Pilot Fish: of Audiences and Industry Insiders

Bob Wells won the coveted Henry Award for Best Director this year for his work on The 39 Steps. Bob is the Artistic Director at Avenue Theater, and although The 39 Steps did not play at Avenue, it reflected the kind of play that Bob has mastered.

39 Steps was a comedy, funny and soulful, and yet still of such high quality that it won the Best Director award, which is normally reserved for dramas and experimental work. Bob has been known for this kind of work for at least 30 years. His production of Sweeny Todd was the best play ever produced at the Bonfils Memorial Theatre according to Henry Lowenstein, and Lowenstein ought to know because he managed the Bonfils for decades. Our next stop in New York was a show that reminded us why Bob's talent is so rare.

After a brilliant nap on the memory foam bed at the Hotel on Rivington, we reclined in the seats of the Living Theatre for Pilot Fish by Celebration of Whimsy Theater.  The show was an insider's look at the T.V. pilot making process in Hollywood.

Pilot Fish fell into many of the comedy theater booby traps. At Avenue Theater, we are not know for producing prudish work, but we try to limit uses of the F-word to 10 times per minute. This show had no such limitations. There was a stand up comedian, who berated the audience multiple times throughout the show. The other four cast members took turns playing different actors in the pilot of a new T.V. show.  The audience was not denied any of the sordid details.

For the members of the entertainment industry in the audience, including we at Avenue, this show was a funny and personal look at the minutia of producing entertainment. Pilot Fish started off strong, funny, and engaging as we met characters, learned back stories, and were delighted by the derision of our fellow audience members.

Somewhere around the second staged sex scene, it became apparent that Pilot Fish was going for shock value. After the characters kicked boots for the umpteenth time, the character arcs found a nice resolution and many of them grew as people. And while often entertaining, this is not a show to take your grandmother to...unless she's Betty White.

And that's when it hit us. This is why Bob Wells deserves to have a theater dedicated to his talent. Bob finds the right mixture of silly humor and powerful theater. He is the kind of talent who transcends the comedy genre to earn himself accolades directing genuinely entertaining plays. If Pilot Fish was probably more poignant for people in the entertainment industry, Avenue Theater is probably better for people who want nothing to do with the industry and just want to be be enlightened, excited, and entertained.

But there was no time to sit and think about it, because this was Fringe, and we had two more shows to make before the evening was over...