It sounds like a setup for campy fun, but "Heroes and Villains," Daniel Janoff's peculiar but fascinating new play, has deeper things on its mind. The play somehow works as a cross between a gentle small-town love story and a meditation on the need for heroes and the battle between faith and skepticism.
Sunshine (Wendi Weber), benefits adjuster for Guardian Bank, has come to the salon by day, saloon by night owned by father Chuck and son Rhett Benton. She is investigating the claims of Chuck (Danny Goldring), who supposedly once saved a woman by pushing a truck barreling towards her out of the way with his bare hands. The bank hired him as a superhero mascot, and Sunshine wants proof of his superpowers—or else she will pull his pension. A budding romance with Rhett (Peter DeFaria), the town's most sought-after beautician, only serves to complicate the situation.
Janoff's play doesn't cover any particularly new ground, and the stakes feel too low to make for gripping drama. However, the characters are interesting enough that it is always worthwhile to spend time with them, and the play's look at small-town life is a genuinely fascinating one.
Anthony Moseley's production, unfolding on Tracy Otwell's elegant set, gets the rhythms of the script, and he coaxes winning performances from his actors—Weber, wound tightly at the start but slowly letting her guard down, makes the perfect foil for the effortlessly sexy DeFaria. Goldring makes a real character out of a man who barely gets a chance to speak, being the same intriguing mystery to the audience that he is to Sunshine.
In the end, Heroes and Vilains is content to live in ambiguity, leaving us with questions rather than answers. The questions may not be new, but they're asked in an interesting enough way to be worth the time to listen.
Reviewed by Centerstage!
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