The latest new play offering from Theatre in the Round Players, The Cake, by Bekah Brunstetter, is a romantic comedy/drama about four people (plus a baking show host) each in their own way coming to terms with an adorably awkward lesbian wedding. All of that is to say this production should be right in my wheelhouse. (And I’m loving all the new and new-ish plays that TRP is bringing to the Twin Cities of late.) So why don’t I like this particular production more than I do? That’s the question I’ve been puzzling over ever since I saw The Cake.
“See, what you have to do is really, truly follow the directions.”
It’s certainly not a failing on the part of the cast, all five of whom are game for all the laughs as well as the angst in the story. Natavia Lewis as Macy, and Via Logan as Jen make for a charming couple of brides to be. Jenny Ramirez as Della the baker, and D’aniel Stock as Tim the plumber make a very convincing middle-aged married couple. And Kjer Whiting is suitably wacky and unhinged as George, the host of the baking competition show that haunts Della’s nightmares.
“She can’t not love, which is really annoying.”
It’s also not the fault of the production team, who go all out to create this world. Director Jennie Ward, assisted by Intimacy Director H. Ashley, gets great performances from the two couples, who we see a lot of in the bedroom in scenes that are by turns sweet, hot, funny and sometimes uncomfortable. (Butter cream frosting and mashed potatoes will never be the same again.) Ward also doubles as Sound Designer, assembling a pre-show song list with everything from Ethel Merman’s rendition of “If I Knew You Were Coming I’d Have Baked A Cake” to Melanie Martinez’s “I’m Not A Piece of Cake” to get the mood of the evening off to a lively start.
“We wanted to do it in the fall, while fall is still a thing, which isn’t much longer.”
Set Designer Keven Lock, assisted by Ash Aurig, plus the work of Prop Designer PJ Graber, creates the bright pink world of the bakery Della’s Sweets where nearly all of the non-bedroom action takes place. The bakery display cases turn out to be on wheels so the set ends up being a lot more versatile than you expect on first glance at the start of the evening. There’s also some inventive prop work where instead of actual cooking ingredients, which could leave a mess, the baked goods in process at Della’s bakery are manifested using bolts of colorful and sparkly cloth. It’s a great theatrical flourish. Lighting Designer Todd Reemtsma reinforces the reality (or unreality) of any given location as the story moves from place to place, and gives a lovely romantic look to the oddball wedding procession.
“Because the world is gonna change, but we cannot.”
Costume Designer Emma Shook gets a chance to really go for broke with this script and she takes it. The most over-the-top entries includes bakery show host George’s looks, which get progressively more outlandish as the evening progresses, and the spectacular bridal outfit for Jen, complete with headpiece, LONG train, and so many lights, befitting a woman of whom her partner Macy says, “You get weird in craft stores.” Kudos to Stage Manager Indigo Cabanela-Leiseth and assistant Taylor Koehler for keeping the whole thing moving so smoothly from location to location, from normal scene to bakery show nightmares.
“I don’t respect these people.”
“I’m one of them.”
“No, you’re not.”
The playwright Bekah Brunstetter also has quite a career going in both TV writing and theater. The script for The Cake alone has been produced over 80 times, and she’s currently got commissions to write plays for four major regional theaters around the country.
“Would it even be a wedding if someone wasn’t mad at somebody?”
But the more I think about it, the more I think the fault here is with the play itself, not the production. The Cake has a great set-up. Jen comes to Della’s bakery because Della and Jen’s late mother were best friends. Della and her husband Tim were never able to conceive children, so it feels like Jen was in some ways the daughter Della never had. Jen’s return to the bakery is to ask Della to bake the wedding cake for Jen and Macy’s ceremony. But Della’s conservative Christian values cause her to hesitate. Another complication is this story is set in North Carolina, and Macy is African American. Just for good measure, Della is trying to rekindle the fire in her marriage bed, but Tim’s a bit uneasy with intimacy since he learned his sperm are the reason they can’t have kids of their own. So everyone’s comfort levels are a little off kilter.
“It tasted like the back of my mouth after a good cry.”
The Cake has a lot of great scenes, a lot of funny one-liners, and a big helping of earnest discussions and honest arguments. The uplifting thing is that these four unsettled people do all realize they love one another, and that helps them, to varying degrees, push through their discomfort and reconnect. It just doesn’t get to that end point without taking unexpected shortcuts. Which is odd, because the run time isn’t short (at a little over two hours) but it still feels like some things are missing. Also, it’s a bit lopsided and I’m not entirely sure why. The first act is listed in the program as being 80 minutes and the second act as 30 minutes. The night I saw it, the first act was more like 90 minutes and the second act more like 20 minutes. And the audience wasn’t sure at first when intermission arrived that the first act was actually over. It just kept going scene after scene and we all thought this might be yet another transition, but no, house lights came up. So the end of the first act, long as it is, isn’t entirely obvious. The break could have come a few scenes before that and the flow of the story would still be fine.
“This cake is full of angel saliva and good deeds.”
As it was, we left the first act after a pretty major fight between Jen and Macy that could well have led to the marriage being called off, plus Della and Tim had a very awkward non-sexual encounter that seemed equally hard to bounce back from. Then in the second act, if my notes aren’t failing me, there are just four scenes. Jen and Della have a scene, Della and Tim have a scene, Jen and Macy unexpectedly get married anyway, in a pantomime set to music, no dialogue (so I guess that huge argument at the end of act one wasn’t such a big deal after all?), and then Macy swings by to have a chat with Della, in which she tells her among other things that she and Jen made up because Jen told Macy about that top of act two conversation with Della and… that solved everything? offstage? unseen? and they had a lot of other issues that couldn’t be solved by a simple Jen/Della conversation. But hey, the play needs to be over and fast, so the lesbians don’t get a heart to heart reconciliation scene, but the straight couple does? That feels… like a weird choice for a super short second act.
“It’s not natural.”
“Neither is confectioner’s sugar.”
Also, though the baking show nightmare scenes are certainly theatrical, they don’t seem necessary to the plot, or even Della’s character development. They happen a lot throughout act one and then they just… stop. They don’t lead anywhere. They also have a pretty harsh, misogynistic tone to them. Now, you can say, oh it’s just Della putting herself down, but the way it’s staged, it feels like the author putting Della down. Again, Kjer Whiting is fabulous in executing the role. I’m just not sure what the character is doing for the story.
“Could you please put your clothes back on? I’ve had a long day.”
But again, over 80 productions of The Cake and counting, one of them off-Broadway, so what do I know? Your mileage may vary.
“Us, walking toward each other.”
My own qualms aside, it’s still a great cast and great production team delivering a production with a lot of heart, and forgiveness, and growth, as human beings find a way to connect beyond their differences - and we could definitely use a big dose of that right about now.
“Guess I thought I was gonna do something great with my life.”
If you’re looking for a play with a positive vibe that doesn’t talk down to any of its characters or dismiss their worldview but instead tries to understand all sides in an effort to bring them together, then TRP has your ticket with The Cake. (No, I will not be making any “cut yourself off a slice” jokes.)
The Cake runs at Theatre in the Round Players (245 Cedar Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 554554) through March 15, 2026. Tickets are available through their website.
4 Stars - Highly Recommended
No comments:
Post a Comment