You can't always get what you want

Leonard and Myra are not our typical star-crossed lovers. Well, not if Myra has anything to say about it.

Desperate for her last chance at love, Myra will do anything to trap the timorous Leonard into a relationship he doesn’t want, but just can’t seem to avoid — even when it almost kills him. Twice.

Sam Bobrick’s 2008 comedy is an ambitious exposé of the plight of the aging single on a crash-course with the inevitable. But when Myra finally gets her catch and Leonard finds his stride, will they find happiness?

Creator of the teen sitcom “Saved by the Bell,” Bobrick employs the conventions of the small screen with the farcical, at times bawdy, two-act romantic comedy. The script is filled with campy dialogue and reflexive social commentary best accompanied by a laugh track and moral-to-the-story finale.

On opening night, the sharp deliveries of Lauren Preski (Myra) and Daniel R. Sky (Leonard) summoned hearty laughs at every unfortunate turn of events for the hapless Leonard.

When Myra brings her caustic mother (Yvonne Silva) along for her first date with Leonard, the exchange between mother and would-be-suitor garnered the biggest laughs of the night.

The sound design of director Jay Mower underscores the message Myra and Leonard are hopelessly impervious to: you can’t always get what you want, and that’s just fine. During scene changes a soundtrack plays the Beatles, Elvis, and Frankie Valli. The music doesn’t just fill the void, it’s prophetic. Perhaps Leonard would have been better off hearing Valli sing “you’re just too good to be true” before making a date with Myra in the opening scene. Then again, watching Leonard grumble and sulk about would have been lost, which would have been a shame.

Mower’s seasoned direction shows. There are few moments when a joke is lost, or dialogue drags.

Despite a bit of difficulty seeing some scenes from my fourth row seat, the simple set design, and strategic blocking that pushed a majority of the action downstage, supported the biggest scene-stealer: the tennis match delivery between Myra and Leonard.

The intimacy of the venue allowed Sky and Preski a conversational banter, rather than the over-the-top deliveries the script lends itself to. The result is a dose of realism in the relationship between two otherwise impractical characters.

At times, as when Myra tells Leonard during their first phone call that she doesn’t drink coffee — while chugging from an oversized cup — the reality of a dating scene littered with white lies and edited with first impressions comes to life.

At others, however, the absurdity inherent in the script is lost. When Myra brings her lawyer/uncle Fred (Paul Roger) along to draft a prenuptial agreement, after only one date with Leonard, the businesslike dialogue encumbers the onstage energy.

Sky is perfectly skittish, but Preski can be too charming. More neuroticism could have sold Myra as the unhinged cautionary tale she is.