Review: ‘2 Pianos, 4 Hands’ at the Colony Theatre

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Two of the hardest working actors on the local stage right now are at the Colony Theatre in Burbank, performing “2 Pianos, 4 Hands,” a comic play that requires them to multi-task their way through two hours of classical-music-themed farce. If it’s often pleasurable to watch their on-stage hijinks and pratfalls, it’s also frustrating to see their efforts wasted on such frivolous material.

“2 Pianos, 4 Hands” is a scattershot evening of tiny skits in which actors Roy Abramsohn and Jeffrey Rockwell portray a gallery of personalities — an imperious piano teacher, a meek pupil and an eager conservatory student are among the most memorable. Throughout the evening, they perform snippets of classical masterpieces by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and more on a pair of grand pianos.

The show, written by Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt, gets a lot of things right about the classical music world. The relationship between teacher and pupil is frequently brutal and often sadistic. (Terrence McNally’s “Master Class” is perhaps the gold standard in this respect — with a close runner-up being Elfriede Jelinek’s novel “The Piano Teacher.”) For aspiring musicians, the competition to make it to the big leagues is more cutthroat than any MBA program.

But instead of exploring these scenarios in depth, the play uses them to land a chuckle before moving on to the next farcical setup. Comedy doesn’t have to be profound to be successful, but the funniest jokes often touch on dark truths. “2 Pianos, 4 Hands” tentatively approaches some of these themes only to back down again and again — it’s a show whose foot is placed permanently on the soft pedal.

First produced in 1996 in Toronto, “2 Pianos, 4 Hands” has become a popular standby for regional theaters around the world and it’s easy to see why. A crowd-pleaser that makes few demands on the audience, the play is the kind of harmless spectacle that you might find on a cruise ship or, more appropriately, a piano bar. (And with only two actors, it’s affordable to produce.)

The play’s sense of humor wears thin in the second hour as the skits repeat themselves and the silliness takes on a forced quality. Director Tom Frey keeps his actors in perpetual motion as if to stave off boredom but he can’t solve the fundamental problem that structurally, the show has no anchor. Cast adrift, the industrious performers resort to flailing about like attention-hungry toddlers.

Musically, the show seldom rises above satisfactory and sometimes sinks well below that. Granted, the repertoire is particularly challenging, and if the actors (both of whom have studied classical piano) can’t always swim with the current, they deserve points for their considerable efforts.

“2 Pianos, 4 Hands” will most likely end up disappointing both hard-core theater and classical music fans. Resolutely middlebrow, this show’s eager-to-please attitude is self-defeating and ultimately boring.

-- David Ng

‘2 Pianos, 4 Hands.’ The Colony Theatre, 555 N. 3rd St., Burbank; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sundays, ends July 26; $37 - $42. (818) 558-7000 Ext. 15 or www.colonytheatre.org. Running time: 2 hours.