Review-The Little Dog Laughed (11.18.06)

The Little Dog Laughed (Saturday, 11.18.06, 8:00 p.m.)
Cort Theatre (Broadway)

Starring: Julie White (Diane), Johnny Galecki (Alex), Tom Everett Scott (Mitchell), Ari Graynor (Ellen)

The Little Dog is not so little any more. After a successful off-Broadway run, Douglas Carter Beane’s glossy play makes the transfer to Broadway. And what a big splash it makes.

The creators and producers have wisely retooled the play to give a it more of a Broadway feel. Beane has streamlined several of the exchanges. Although the set looks much like it did off Broadway, certain elements have been upgraded, or at least so it seems.

And the performances, too, are grander. Julie White doesn’t replicate her tremendous off-Broadway performance; she too adjusts it for the larger venue. And she is still magnificent. Her gestures are bigger, her voice is bigger, her performance is bigger. It’s just what the play requires, and it grounds the entire proceedings around her just where it should be – 100 feet in the superficial air of Hollywood.

Johnny Galecki is the other hold-over from off-Broadway. Galecki, who delivered a fine performance off-Broadway, is still likeable in the new venue, although in contrast to White’s performance, which has only grown, his performance seems to have shrunken just a little. He’s still terrific, but it’s unclear why he doesn’t have the same impact he had off-Broadway.

Perhaps some of the reason has to do with his new co-star, Tom Everett Scott, who replaces Neal Huff as the soon-to-be A-list movie star Mitchell. Scott, in contrast to Huff, looks much more like a movie star, and in that respect is a better fit for the role. In this respect, Scott is an improvement over Huff. But gone is the chemistry between Mitchell and Alex, or at least it is severely diminished. One always felt that Huff’s Mitchell genuinely fell in love with Alex. Here, Scott’s Mitchell seems to like Alex, but love? Not that far.

If the missing is chemistry at first seems to be problematic, Beane’s take on superficiality helps to alleviate the problem, since at the heart of his play, the message seems to be that the appearance is what really counts. Scott’s relative indifference to Alex by the end of the play is more believable.

Rounding out the cast is Ari Graynor as Ellen, Alex’s girlfriend. Graynor makes the most of what is easily the weakest role in the play. Graynor, who gave a terrific performance in last season’s “Dog Sees God,” is likewise terrific here. She milks her one-liners and more than plays the part when, at the end of the show, she agrees to partake in Mitchell and Diane’s scheme.

In the end, Little Dog Laughed is terrifically entertaining. It is light and superficial, much like the Hollywood it is attempting to satirize, but it never falls into the trap of overstating its message (if it even has one) regarding homosexuality in Hollywood. The producers have wisely upgraded the show in a manner most befitting its Broadway home.