Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Neal Brennan’s UNACCEPTABLE delivers mostly pedestrian comedy but has surprisingly larger fish to fry

• By drediman
• September 10, 2021
• No Comments

Last night, Neal Brennan’s latest show Unacceptable opened Off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre. The stand-up comedian is no stranger to playing in front of theater-oriented audiences, having scored a critical and commercial success with his Off-Broadway show 3 MICS in 2016 (the piece was subsequently filmed in 2017 for Netflix). Like that earlier show, Unnacceptable bears the attributes of both stand-up comedy and theatrical monologue (think Hannah Gatsby’s Nannette and Douglas, as well as Jacqueline Novak’s Get on Your Knees, the Cherry Lane’s last tenant).

Mr. Brennan’s latest show is at once conventional and unconventional. The evening is comprised of a number of segments that cover different aspects of Mr. Brennan’s socially awkward persona, as physically manifested by Anna Louizos’ elegant shelves of objects located backstage. Taken individually, the show’s segments are amusing, often self-deprecating skits but hardly gut-busting comic material nor storytelling gems. But taken together, they ask a larger existential question about what constitutes human beings and interrogate the notion of individuality. Intentionally or not, I just wish that some of the lead-up to that “aha” moment weren’t so pedestrian.

The production has been directed by Derek DelGaudio, a magician and the star of his own hit solo show In & Of Itself (which can now be accessed through Hulu) – a production that exquisitely intertwined magic and theatrical storytelling. As such, I can hardly think of a better person to guide the show’s delicate progression and balance its prerogatives. Perhaps because both Mr. Brennan and Mr. DelGaudio are both by nature cerebral entertainers in showy fields, Unacceptable turns out to be rewarding in ways that you least expect.

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UNACCEPTABLE
Off-Broadway, Comedy/Play / In-person
Cherry Lane Theatre
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through November 21