Hungry for Romance
Do You Want a Sandwich is an open-hearted, multi-media, one-man show soaked in vulnerability, written and performed by the talented Josh Lanzet. If you’re at all frustrated about why you haven’t yet found “the one,” commiserate with Josh as he recalls his past failed dating escapades and the lessons he’s learned along the way.
I’m not sure if there’s anything more personal, potentially horrifying or embarrassing than recounting the details of relationship flops. However, kudos for Josh for being completely open in his recollection of his past romantic endeavors. There were two main things I took away from this show: Josh has dated his fair share of ladies and everyone has awkward dating stories to share — some just choose not too. I think it’s fair to say that most people sitting in the audience were reminiscing about questionable past dating decisions themselves. One of my favorite parts of the show was Josh’s intro — he had called his sister, mother and grandmother and recorded their reactions to the concept for this show. All responses were skeptical, but the best was his grandmother who said, “I get it — but why would anyone want to see that?”
She has a point. A fine line is straddled between vanity and the sharing of insightful life lessons when recounting one’s personal relationships on stage. Lanzet even addressed this in one of his opening lines from an ex saying “If I wanted to hear you talk about yourself for an hour, I would just date you again.” However, it’s clear Do You Want A Sandwich comes from a place of endearing humility and wishful graces unto its audience. Lanzet’s charisma is ever-so convincing that he’s a hopeless romantic searching for right lady.
Ultimately, my takeaway was that if you love being with someone, you can’t see yourself with anyone else and the other person makes you a better person, you’re doing something right. You shouldn’t be ashamed about who you care about and if we take the time to learn enough about ourselves and start making our “lists” someday we may all get lucky enough to find someone who crosses off not only the “must-haves” but also the “nice-to-haves” as well.
Natalie Shipman leaves her mark as director of this one-man show. She also directed Maria Wojciechowski’s Almost a Genius, which I loved, and this show has a similar flow. Might I suggest anyone looking to do a one-person show reach out to Ms. Shipman — this is her sweet spot.
Do You Want A Sandwich is playing at The Playground Theater on Thursday nights at 8pm until September 4th. Tickets are $10 and you can purchase them here.
