The result is "Take Me Out" that follows the fortunes of a pin-striped team called the Empires. It's a play with something to say, and is very well done at 2nd Story.

But the problem comes in playwright Greenberg's lack of real knowledge of what it's like to play ball, what the atmosphere in the clubhouse looks and, especially, sounds, like. It turns "Take Me Out" into a striving, funny, sometimes witty, but essentially unreal ballgame.

Here's the story line. The Empires are rolling along, winning bigtime. Their star is Darren, a centerfielder who can do it all. He's half Caucasian, half African-American, a la Derek Jeter perhaps. He's got it made, the leader of a championship team in the Big Town. Except Darren also has a secret. He's gay.

And he decides to come out. Hence the play's title which has several possible meanings. Darren figures his emergence is, well, no big deal. He's famous, a star of stars. No problem. Wrong!

"Take Me Out" focuses on the locker room, including the showers. This production has multiple, and gratuitous, forays into full frontal nudity by the ballplayers. Some of them shrug off Darren's self-outing. Others are bothered. "Do I have to cover up?" one dude asks. Enter a young stud, a relief pitcher with great talent and a bad mouth. His homophobic (and racist) remarks get to the media and all sorts of stuff breaks loose.

Playwright Greenberg is openly gay himself. He's trying here to explore many things, among them the idea of what it's like to be a gay man in a straight world. He wants to talk about who's real, who's honest, who's decent. And, perhaps most of all, how badly do you want to say, "I am what I am."

He delivers these things with erudition, cleverness, a talent to amuse. The problem is in the dialogue. His ballplayers refer to the "poetry of the ignoramous" and ask "did you know your name is a verb?" Lines I don't think many of us have heard around the lockers. The result is very verbal, very clever, but tinged with absolute un-reality.

Director Ed Shea has staged all of this well on a bare set highlighted with those often used showers. Ara Boghigian is believable as Darren and Kevin Broccoli very funny as a very gay player's agent.

But for all of the good questions in "Take Me Out" the locker room chatter doesn't ring true. It's the difference between the crack of a wooden bat on ball, as opposed to the ping of aluminum.

Want to Go?
"Take Me Out" at 2nd Story Theatre in Warren continues through February 12th.

Do you have insight or expertise on this topic? Please email us, we'd like to hear from you. news@wrni.org.

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