any kind of fiction is maintaining integrity throughout the work — integrity of tone, a consistent world, and — on the stage — characters who become real people before our eyes even though we are in the extraordinarily artificial setting of the theater.

The four characters in Ben Cikanek’s new comedy come alive for us, rooted in the script but thanks also to solid, sometimes superb, acting and Mike Klar’s wise direction. Storywise, Cikanek isn’t concerned with giving us anything particularly new — this is a modern romance about two men and two women who simply want love and happiness. However, his particular gifts for dialogue and character development give this talky play a consistent and compelling voice.

It’s New Year’s Eve, and Nathaniel, who is gay, suggests hooking up his friend Charlie, who is female, with his straight roommate, Carter, who is volatile, and, tonight, very drunk. (Got that?) Instead, Carter brings home Annie, whom he’s just met. Cut to two years later: Annie’s moved in with the boys, but Carter’s working long hours and neglecting her. Meanwhile, Charlie’s even more alone and uncertain about herself than before.

The story veers between borderline-campy comedy and focused drama, but the transitions are smooth, and it all (or nearly all) works because the characters rapidly become entertaining, clever, and “real” people we enjoy spending time with, despite — or rather because of — their flaws. It’s a good thing, too, because in tiny Theater C at the 59E59 Theaters complex, we’re truly up close and personal with the cast.

Carter has commitment problems. That’s the standard male character flaw of our age of course, but the handsome, wiry actor, Kurt Rodeghiero, makes him a compelling, even sympathetic, bastard. Little touches, like his odd mispronunciation of his roommate’s name, and his difficulty remembering Charlie’s, help fill out his three dimensions.

Carter’s exchanges with Annie resound with true-life anguish, and that’s half because of Rachel Jordan Brown, who plays Annie with a whininess that starts out annoying but proves a useful springboard for the explosive later development of her character.

She’s also both sexy and funny, and that brings us to Nathaniel. Tom Baran plays the roommate with sly humor, making the most of his character’s broad physicality and relatively limited opportunity for development. Most important, he makes us laugh — a lot.

Finally, Ginny Myers Lee handles the key role of Charlie with wit and pathos, though, like Nathaniel, she’s a little more caricatured than Carter and Annie – in her case, as the smart but flighty twentysomething.

One or two scenes go on a touch too long, and one or two backstory plot points are a little unclear, but overall, the intermissionless 100 minutes go by breezily. The only sour note is a little burst of overly poetic language that comes after the two big monologues in the climactic window-ledge scene. (It’s a rule: any play that takes place in New York City and concerns ungrounded, single people approaching thirty has to include a window-ledge scene, otherwise it can’t get a development grant.) The over-the-top verbiage sticks out like a sore big toe from a play that otherwise maintains its integrity of tone so admirably.

Review by Jon Sobel for Blogcritics. Published on October 02, 2008 at 5:57 pm.

What happens to a sensitive straight man who is unmarried and 30? What happens when you “don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone”? How do you survive when you have boxed yourself into relationship situations that you aren’t sure you want, but you cannot see your way out of? And why do women occasionally sleep with gay men? The Night Carter Was Bad, written by the talented Ben Cikanek, tackles these questions and more in this Dinner With Friends-ish piece about romantic struggles in the Big Apple. Life mismanagement and a quarterlife crisis collide in this sexy and winning new comedy/drama, directed with vigor by Mike Klar and produced by the gutsy troupe Kids With Guns, and now playing at Theater C at 59E59.

I call Kids With Guns “gutsy” simply because under normal circumstances, the phrase “relationship dramedy” sends most folks I know running for the hills. And for good reason—who wants to watch a bunch of twenty/thirtysomethings whine about their unhappiness for two hours? But happily, Cikanek and Klar keep the tone of the play breezy and light during the proceedings and mine The Night Carter Was Bad for tons of laughs throughout. Cikanek has written a clever, smart script that never talks down to its audience and spins just enough twists to keep us engaged without getting lost or being too improbable. The Night Carter Was Bad is a grounded, real piece that generates a real empathy between the audience and the characters.

It certainly helps to have a terrific cast, led by the rogue-in-question Carter (a charming Kurt Rodeghiero) who is stuck in a tough live-in relationship with his needy girlfriend Annie (played with baby-doll pout by Rachel Jordan Brown). His gay roommate Nathaniel (a rousingly funny Tom Baran) keeps prodding his dancer friend Charlie (the disarming Ginny Myers Lee) to seduce Carter out of his bad relationship. Carter, it seems, is prone to having “bad nights” where he breaks out of his normal good-guy persona and chases another woman for an evening, only to always return to his relationship. It’s a pattern he can’t seem to break, and somehow he’s always managed to talk himself (and others) into accepting it. Charlie, by evening’s end, seems primed to break through his cyclical behavior by reminding Carter who he is at his core. That’s assuming, of course, that Carter can accept Charlie’s flaws, battle his own demons, leave Annie behind, and get over the strange relationship between Charlie and Nathaniel.

I can’t say enough good things about the unities of this production. The Night Carter Was Bad is living proof that the details in a story, as in at least one monologue from each character, can make old plotlines feel new and fresh. The sophistication of Cikanek’s writing and Klar’s direction adds oomph in unexpected places and pushes the piece past some of its more soap opera-y moments and into deeper, psychological territory. The cast ropes you in, charms you, turns you on your head, and sends you out the door wondering how Carter’s life will turn out. I highly recommend you go see for yourself what happens after The Night Carter Was Bad.

Review by Josh Sherman for nytheatre.com on October 1, 2008.