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My Dinner with Amy
Written & Directed by Tony Fiorentino
Produced by Diamante Productions
At the Theatre Building Chicago
1225 W. Belmont Avenue
Chicago, IL
Call 773-327-5252, tickets $25
Thursdays thru Saturdays at 8 pm
Sundays at 3 pm
Running time is 90 minutes without intermission
Through March 23, 2008
Smart, hilarious romantic comedy is food for laughter.
A red flag goes up for me when I see a press release that documents one person writing, directing and staring in a production from his own theatre company. That type of show is usually a vanity project filled with low quality art. Not so here with prolific playwright/ actor Tony Fiorentino (Lease on Love, Cold Cold Feet and Fraternal Instinct). Fiorentino is a talented writer with an acute sense of comedy and a mature understanding of human nature. I enjoyed his old fashion door-slamming bedroom farce, Cold, Cold Feet and his intelligent Fraternal Instinct. This guy can write funny shows. His latest and finest work to date, My Dinner with Amy, contains enough laughs to wear you out. I have not laughed as hard at a show as I did with My Dinner with Amy. This show is hilarious!
My Dinner with Amy is a comic exploration of both Internet romance and religious fanaticism. It tells the story of Tom (Tony Fiorentino), a jaded PhD college professor and divorce decides to try his luck with online dating. When his gorgeous mystery date, Amy, (Star Alexis Velasquez) arrives at the restaurant, Tom can’t believe his luck. She is sexy. But soon Tom discovers that Amy is an Evangelical Christian using online sex sites to find souls in need of saving. Tom is a confirmed atheist. Tom quickly makes a b-line for the door. Amy pleads with him to bear her witness. Tom, ever the egotist and lover of religious debates, agrees to stay on condition that if Amy can’t convert him, she will pay the diner tab. Amy agrees and the debate is on.
Fiorentino’s script is filled with a mixture of hilarious arguments about religion, sex, atheism and relations as Amy preaches and Tom refutes. The laughs abound with lines and retorts delivered with spot-on timing. The swishy waiter, Nathan (the hilarious Phillip McFarlane) makes well timed entrances to comment on the events and actions of the debate. Nathan produced and reinforced the comic tone of the show.
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As Amy gives her testimony, Tom challenges her blind notions of faith at every turn. Seldom do you find as much humor in the faith versus atheism debate as Fiorentino offers. Velasquez and Fiorentino have terrific comedic timing and McFarlane demonstrated his outstanding comic acumen to garner many of the show’s biggest laughs. The battleground of ideology mixes with sexual innuendo that slowly unfolds as mutual attraction. This funny show is amazingly fresh, cliché free and smart. It wins our funny bone as well as our heart. We care about each of these real folks in their struggle to find a soul mate. The script has layers of humor with some truthful insights into human nature. This surly is the source of much of the humor.
If you’re looking for a comedy filled with almost none stop laughs, My Dinner with Amy is your show. It is the funniest show on any Chicago stage this year.
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: February 17, 2008
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