Jack Offerman’s Big Uncut Flick ★★★

During the hour-long runtime of Jack Offerman’s Big Uncut Flick, two storylines jostle for attention: the behind-the-scenes chaos of a live Ohioan television station 1970s broadcast, and the film noir that that station’s attempting to show, a movie titled Vice Ain’t Nice, “from the pen of Ernest Hemingway.” Unfortunately, despite the tremendous efforts of a spirited four-person cast and top-notch direction and design, neither storyline fully works.

The cast gets the audience pumped up from the very start by making them repeat the title of the show multiple times, but that created energy slowly dissipates as certain jokes get repeated too many times, each to lesser, enervating effect. The jejune script has its moments but far too few of them, and the endless sexual double entendres (Channel 69 on WSUK; a deli owner asking: “Would you like to try my salami?) lead to diminishing returns. Moreover, because one storyline constantly stops for another, dramatic (and comic) momentum is repeatedly impeded.

All right. That’s enough grapefruit in the face. As Jane Greer says to Robert Mitchum in Out of the Past, “She can’t be all bad. No one is.” And this production certainly isn’t.

Playwright Todd Michael has given himself a bevy of hilarious parts to play, including many in drag, and hilarity he finds. (Favourite moment of the play: When asked “How did you get past my secretary?”, he deliciously coos “He’s a man, isn’t he?”) Dennis Elkins veers skillfully from hapless stage manager to cruel crime boss, and Kathleen Macari demonstrates great physicality and gusto in her many roles. Last but never least, Craig MacArthur Doložel is top clown in this madcap circus, elevating all the show’s shenanigans with farcical finesse.

Finally, major mentions must go to the show’s designers and director. The sound and lighting designs are superb, and director Melissa Firlit nails noir while managing all the theatrical chaos with aplomb. The next time Noises Off comes to Broadway, someone needs to give her a call.

Reviewed at the East to Edinburgh 2025 Festival held at 59E59 Theaters in New York City.