Big Baby Comes to The Lounge Theatre in Hollywood

January 3rd, 2008

Stick Your Head In Gravy

By Jesse Schmitt

Los Angeles likes to do things in high style and they are kicking off 2008 in such style with a number of exciting new theatrical openings which are taking shape as we speak.
One of these very exciting openings is “Big Baby,” which opens up January 10, 2008 and is slated to run through February 9, 2008. “Big Baby is playing at The Lounge Theatre (6201 Santa Monica Blvd; Hollywood).

This play was written by Joe Keyes, a playwright who has brought about such classics as “Bob’s Holiday Office Party” and “Pete’s Garage.” This show is one which has been cleverly directed by Matt Roth. Mr. Roth has a long and rich resume which includes his work as an actor, has appeared in many well respected circles such as Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago among others. Roth has also been a star of the stage and the small screen in a number of situations.

Big Baby is the story of Kile. A mentally ill grown adult man, Kile lives in the mid-west; he lives in an apartment; he lives in drudgery. But this is not a drudgery of his own design, really, because he still lives with his mother. As stern as the day he was a boy, the mother keeps Kile in a regimented, restricted, abusive routine. Kile sees no end to his dreary existence; no end until a new neighbor comes in next door. Nancy is not only mysterious and exciting; she’s also a dominatrix.

Big Baby is a play which should keep you in stitches in spite of yourself. A common story told in uncommon tenor, Big Baby is about the fight we all fight all our lives; the search for companionship, the struggle for understanding, the quest for love.

With searing, swooping, epic themes, Joe Keyes touches on many of our most primal, gut issues including the mother son relationship, religion, sex, shame, gluttony, fear, the sadomasochistic impulse inside of us all and an addiction to baloney which could have you cringing in your seat.

Touted as a “funny, frightening, brutal and sad” story; Big Baby seems to be as much about the playwrights search for answers as it is about his characters. And in this world as we all struggle for meaning and grapple with these larger questions which plague us every day, an understanding of self is about as close as any of us should be able to get before we make that last great ascent.

plays411.com/bigbaby