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Youngstown Playhouse to stage taut drama TUNE IN TO ‘TALK RADIO’
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
David El’Hatton was having a hard time finding someone to play the lead role in “Talk Radio.”
As the director of the play, which opens Friday at the Youngstown Playhouse Moyer Room, he was asking everybody for recommendations.
“I just assumed it would be you,” was the most common reply.
The lead role calls for a brash, abrasive and fast-talking radio talk-show host.
“I didn’t want to direct myself, but a lot of good [male] actors were already cast in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ at Salem,” he said.
Running out of options, El’Hatton explored the script.
“I had a hard time figuring it out,” he said. “I couldn’t figure out Barry [Champlain, the talk-show host and central character]. Sometimes I can figure out a character after reading the first two lines, but not for this one.”
Luckily, that would change. “One day I was reading Barry’s monologue, and all of a sudden I heard the cadence of [syndicated talk-show hosts] Art Bell or Scotty Ferrell, and a light bulb wen off in my head,” said El’Hatton. “I started to hear the patter. I heard Barry.”
Written by Oberlin College graduate Eric Bogosian and originally performed in 1987, “Talk Radio” was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for drama. It was adapted into a movie by director Oliver Stone in 1988.
It takes place in real time – a two-hour segment of the show on a spring evening. It is set in the studio of a radio station in Cleveland. On stage throughout the play are Barry, his call screener, and a sound engineer. The show’s producer and the station manager also make appearances.
The more than 30 calls that Barry gets – from Northeast Ohio locations – are voiced by a group of actors.
The dramatic tension stems from the fact that Barry and his on-air team have just been told that his show is being considered for syndication.
“It’s make-or-break night, but Barry doesn’t care,” said El’Hatton. The mouthy broadcaster is liable to say anything, which could torpedo his big opportunity, and his producer is worried.
What makes the show unique is that the audience can see what the radio show’s listeners can’t: that Barry is putting on an act.
“He’ll say anything on air,” said El’Hatton. “It’s a personality he has created. But there is a dichotomy. He is a self-loathing narcissist in real life and a [jerk] on the air.
“In the last half-hour, the callers sort of deconstruct Barry,” he continued. “But at the end of the day, he is always a showman. He keeps his mask on.”
The cast also includes Chris Hager as Stu, the call screener and Barry’s long-time confidante; Renee Cuerden as Linda, the producer and Barry’s occasional love interest; Paul Dahman as Dab, the young and aggressive station manager; plus Adrian Arnold, Casey Burke, Holly Ceci, Lewis “Klou” Croom, Justin Donatelli, Ezekiel Ellis, Victor Garcia, Carlos Rivera, Brian Suchora, Meredith Tuttle-Deist, Jenna Weiser and Terri Wilkes.