Theresa Rebeck's "The Understudy" at San Jose Repertory Theatre

San Jose Repertory Company is concluding an engaging production of Theresa Rebeck’s 2007 off Broadway hit “The Understudy” running through June 3rd. The story unfolds on a mid-run rehearsal day of a Kafka’s play that is to appear on Broadway with the two actors running through their lines.

The understudies are an up and coming action star Jake (Craig Market) and an unsuccessful theatre actor Harry (Gabriel Marin). He is an actual working actor who can’t get a three part line in a blow-em-up film as he tells the audience at the beginning of the 90 minute comedy “I’M NOT BITTER” Added to this comedy of wit is the less enamored and more drained stage manager Roxanne (Jessica Worthham).

Added to this mix of hilarity is the frayed relation of Harry and Roxanne. It seems that Harry abandoned her at the altar some months ago and as he says in the spurious Kafka drama “Silence is defeat” and this sad sack has no excuse to mouth.

“The Understudy” is hardly a masterpiece but it is a fun ball of derision, wrath and industry complaint that you forgive its thingamajigs. Here we have two competing actors suit up in their faces to trudge the “darkling plain” of the Kafka. What playwright Theresa Rebeck concern here is the corruption of the American theatre by the industry obsession with celebrity which is very timely in today’s Broadway theatre world.

Harry opens this comedy coming stage forward to explain he has just seen one of those typical Hollywood action pictures. He can’t understand how this no brainer film is doing so well at the box office. ($22 million opening day) He does have a chip on his shoulder since he has to understudy to an actor named Jake who has “zero talent” and a “quote” as they say in movie business, of some $2 million a picture. The most memorable line Jake says in the film is “Get in the truck” he tells the audience.

Playwright Rebeck does have fun playing with the Kalfa theme such as actors are like giant, sad bugs although the dramatist never digs very deep into the three characters. All of three characters are fun and relevant especially if you are a theatre aficionado. The dialogue just pops along and sometime they lose their flavor after too many replications. The ending seems like a hasty set-up but still there is a lot to enjoy in the script and the performances.

All three expertly patch over the holes in Rebeck’s occasionally thin script while handling the show’s well-written, soulful conclusion with grace. Craig Marker (received the SFBATCC award for best actor last year) gives a winning performance as Jake a sensitive fellow who knows his Kafka and does not want to be branded as an action figure all his career. He successfully shows a self-satisfied Jake with his trainer-toned physique encased in premium jeans and tight black T-Shirt.


Gabriel Marin brings a dubious charisma to his role as the wearily bitter Harry. He does terrific monologues to the audience such as “All I see are movie stars movie stars. It’s like a disease. Not a disease. I didn’t mean disease. Maybe more like pathology or ongoing cultural disaster”. Even his inevitable Jeremy Piven’s mercury-poisoning reference earned a big laugh from those in the audience who are Broadway theatre hip. It is a joy to watch these two very fine actors have a go at each other.

Jessica Worthman almost steals the show with her spot on characterization of a control freak that is losing her grip as the play progresses. She is given some awesome monologues to reveal the wounds Roxanne has suffered at Harry’s hands and she performs them with upright sensitive precision.

Adding to his rehearsal chaos is an unseen stoner in “the booth” who keeps flying in the wrong sets and cueing the wrong music. Amy Glazer crisply frantic staging for the San Jose Rep stage is abetted by Annie Smart’s colorful toy-circus sets. She directs this with a clear understanding of both comic timing and backstage politics.


“The Understudy” is no “All About Eve” but it does not have to be since the playwright is just having a good time and thanks to Amy Glazer’s skilled production so is the audience.

The Understudy plays through June 3rd at the San Jose Repertory Theatre, 101 Paseo de San Antonio, San Jose. For tickets call 408-367-7255 or on line at www.SJRep.com