Imagine a politician who not only knows how the soup is made, but wants to get in the kitchen and cook it.
“The Outsider,” the well-traveled comedy with more than 125 productions in the six or so years since Paul Slade Smith wrote it, throws an especially hard punch in this dreadful political season.
Imagine, if you can, a governor who’s bounced out of office for rampant sexual improprieties, only to be replaced by the mousiest lieutenant governor imaginable. Ned Newley (Stephen Rockwell) is an inveterate back-office guy, a numbers guy, a political nerd who knows how laws are crafted and bills passed.
He’s also so shy and awkward that he hides under the governor’s desk–now his desk–when he’s not freezing in front of a television camera. Fortunately, around the corner is a special election, which he’ll surely lose, freeing him to return to his spreadsheets and pen-filled pocket protectors.
But Dave Riley (Nikhil Pal), his one remaining staff member, knows how sharp the new governor really is, knows that he has well-considered plans to improve the lives of the state’s people, knows that he’s the real deal, decidedly unlike the skirt-chasing former governor. Determined to get Newley reelected, Riley brings on a pollster (Natalie Storrs), who knows what she’s doing, and a temp receptionist (Susan Huckle), who spends the rest of play trying to figure out which button to push to answer her phone.
The proverbial spanner in the works arrives in the form of Arthur Vance (Jonathan Bray), the fast-talking, big-city campaign maestro, who’s as slick as the shine on his well-shined oxfords. Seeing what a dud of a candidate he has on his hands, Vance concocts the scheme of selling the governor as just as clueless about anything remotely political as most of the state’s voters. They’ll buy that, right?
What evolves is a terribly witty comedy that contrasts the candidacy of a buffoonish nincompoop against a well-informed nerd who might teach voters what government can really be about.
Taylor Popoola, along with her camera operator, Thomas Anawalt, is a local news reporter who’s in on Vance’s game, until she isn’t.
Directed by Brian Shnipper, “The Outsider” just completed its run at Long Beach’s International City Theatre, which is just about the best venue you can imagine for such a production. The play’s lessons are timeless, so it’ll be back around somewhere. Catch it when it does.
