Wendy R. Williams' Theatre Column

Greetings Theater Lovers,

September was an all-hands-on-deck month for Fashion Week, so my theater attendance was sparse. But I did see two very interesting but very different plays: Ken Urban’s I (Heart) Kant and Jay Johnson’s one-man show, The Two and Only.

First I (Heart) Kant: Kant was an amazingly funny play and it was totally accessible to someone who knows nothing about Immanuel Kant (you do need to know something about New Jersey, even if you have a policy of never visiting there). My friend and I laughed all the way through the play and when I went home I immediately Googled Immanuel Kant. Well, I still know nothing about Kant (see if you can do better).

Here is a quote that Ken Urban gave during a cyber interview with Nytheatre.com.

“ KANT is an older play that is finally getting a production here in New York. Four women in New Jersey are on a mission to find happiness. Betsy just slept with her brother. Her friend Pam is trying to keep things together at work. Linda is trying to finish a dissertation she’s spent years on that’s only one sentence long. Her sister Maureen is self-destructive, addicted to heroin and this abusive boyfriend. Though they live these radically different lives, the women become connected in unexpected ways. The play is a dark comedy, my riff on the sublime. I finished it in February 2001. Some of the events in the play foreshadow the World Trade Center disaster in ways I couldn’t have predicted when I wrote it. I haven’t touched a word of it since the winter of ‘01.”

By the time you read this, Kant will have only one more night to play at the Linhart Theater @ 440 Studios (it closes October 2, 2006), but do remember this playwright’s name. If you decide to get one of the last night’s tickets, they are $18 at www.theatermania.com.

Kant was skillfully directed by Dylan McCullough. The talented cast consisted of: Kate Benson; Frances Mercanti-Anthony; Edelen McWilliams; Kate Downing; and Steven Boyer.

And then it was on to Jay Johnson’s Two and Onlywww.thetwoandonly.com. Johnson is a ventriloquist from Texas, just the thought of which made me like him right away. (Texas has a long history of talented ventriloquists - think Bush and Cheney.) But I would have liked Johnson anyway; his show is excruciatingly funny.

Johnson creates totally believable characters in his dummies (he won’t call them that). And his interaction with them is hysterical, whether the “other person on stage” be Nethermore (a vulture who calls himself “the bird of death"), Darwin (a monkey with impeccable comic timing), a goofy snake, his original puppet Squeaky or his well-known sidekick Bob (from the TV show Soap),

During the show, Johnson tells a bit about the history of ventriloquism, a talent that was considered to be a black art and “from the devil” during large portions of history. He also tells a slightly less compelling story about his relationship with the man who carved Squeaky, a former ventriloquist.

Johnson is a very talented ventriloquist (no, you can’t see his mouth move), but his real talent is that he is an amazing story teller and the guy is FUNNY.

The Two and Only has an open run at the Helen Hayes Theater at 240 W 44 th Street. Tickets are 51.25-$81.25 at 212-239-6200, 800-432-7250 or www.telecharge.com.

Rock on!

Wendy