NoHo LA Newspaper Review Feb. 28, 2002
Hell’s Cuisinart
A theater review by Michelle Malik

You haven’t really seen New York if you haven’t seen it through the eyes of David Caudle’s curious comedy Hell’s Cuisinart.
A far cry from the Tamarind Theater along Hollywood’s trendy Franklin Avenue, the play is set in the undesirable part of NYC, Hell’s Kitchen, a raw, tenement-plagued part of town where homeless folks take up house if they like and floozies bring their married boyfriends to their brother’s digs for a few kicks while he’s at work. Director Joseph Greco directs a stunning cast of real people who tangle us into their web of cramped spaces, failing relationships, insanity, and goofy visitors from other regions all in one apartment building. This is no “Barefoot in the Park,” folks. You will see the layers peel, and it isn’t always pretty.
Robert Caso plays the dual roles of the tremendously tender, scorned gay lover and later a nice guy who finally musters up the courage to tell his younger sister (Jenette Kozak) off. Jenette also epitomizes the trashy Queens landlady. Bob Spletzer plays the guilty married lover and Carey Dunn as her brother’s hilarious, uninvited Belgian houseguest. Edward Deraney is the honest, struggling actor who lacks support from his preoccupied father and cold roommate played by Patricia Tallman, who later is outstanding as the mentally ill, largely neglected wife who suffers from a Walter Mitty complex. William Makozak is her uninvolved, typewriter-tinkering husband as well as the newly-outted gay man who jeopardizes a loving same-sex relationship to test other waters. Matt Stevens and Bess Fanning are the compassionate Midwesterners that feel for hustler homeless guy (Jeff Sable) but do not want to be taken for a ride.

I highly recommend it!