Coronet Theatre Shari Simpson and
Charlie Shanian appear in "Maybe Baby, It’s You"
at the Coronet Theatre.
By Kelly Haigh
Daily Bruin Contributor
If you’re looking to make it big on the stage, maybe all
you need is love.
Just ask Charlie Shanian and Shari Simpson, the writers and
stars of “Maybe Baby, It’s You,” a lighthearted
collection of vignettes about people looking for that special
someone. The show opens tonight Upstairs at the Coronet Theatre in
Los Angeles after two successful runs off-Broadway in New York.
Shanian and Simpson first met while doing sketch comedy at
Gotham City Improv, the East Coast branch of Los Angeles’ own
Groundlings comedy troupe.
“We always made each other laugh more than anybody
else,” said Shanian.
They knew they had to start working on something that they could
create and perform together. After a few months of brainstorming,
they noticed that most of their ideas were tending toward the theme
of searching for one’s soul mate.
“Which of course has endless possibilities for
humor,” Simpson said.
As suggested by the duo’s comedic background, scenarios in
the show are often exaggerated and absurd, ranging from an elderly
couple who just recently divorced to Medea on a blind date. But
each scene carries an underlying message about the nature of
relationships.
“Always the best way to deliver your message is through
humor,” Simpson said.
Shanian and Simpson are thrilled to be bringing the show to Los
Angeles. They say the show reflects a sort of West Coast
sensibility.
“We just really feel like it’ll connect with
people,” said Shanian. “You gotta have a little bit of
smarts for this show, yet it’s not an intellectual show. I
think it’ll do really well in a city like L.A. where people
are knowledgeable and aware and cosmopolitan, but yet it’s
not ultra-sophisticated.”
Shanian and Simpson are also eager to personally interact with
their Los Angeles audiences. They enjoy talking to people after the
shows, and encourage drama students or writing students to hang
around and ask any questions they may have about finding success in
the theater.
“It took us a while to find a way to use our talents in
the way we wanted to use them, to be able to write and perform this
kind of material,” Shanian said. “One of the things
we’ve always said is, we want to share. Not that
there’s any secret.”
Shanian and Simpson’s desire to communicate with the
audience is reflected in the show. Between each of the vignettes
are real-life recordings of people sharing their views on love and
relationships. For the New York productions, these recordings were
gathered in Central Park; for the Los Angeles run, Shanian and
Simpson wanted to add some new local voices. A trip down to Third
Street Promenade in Santa Monica yielded plenty of new
material.
“There are some common truths, but there are the most
interesting opinions, and people here in L.A. have a lot of
opinions that we want to put in the show,” Shanian said.
“It seems that there are a lot of unique things about this
area that don’t apply to other parts of the country. I was
really surprised.”
While they approached people of all ages, most of the interview
subjects were fairly young.
“I wanted someone who’d been on a date in the past
10 years,” Shanian said. “It’s almost like a
fresh concept to them. If you’re in college or something, you
might not be thinking about a soul mate, you’re just looking
for fun, but deep down you may have thought about that. And I think
it’s always interesting when you talk to someone who
hasn’t dealt with an issue and gotten jaded about
it.”
Since this show covers the rather treacherous territory of
relationship analysis, it may have more immediate appeal for female
theater patrons. Male counterparts may have some reservations about
attending performances, but Shanian and Simpson insist that
there’s nothing to fear.
“I represented the men well,” Shanian said.
“There tends to be, when you talk about relationships, the
opinion that guys are just dumb and women do all the work. We
don’t believe that. We make sure the balance shows that, all
right, yeah, guys may have their faults, but so do women. And
let’s work on it together.”
There may be an even greater incentive for men to attend
performances.
“There’s usually a lot of single women in the
audience,” Shanian said. “It’s like, “˜Guys,
this is your night. You know, you’ve just seen this sensitive
show ““ well, not really sensitive, but you can fake that
it’s sensitive. Use it.'”