Barring the occasional family trust fund, most artists rely on bread-and-butter jobs to put food on the table while awaiting employment in their given craft. The work is often low-paid and undignified, but whether the show goes on or not, the groceries must be bought.

Sam, the protagonist of Becky Mode's "Fully Committed," is a wage slave with a vengeance. An aspiring actor who mans the reservations line at New York's hottest restaurant, Sam fields a barrage of phone calls from some of the city's most obnoxiously entitled personages, at the same time coping with urgent communiqués from restaurant staffers, from the hostess at the front desk to the sadistically prickly owner-manager.

A tour de force opportunity for the right actor, "Committed" is a one-man show with a cast of dozens. Gangly, game and humorously frenetic, Ted Escobar takes on the challenge in the play's current production at the Hermosa Beach Playhouse, playing 40-odd characters. Under the solid direction of Stephanie A. Coltrin, Escobar rises to the occasion, splendidly.

The show is set at Christmastime, but a thin string of twinkling Christmas lights only emphasizes the gloom of Christopher Beyries' fittingly spartan set, the grim and cluttered storeroom where Sam works. A blur of constant motion, Sam is an island of amiability amid a sea of swirling egos. But this downtrodden worm is about to turn. During the course of one particularly grueling shift, Sam makes the transition from submission to self-reliance, a cheering conversion that comes just in time for an upbeat ending.

An amusing romp, "Fully Committed" may not stick in the memory after the final curtain, but Escobar's crisply paced performance is unflaggingly diverting. For artists who serve both the muse and the bank account, this show could prove dangerous, the final straw that makes them tear their time cards into tiny bits.

FRITZ COLEMAN:
"On the Fritz" in Hermosa
EASY READER - Jan 13, 2010

Theatre Preview:
"The Nerd"
EASY READER - Mar 27, 2007