My overall impression
http://blog.heymelpomene.com/2011/06/matt-and-ben-at-artworks-theater.html
Matt & Ben is a lovingly spiteful piece of fanfic based on Mindy Kaling and Brenda Wither’s notion of what Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s lives must have been like at the brink of superstardom. The play depicts the two childhood friends as competitive, ambitious and lacking average intelligence. Ben (Maggie Henry) is a barely literate party guy, popular among the masses and charming to a fault. Matt (Jessica Blair) is an earnest hard worker, always looking to improve and challenge himself.
While sitting in Affleck’s messy, junk food-strewn apartment, “adapting” Catcher in the Rye into a screenplay by merely changing the format of the text line by line, Hollywood’s soon-to-be-Golden Boys have the completed script for ‘’Good Will Hunting’’ literally fall into their laps. From the ceiling. As they debate whether to take advantage of their gift from “God”, the play flashes back to tell pieces of their history. We see Matt struggling through ‘’Bridge Over Troubled Water’’ at his high school talent show, only to be upstaged by Ben, whose rude interruptions and attention-getting antics ruin Matt’s sincere plan, yet win the contest. We hear about Ben having sex with Matt’s high school crush. We watch Ben assure himself that Matt really does think he’s talented. He must, right?
The plot feels like a bit of sketch comedy that’s been allowed to go on too long, but Matt & Ben succeeds in spite of this – largely because the actors have clear affection for the entities they are ridiculing. They also have the full support of the audience, whose familiarity with celebrity gossip makes them more than ready to point and laugh. And that they do.
It’s interesting to note that having two women play two men is something that is only really disorienting for the first couple of minutes; Ms. Henry and Ms. Blair appear onstage with no explanation and launch straight into the story. The actresses do such a great job creating these characters the fact there’s no effort at disguise quickly becomes a non-issue. Each actress also does a short bit as an additional character in mirror “dream” sequences: Ms. Henry makes an entrance as Gwyneth Paltrow. Ms. Blair does a hilarious take on J. D. Salinger.
There are a couple of moments in the play that fly in the face of logic, and there is a scene or two could definitely be trimmed down. But all in all, lasting just over an hour with no intermission, it’s an entertaining crowd pleaser and a great piece to take your non-theater patron friends to as an introduction to the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
