Stage Review - The Gods of Comedy (Phoenix Theatre)

Stage Review - The Gods of Comedy
Presented By: Phoenix Theatre - Edmonds, WA
Show Run: June 06 - June 29, 2025
Date Reviewed: Sunday, June 08, 2025 (Opening Weekend)
Run Time: 2 Hours (including a 15 minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman

As we approach the end of the theatre season, which for most organizations means that they are entering their final act, it’s a good time to take stock, not just of their current, or most recently closed, productions, but at the season as a whole. So it is with Phoenix Theatre. True, I saw a show or two at their generally nondescript location in Edmonds last season, but for this group, 2024-25 was the first full slate that I’ve taken in there. What I’ve come to realize is that Phoenix Theatre is one of my favorite venues to go to. It’s one of those whose distance forces me into matinee showings, but otherwise if I’m looking for a theatre that is going to present entertaining and funny ensemble shows, with titles that are largely unfamiliar to me, this is where I’m going to go. Earlier this season, shows like The Night Before The Night Before Christmas, Tartuffe (Born Again), Foolish Fish Girls and the Pearl, and Second Samuel have all been wonderful, and their closer, The Gods of Comedy, is no exception. It is a Ken Ludwig play, after all, but in the hands of the creative team that designed the show, and the cast who is performing it through June 29, many of them Phoenix regulars, it becomes something that is part and parcel o the level of quality I’ve gotten used to from this theatre. Directed by another Phoenix favorite Eric Lewis, the show is everything that is good about what Phoenix Theatre has been providing to its community all season, plays that are hilarious but not corny, farcical but relatable, and designed extremely well for the space that it’s in.

In this latest ensemble-heavy comedic play, two American professors with a specialization in the classics come across a long missing manuscript of Andromeda, a tragedy by Euripides, a find which is destined to make their careers and bring a good deal of attention to the university they work at, especially considering their Dean is about to host a group of alumni, and presenting a reading of said manuscript to a group of potential donors could garner quite a lot in donations to the school. As the play begins in Greece, shopkeeper Aristide, played by Landon Whitbread, approaches from his stall and introduces the audience to the story, while a woman, who turns out to be professor Daphne (Ashlie Blaske), types away on her laptop. During their exchange that occurs after Daphne saves his son from an accident, Aristide presents her with a talisman, ostensibly something that will allow her to summon the gods if she gets into a situation where she needs help. It turns out that no random talisman handed to a character during a comedy is ever a MacGuffin (an object, character, or event that is important to the characters in the story but has nothing to do with the actual plot, like, say the actual falcon statue in The Maltese Falcon, perhaps the most famous MacGuffin), so when Daphne’s colleague Ralph (Brandon Jepson), who is the one who actually finds the manuscript, asks her to hold onto it, and she subsequently loses it, she’s got nowhere to turn but the talisman. She mostly just holds it as she pleads to the ether, not thinking it would actually do anything, but much to her surprise, she comes face to face with Dionysus and Thalia, gods yes, but not necessarily the ones she would have hoped for. Instead of more well known Olympic deities that could help with her issue, the powers that be on Mt. Olympus send this pair, the “Gods of Comedy”. Oh, and just because the talisman isn’t a MacGuffin, that isn’t to say that the play doesn’t have one, which will be easily identified if and when you come out and see this show.

Word of the found manuscript spreads, and as Dean Trickett (Melanie Calderwood) continues to organize her alumni gala, which turns into something where everyone is encouraged to dress in Greek attire, TV Star Brooklyn DeWolfe, played here by the incomparable Ingrid Sanai Buron, is intrigued and does whatever she can to get closer to the event. As the gods and professors search everywhere for the manuscript, and Trickett looks to make the most from the book that she doesn’t know is lost, an hysterical comedy ensues, but so does a love story, and the combination of the two is laugh out loud funny, a farce of epic proportions and proof that a well written comedy married to a talented ensemble cast under the direction of someone, like Eric Lewis, who understands how to deliver this kind of play, is a match made in heaven, or perhaps even Mt. Olympus.

