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Steven Culp in "Highest Standard of Living"
Opening Date: November 13, 1986
Playwrights Horizons, New York, NY
| Playwright by Keith Reddin |
| Directed by Don Scardino |
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| Bob |
- Steven Culp |
| Vlad and Jack |
- Timothy Carhart |
| Man on Ferry, Gary, Yuri |
- Kevin Skousen |
| Ludmilla |
- Leslie Lyles |
| Tom and Larry |
- James Murtaugh |
| Tatiana, Lonnie, Jean, Adele |
- Lola Pashalinski |
| Mother and Helen |
- Sloane Shelton |
| Sergei and Don |
- Clement Fowler |
| Dmitri and Doug |
- Peter Crombie |
| Rodger, Waiter, Man at Bus Stop |
- Robert Stanton |
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Photo by Gerry Goodstein
Steven Culp with Leslie Lyles |
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Photo by Martha Swope
(c) New York Magazin Nov 24, 1986, page 86
Steven Culp with Leslie Lyles |
| New York Times Review |
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Synopsis:
Bob (Steven Culp), an American student of Russian literature, travels to Moscow to study with Mikhail Bulgakov but suffers from food poisoning so ends up in a Russian hospital, where his fellow patients are (or look like) his mother and other relatives. His nurse Ludmilla (Leslie Lyles) turns out to be a KGB agent, but Bob falls in love with her anyway. Before you know it, seven little boys enter his hospital room and start to beat Bob with little hammers.
In the second act, Bob, having been kicked out of Russia, is back in America, bandaged and bruised. Yet he has Ludmilla with him and is glad to be back in New York. But soon CIA agents approach him and start harassing him in a very KGB-like manner. Eventually Bob and Ludmilla jump off the Staten Island Ferry together, either to freedom or to their deaths. (c) American theatre: a chronicle of comedy and drama, 1969-2000, by Thomas S. Hischak, Gerald Martin Bordman - 2001, page 269 |
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| Keith Reddin's Highest Standard of Living, tells of an American graduate student's odyssey as he shuttles between Moscow and New York. Directed by Don Scardino. Featured in the cast are Robert Stanton, Timothy Carhart, Sloane Shelton, Peter Crombie, James Murtagh, Clement Fowler, Leslie Lyles, Steven Culp, Lola Pashalinski. Thur 11/23; $18-$20. Call theater for details. Playwright Horizons Theater, 416 West 42nd Street (276-4200) (c) New York Magazine, Nov 17, 1986, page 137 |
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| Highest Standard of Living - Keith Reddin's political farce about an American graduate student in Moscow is weak on politics, but quite a few of the jokes are funny (Act I). The second act doesn't amount to much. Steven Culp does very well in the leading role. Don Scardino directed, and John Arnone designed the witty scenery. (Playwright Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street (276-4200). Tuesdays through Fridays, except Thanksgiving, at 8, Saturdays at 7 and 10 and Sundays at 7, Matinees Sundays at 3.) (c) New York Magazine, Band 62, 1986, page 2 |
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