'Baby' short on grandeur

As one walks through life, he or she can’t help but look at males and females walking by and think — “Maybe Baby, It’s You.” Focusing on love, marriage, the differences between men and women and toying with the idea of soulmates, “Maybe Baby, It’s You” brought much-needed comedy to the topic of romance Friday and Saturday night in the Wilson Hall Auditorium.

“Maybe” is a former off-Broadway show comprised of a series of comedic vignettes between two actors. In this particular performance, the male and female characters are played by Marc Diraison (“On the Razzle”) and Keely Sheehan (“Peter Pan”).

The show opens with one male character and one female character in single pools of light on the stage. The two intermittently describe their perfect partner, beginning with idealized characteristics of “swimsuit model,” and “spiritual.” However, the sound of a speedily ticking clock reminds them of their romanticized ideas and so they lower their standards until they are left with “Sears catalog model,” and “Can tolerate my mother.”

As the stage fades to black after the first scene and the actors rush to change, disembodied voices are heard over the sound system. The audience listens to people from off the street being interviewed with questions about love. “How important is attraction?,” the interviewer asks. “Chemistry? Well, chemistry is just icing on the cake,” the voice of a woman answers.

And it’s true in “Maybe.” During the first act, Diraison and Sheehan run through the dialogue perfectly and hit all the right cues, but unfortunately it’s slightly lackluster and over the top. The lines were spoken perfectly, although they were spoken as if they were being read from a script. However, as the second act begins, Diraison and Sheehan come to the stage with a sense of renewed energy as well as a much-needed chemistry to light up the more serious scenes from the show.

Diraison is great with the male characters, as he portrays a different and unrelated individual in each scene. He even maintains a fun Humphrey Bogart-esque voice in a scene about love vs. lust. Sheehan is talented as well, but seems to let her characters run together and even dropped her “dame” accent for a good part of one scene. However, both Sheehan and Diraison give an outstanding performance in a scene about two divorced elderly people who reignite their love on the soccer field at their grandson’s game. This portion of the play was so convincing it was easy to forget that these were the same two youthful actors we’d seen dancing around the stage just moments before.

Home to a simple set of five nondescript black panels built by the JMU Theatre Department, “Maybe” depends on the strong personalities of its two characters to recreate the settings. Costuming is simple as well, as Diraison wears black pants and a shirt and Sheehan wears a short white dress. They add props and clothing to accent the scenes, but the show is all about the characters and not the stage.

“Maybe” is enjoyable, but has several kinks to be worked out. Lighting lagged, Diraison and Sheehan’s slow warming to each other threw off the initial pull and the transitional voice-overs, while interesting to listen to, are choppy.

As part of JMU’s Encore Series, “Maybe” was advertised to supporters of JMU theatre, alumni and the Harrisonburg community, in addition to students. The audience yielded no students, however, save the ushers, among the 40 or so people in attendance.

“Laughter is infectious,” Sheehan said. “We’ve played to audiences of 200 where you could hear a pen drop and to an audience of 20 where their laughter fuels the performance.”

And it’s true in “Maybe.” During the first act, Diraison and Sheehan run through the dialogue perfectly and hit all the right cues, but unfortunately, it’s slightly lackluster and over the top. The lines were spoken perfectly, although they were spoken as if they were being read from a script.

However, as the second act begins, Diraison and Sheehan come to the stage with a sense of renewed energy, as well as a much-needed chemistry to light up the more serious scenes from the show.

Diraison is great with the male characters as he portrays a different and unrelated individual in each scene. He even maintains a fun Humphrey Bogart-esque voice in a scene about love vs. lust. Sheehan is talented as well, but seems to let her characters run together — even dropping her “dame” accent for a large portion of one scene.

However, both Sheehan and Diraison gave an outstanding performance in a scene about two divorced elderly people who reignite their love on the sideline at their grandson’s game. This portion of the play was so convincing that it was easy to forget that these were the same two youthful actors who were dancing around the stage just moments before.

Home to a simple set of five nondescript black panels built by the JMU theatre department, “Maybe” depends on the strong personalities of its two characters to recreate the settings.

Costuming is simple as well, as Diraison wears black pants and a shirt and Sheehan wears a short white dress. The pair added props and clothing to accent the scenes, but the show is all about the characters — not the stage.

“Maybe” is enjoyable, but has several kinks to be worked out. Lighting lagged, Diraison and Sheehan’s slow warming to each other threw off the initial pull and the transitional voice-overs, while interesting to listen to, are choppy.

As part of JMU’s Masterpiece Season Encore Series, “Maybe” was advertised to supporters of JMU theatre, alumni and the Harrisonburg community, in addition to students. The audience yielded no students however, save the ushers. There were 40 or so among the people in attendance.

“Laughter is infectious,” Sheehan said. “We’ve played to audiences of 200 where you could hear a pen drop and to an audience of 20 where their laughter fuels the performance.”