Man 2 (Ben Fankhauser, left) and Other Man (Alex Wyse) croon their musical creations in A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet.
What do you get when you throw two struggling souls in search of success together in a high-stakes campaign to rebrand an assertive, middle-aged, ex-pop icon named Regina Comet? You get two talented but anxiety-ridden young men, reaching for the stars and stumbling all over each other in semi-slapstick style. They also search for their own awakened, perfected selves as they strive to create the ideal jingle to launch Regina—and her fragrance line—back into the mainstream.
In Marshall Pailet’s production, Regina (Bryonha Marie Parham) is an African American singer with a powerful persona and an even more powerful voice, but at 40 she is struggling to look and act like a laser-lit 16-year-old to attract the 14- to 18-year-old crowd who inhabit all the social media platforms. An early song, “Again,” underscores the dilemma of talented women who are aged out as performers because of a youth-obsessed culture and risk-averse directors and producers.
Regina Comet (Bryonha Marie Parham, left) wows Fankhauser as Man 2. Photographs by Matthew Murphy.
To assist in her rebranding, Regina searches for the perfect commercial jingle to promote her new line of fragrance. She contacts two jingle-writing partners, both aspiring songwriters in their early thirties who have been friends since Jewish summer camp. They are known only as Man 2 (Ben Fankhauser) and Other Man (Alex Wyse). The plot suggests parallels to real life: in addition to being two-thirds of the cast, Fankhauser and Wyse have written the book, music, and lyrics for Regina Comet. The two men are overjoyed when Regina calls them, but when they ask her why she chose them, Regina replies, “Because you were the cheapest.”
Parham (an extraordinary vocalist and a skilled comedienne), Fankhauser and Wyse excel as an unlikely trio attempting to engineer Regina’s comeback. Fankhauser’s Man 2 is straight, girl-obsessed, and insecure about his khakis’ effect on them. Wyse’s Other Man is a gay workaholic. Neither can shake off his memory of musical-theater productions at their camp. To jump-start the creative jingle juggling, Other Man, more frequently than Man 2, retreats to those productions, and adds his grandma’s profound life philosophy. “It’s like my grandma used to say,” he confides to Man 2, “Please focus or you will get lost in this museum.” Although they may sound cute, Other Man’s hang-ups border on neurotic in a Woody Allen–ish way. It’s not that Fankhauser’s Man 2 is on solid ground either emotionally or professionally; it’s just that he is better-adjusted when it comes to relationships.
Throughout the show, the men’s childhood memories, camp antics, and self-deprecating humor are repeatedly shared. Imagine “All those Jewish-leaning children taking breaks from their non-competitive sports just to enjoy our poignant, yet haunting(!) Shabbat musicals,” says one. Eventually, though, the references wear thin and slow down the production’s momentum. In contrast with the men’s well-harmonized and fast-paced duets and the rapid-fire scene changes when Regina Comet dominates the stage, the Jewish camp shtick stalls the plot. If there is a weak spot in the script, this is it.
Alex Wyse as Other Man—the gay one—looks for jingle inspiration in a twizzler.
As the men alternate in their frantic attempts to gain Regina’s attentions and approval, their own rivalries ultimately speed up the project’s unraveling, which leads not to disaster, but to a learning curve for all the characters. While some might consider the reversal of fortune for Man 2 and Other Man a cliché, another, equally valid, perspective would be that the loss of Regina as a client may move them from “arrested development” into “adulthood,” where they and their songwriting mature. Man 2 and Other Man may finally grow out of their past and write songs with substance. When Fankhauser’s Man 2 joins musical director Alex Goldie Golden at the keyboard, it seems the potential is there.
For her part, Regina recognizes that although she is no longer a pop diva, she can realize another dream. With an honorary degree in astrophysics from the University of Phoenix, she becomes a lab assistant to her caring elementary-school science-fair friend and mentor, Amir, whom we never see, but who years ago expressed interest in her views and input. He is a treasured memory, because apparently few, if any, people in Regina’s life have expressed interest in what she thinks.
If one cuts through all the flashing lights, camp kitsch, and teen-like squabbles, this Fankhauser-Wyse production lands on the place where ambition meets reality. One might shoot for the stars-or in this case a Comet—but after the lights and aura fade, what remains is the self that is possible.
A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet plays through Nov. 21 at the DR2 Theater, 103 East 15th St. (at 20 Union Square East). Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday and at 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday; matinees are at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, call (212) 375-1110 or visit darylroththeatre.com.
