Take ME out: A Play / by Richard Greenberg. [Paperback]

Richard Greenberg walks a delicate but intriguing line in his play "Take Me Out". He tries to avoid cliches and stereotypes in a play that is all about cliches and stereotypes of all sorts. The end result is an intrguing, compelling, and often funny look at how baseball and in a larger sense, America, handled, is handling, or will handle her diversity.

Take Me Out starts out about a talented gay baseball player, Darren Lemming of the ficitonal Empires, who has already come out of the closet to his team and the world before the play begins. Instead of falling into the now thankfully tired cliche of the team and coach having to "deal" with Darren's sexuality, Greenberg allows the team to deal with the news quickly and move on with the story, including his literary and intelligent best friend Kippy, who narrates the play.

Bring in Shane Mungitt, a relief pitcher who struggles to put two words intelligibly together, and in turn, revives the Empire's sagging baseball season. Through his gruffness and lack of communication, Shane clearly becomes the play's antagonist, and does so quite publicly and unintentionally, on television during an interview. Shane spouts off a quick string of prejudical labels that shock and dismay his team right at the end of act one. Of course, act two picks up with the team having to deal (or not deal) with Shane's obvious bigotry, which leads to a series of surprising and shocking events that somehow make sense in the larger sense of the play.

Greenberg never allows his play to fall into a stereotypical trap of victimization. Throughout the play, Darren retains his leadership and assertiveness, and even publicly rebels against any sympathy garnered from the public by Shane's outburst. It's refreshing to read a gay character with a spine, who relies on no one but himself.

However, almost as a comic relief, Greenberg imbued his play with one of the most memroable stage characters ever written, the incomperable Mason Marzac, who plays Darren's financial manager. Normally staid, boring, stiff, and uninteresting, Greenberg has turned this character on its ear by making him a nelly queen, and one of the most hilarious characters to boot. Almost immediately, Mason is the character that draws in the audience, and you love him for wearing his emotions on his sleeve. Even more amazing, Mason becomes a baseball convert, and drags the audience into understanding why people love baseball, or even its grander meaning in American society. How rich!

Take Me Out is an incredible play for many reasons, and I highly recommend reading it, or if you are lucky enough to be near a local or national production of the play, see it. It will be a very enlightening, entertaining night at the theater!

I have seen this play three times already, once in previews and twice in the same week last June, and plan to go back the next time I am in NYC because several cast members have changed since the summer. I confess that I have not read the script yet, but as the genius of the play is more in the writing than in the acting (although that was wonderful, too), I believe the script can be reviewed by watching it. I plan to buy it soon.

I believe that Take Me Out is the best show currently on Broadway. To people who are overly focused on musicals and do not consider it, I say that the monologues are the equivalent of any big ballad they could hope to see. The dialogue is the equivalent of Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, or, for television, Sports Night and The West Wing). It is intelligent, witty, and capable of turning progressively darker while never feeling out of touch with the humorous lines.

It is not a baseball show. To continue the Aaron Sorkin comparison, a love of sports is no more of a necessity to enjoy Take Me Out than to enjoy Sports Night. No matter how much I love Marzac's monologues on the wonders of the game, I would no more actually watch it played after seeing the show than before. That does not prevent enjoying the description.

It also should not be dismissed as being "just" a gay show. Yes, bigotry is a major issue of the play, both in terms of homophobia and racism. It is also a show about friendships, and varying degrees of strength and of honesty in them. Of course, there is the question raised by a few plot twists near the end, which I will not spoil, but regarding Kippy's theory that everything is for the best if people can put their true thoughts into words. In most situations, honesty may make the strongest friendships, but the truth can be ugly, or bring about ugly reactions from hatred. It is a play about how few simple answers there are, and that not every question is answered at the end is appropriate.

I've seen this play twice, and I am amazed by the depth of character and attention to detail in the written form. Greenberg has obviously paid attention to the sport press, and the various players in the game of baseball. There are redneck baseball players who make horrific remarks, and there are also meek Japanese players. I dislike baseball, and I rarely watch baseball and the ensuing media, but even I know that the characters in Greenberg's play have real-life counterparts.

The play is crisply written, and deals honestly with many issues. The characters are not one dimensional, but multi-dimensional. The redneck character (Shane) is a lot more complicated than the previous character would you have believe. His motives for his actions are never as obvious as the previous reviewer would have you believe. The character of Mason falls in love with the game of baseball, and it's a joy to read even if you dislike baseball like I do.