I had never been to Marriott Theatre when I headed out to see Once On This Island, but I had consistently heard good things about their work, so I was looking forward to the experience. People just don’t stage musicals in the round that often. They’re not designed for it, it’s hard on the singers. But somehow Marriott has made that their calling card. Gary Griffin made a name for himself by stripping down musicals to their essence so we can focus on the characters and the relationships. Marriot, because of their unusual stage layout, has been doing this for years.

Playwright Randall Colburn had quite an auspicious beginning with his production of Pretty Penny at The Right Brain Project . Despite little-to-no technical support, the production expertly explored the interplay of sex and power and featured some excellent performances from Right Brain’s ensemble. Clearly the Right Brain folk realized they had found a good thing, and so they are now producing Colburn’s Hesperia.

I accidentally offended a friend after seeing Hubris Productions ’ mounting of Steel Magnolias. “Equity actors,” I opined, “generally do better at comedy.” And I saw her bristle. Hell, this is the sort of thing I usually bristle at too, as a former union actor who strongly believes in the depth of non-Equity talent in town. But while you can count on a cast of non-Equity actors to leave everything on the stage and really bare themselves emotionally, comedy takes a combination of experience and skill to do well. And that combination rarely appears, at least in my experience, in enough members of a non-Equity cast to make a comedy fully work. There are exceptions, of course. And there are plenty of talented non-Eq comedic actors. But getting them all in the same cast…that’s the tough part.

There are not too many comedies for the stage out there about suicide, although I’m sure I could ask on Facebook and get a dozen suggestions (posted—we’ll see what I have by the end of the column). But the immediacy of theatre makes such fare less palatable I think.

Doubtless The Gift and Andrew Hinderaker will catch some flack for the world premiere of Suicide, Incorporated. While it would not be accurate to term it a comedy, it’s certainly a play that brings some funny (thank God), especially in its first half.