Eric Lewis does have a knack for being able to deliver comedies like this one, he’s able to capture the humor that the playwrights (in this case Ken Ludwig) put on the page, and do it with ensemble casts who are well prepared and confident in their acting. Making a play like this one work requires a combination of vocal delivery and physical comedy, a combination that under Eric’s auspices always seems to find a way to work. Each actor in this cast is practically an expert at either the physical aspects of the humor, the delivery of the comedy that’s written in the script, or in some cases both. Melanie Calderwood, for example, is unparalleled in her dry, witty, matter-of-fact delivery. It’s a skill that she has brought to every play I’ve seen her in, and The Gods of Comedy is no different. As Dean Trickett, she’s very good, but as Thalia pretending to be Trickett (think what happens when someone in Harry Potter takes Polyjuice Potion), she’s hilarious, especially in the interactions between this “Thalia in disguise” and Ralph, who the muse has a bit of a crush on. The Thalia/Trickett case of multiple personalities isn’t the only one, though. Dionysus at one point pretends to be the Hollywood actress Brooklyn, and again while Ingrid plays this diva in a devilishly delightful and temperamental way, when she plays the god playing the diva, it’s extraordinary and just as Melanie shows her comedic chops in her case of mistaken identity, so too does Ingrid here, the pair are so funny in these roles. Drawing the attention of Brooklyn, or Dionysus pretending to be Brooklyn, is another god who mysteriously made the trip, though he didn’t travel with the others, the god of war, Ares, played by James Lynch in one of the funniest roles I’ve seen him in. Clad in his combat armor, Ares is chock full of masculinity, but just as many with this quality, he’s also a bit of a buffoon, and James is excellent.

Meanwhile, you can’t ask for professors with more distinctly different personalities than Daphne and her mentor Ralph. Daphne is driven, focused, and forward thinking, prioritizing her work over just about everything else, while Ralph is nervous, excitable, and has a personality that is closer to that of a child than a serious university professor. The actors playing each of these characters are flat out brilliant in this play. Ashlie has a gift for the physical aspects of the comedy here, but she also understands the nuance, what can be gained from a pause here or a raised eyebrow there. She mostly plays her character straight, which adds to the amount of humor she’s able to bring out of the character. Brandon as Ralph is all in on the personality aspects of his character that drive the majority of its humor. And nobody does frustrated on this stage quite as good as Brandon does as Ralph. The two together are very good, and their contrast in personalities as written are funny in and of themselves, but when performed with this level of aptitude, they’re even better. Hands down, though, when it comes to pure humor, it’s all about the gods. Jay Jenkins is Dionysus and Lydia O’Day is Thalia, and together they make the perfect comedy team, and it makes sense in the context of the story. Thalia, after all, is the Muse of Comedy and Dionysus the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. So, just their characters should be funny just from their characterizations, but in the hands of Jay and Lydia, they’re sidesplittingly riotous. Their goal together for Daphne is to lead her on an adventure and give her a happy ending, the latter as you might expect is quite dicey as they bumble their way through the assignment. Regardless of the goal, or the result, it’s the journey that counts, and it’s hilarious. One specific moment that exemplifies the quality in which they provide this humor is a point late in the play when Dionysus recreates a battle, it’s Jay’s funniest moment, though a close second is a tie, and it’s every moment he talks about his newfound love of cheeseburgers, his inability to pronounce the word an excellent extension of the joke. One last point on the pair, and that’s the sound effects each of them have. Yes, they each have their own sound effects, and Craig Marshall (technical director) makes sure that they’re timed perfectly. It’s one more hysterical component that makes up these characters and the play at large.

Craig’s work as the technical director (sound, light) is as solid as usual for a Phoenix production, and Eric has done a nice job with the set, nothing altogether complicated, but something that works well to depict Aristide’s stall in Greece, the university office of Ralph and Daphne, and the hall where the alumni gathering takes place. As the scene changes from Greece to the university, it’s accompanied by a creatively distraction, Landon’s Aristide pulling out a map and showing the professors “traveling by map” from one side of the world to another. Landon is impeccably versatile in his performance, as he doesn’t just play Aristide, he is also Aleksi, the janitor at the school. Each of these characters are smaller parts than the others, however they’re both extremely important to the storytelling, and his versatility isn’t just in his acting, it’s in the execution of his accents. Once again, dialect coach Grace Helmcke leaves her mark on this production through her work with Landon. Finally, a mention is due for Rebecca Brunelle and her costume design. Each of her pieces, especially those adorning the Greek gods, are nicely done, and her work is some of the best I’ve seen in a theatre of this size.

The Gods of Comedy, running on stage at Phoenix Theatre, is the best way I can think of for this small but mighty theatre to wrap up what has been a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable season. Eric Lewis once again provides a blueprint for designing, building, and presenting a show that leans heavily on its ensemble and allows them to explore all of the facets of delivering a farcical comedy. The play, from American playwright Ken Ludwig, is well written, but what this cast is able to do with the piece is lift it up through their performances, combining just the right amount of heart with the humor. If you haven’t seen a show at Phoenix Theatre, by all means, you’re missing out. The only thing you’d be sacrificing is more exposure to the stress of our current news cycle. And while the group’s formula doesn’t vary necessarily from show to show, it’s a formula that is unique to this theatre, and one that works. So, to close this season at Phoenix Theatre, all I can say is The Gods of Comedy await, and I suggest you heed their call. I wouldn’t want to keep them waiting.

Gods of Comedy, the season closing show from Phoenix Theatre in Edmonds, runs on stage through June 29. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://www.tptedmonds.org/.

Photo credit: James Sipes