Sugar Daddy
Coming off her successful run during the Fringe Festival, Fielding Edlow’s one-woman show about a binge-eating New Yorker with Daddy issues is as sweet as meringue but comes down like a sugar crash.
Directed by Paul Stein, the whipped pace through Edlow’s fluffy material rarely gives the audience an opportunity to savor each scene. Flying through one-sided therapy sessions, a date with a homeless man and car rides with her father, Fielding demonstrates a frenetic urban vapidity without any moments of realization.
It is unclear whether Fielding’s character is a victim or a self-saboteur—either way she seems to relish getting under everyone’s skin. The lens from which she judges the world around her is as skewered as her multiple so called addictions to food, alcohol and other acronym disorders/compulsions. She advertises her issues but quips, “Yes I’m in AA, but I’m still fun.”
Yet, for all this fodder, Fielding never delves beyond the superficial, skimming through her problems like flipping through a dog-eared copy of a DSM IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). She judges her therapists by the art they have on their wall, bristling with contempt at a framed MoMA poster of Matisse’s “Red Studio” as she deflects her own neuroses with a lot of fidgeting.
Fielding animates every line by talking with her hands; unfortunately, she muffles the punch line by covering her mouth or otherwise distracting with a flutter of unnecessary gestures. Her overly self-conscious movements however contradict her slumping, nonchalant body language during her therapy sessions. High-strung and hyperactive, Fielding isn’t clear on the outward projection of her character whenever she slouches and sprawls her legs out in a casual pose of defiance.
Billed as “a biting comedy…with calories” the show lacks teeth and for that matter, cake. What is supposed to be a chronicle of “her epic battle with moist, buttery, frosty cupcakes” goes unmentioned. The playbill shows Fielding in a sexy, come-hither pose slathered in white frosting, blatant with innuendo down to the cupcake spattered high heel shoe in the corner. One expects cupcakes, sex, and possibly an addiction to shoes at the very least, but this is a classic case of bait and switch. I doubt too many playbills will be recycled however.
Given the positive word of mouth during its workshop production in the Fringe Festival, it’s a wonder if this final product suffered too many edits from its original inception. Fielding would benefit greatly by adding a bit more fat to this show. In this form, it does not satisfy.
“Sugar Daddy”
Runs through Nov 20
Fri and Sat at 8pm
Lounge 2 Theatre
6201 Santa Monica Blvd
Hollywood, 90038
(East of Vine)
PH: 323-960-7792
www.plays411.com/sugardaddy