Review: Mud Blue Sky

So much talent and preparation have gone into the B Street Theatre’s production of Mud Blue Sky that it’s a shame it isn’t in service of a better play.

Elizabeth Hadden’s set design is a perfect representation of an off-brand hotel room and Paulette Sand-Gilbert’s costumes are excellent, particularly the generic stewardess uniforms.

It’s the play by Marisa Wegrzyn that’s weak. What starts out as a sharp, snarky comedy about a reunion of three flight attendants in a motel room during a layover too soon loses focus.

Jamie Jones (playing world-weary to a T) is Beth, who suffers from continual back pain and is considering retiring to … do what? Elisabeth Nunziato, as Sam, believably plays the caring mother of a teenage son fending for himself while she’s away—until she turns all cougar-y when Beth’s “pot boy” (Alexander Pannullo), a high school kid who sells her weed when she’s in town, turns up. Tara Sissom works perfectly between screamingly funny and painfully poignant as Angie, who was fired for being overweight and is lost without her job.

The playwright wants to make a serious comment on these disparate lives, but can’t make it work. Aiming for wistful and maybe hopeful, it just ends up sad.