Reviewed by Gregor Collins

Temerarious twenty-somethings are cranking out dystopian farces set in space these days by the truckload. It’s one of my favorite genres of theater—there’s something epic about achieving absurdity and profundity in the same play, sometimes even in the same scene. Eat the Devil, one of my favorite Off-Offs this year, comes to mind as a production that achieved both in a big way.

Unfortunately I can’t say the same for God of Marz. It felt oddly caught between two worlds, not fearless enough to be balls-to-the-wall inane, and too slipshod to have any lasting dramatic effect. It was neither Ben & Jerry’s nor Haagen Dazs; it was Breyers. And the only time you buy Breyers is if there’s no more Ben & Jerry’s and Haagen Dazs.

The play follows two astronauts (Ray Farara and Rachel Sheen, the latter of whom wrote the play) who crash land on Mars and find themselves in the abode of God (Laura Leigh Carroll). The two space travelers agonize through kooky and acerbic interactions with the Almighty and her son Jesus, as they plan their perilous escape back to earth.

The script wasn’t a total disaster, it had its stretches of entertainment, but my main issue with the evening had less to do with the script and more to do with low-talking. I had trouble understanding several of the actor’s lines. It almost seemed they didn’t much care that we couldn’t hear them. Often words were swallowed at the end of lines. I’m all for filmic realism in theater, but when someone (me) is sitting in the very front row and has to lean in several times to wonder what they said, there’s a problem. I could only imagine what the folks sitting in back were experiencing.

The script thought it was daring and shocking, but it was actually safe, and there were several stretches that felt devoid of energy. On the contrary, the actor Ray Fanara brought a consistent energy to his role, with the boyish charm of a movie star. The rest of the cast felt like it didn’t live up to what Fanara was bringing. Carroll, who played “God”, had some comic chops, but she was probably the worst of the low-talkers—it’s like she was shooting a film. Several punchlines of hers were lost. I can’t have been the only one.

There were a few jokes that landed, but the majority of them were tepid or lazy. A couple of lazy jokes were when Jesus (Adam Chisnall) ambles into the living room saying: “Oh my mother… oh my mother,” instead of saying “oh my God… oh my God” (a joke that’s been done a million times), and at one point Jesus guilted someone by saying “I died for your sins.” Can we just not put Jesus in any comedy from here on out? Unless we can truly tread new ground?

For me, the music was the best part of the evening. Kudos to Mark Lazeski’s original soundtrack, a pulse-pounding, psychedelic goulash of sounds and tones that kept me engrossed from beginning to end—sadly it was set against a play that couldn’t quite live up to its pervasive power. At the end, Sheen, the playwright and co-star—and, who would have thought, a professional aerialist—gave us a dazzling, Olympic-caliber routine on a large ring hanging from the ceiling. That was almost worth the price of the ticket.

All said, and this is something a theater critic who has never worked in the world of theater could ever point out, Sheen should be proud of what she’s accomplished here—writing and starring in a play that will be running for 28 performances in the most important theater city in the world. How many actor/playwrights can say they’ve achieved that? Certainly not this one.

May 30 – June 15, 2019 (28 Performances)
Monday-Sunday at 8:30 p.m.
Thursday-Sunday at 6:00 p.m.

TBG Theater
312 West 36th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10018

Tickets are $35 for adults; $20 for students and seniors.

Direct ticketing link: https://godofmarz.com/