It’s been amusing watching Ethan Coen let his freak flag fly in recent years. The filmmaker/playwright who made such classic films as No Country for Old Men and Fargo with his brother Joel, among many others, is nearing 70. And yet his recent solo films Drive-Away Dolls and Honey Don’t! (both co-written with his wife Tricia Cooke) reveled in the sort of provocative sexual content in which the Coen Brothers films never trafficked.
He ups the ante with his latest evening of one-acts receiving its world premiere at the Atlantic Theater Company. The endlessly raunchy Let’s Love! revels in its own outrageousness, feeling like an evening of Playboy magazine cartoons come to life. It’s funny as hell, but you’ll feel the need to take a shower afterwards.
The ribald tone is established in the opening playlet, The Broad at the Bar, in which Atlantic Theater veteran Mary McCann plays the title role. Seen nursing a drink for what’s clearly been a very long time, the blowsy-looking woman perks up considerably with the arrival of a well-dressed stranger (Dion Graham, HBO’s The Wire). After a minute of small talk, she gets to the point.
[Read Michael Sommers’ ★★★☆☆ review here.]
“I could wallop you with my breast,” she tells him. “You’d see stars.”
Getting no response, she proceeds to launch into a lengthy monologue about her sexual misadventures, including a short-lived relationship with a professional baseball player. “My foxhole wasn’t big enough for Larry,” she observes. After a while, she reiterates her proposition. “I’m steps down the block,” she informs the seemingly oblivious man. “I could show you heaven.”
The spotlight then shifts to him, who has somehow gotten the hint. “I believe the lady next to me is available,” he announces, before beginning his own time-fractured monologue in which he recounts episodes involving his marriage and childhood.
Neither soliloquy adds up to much, which makes it a relief that the follow-up, Dark Eyes, proves more substantial by comparison. In this segment, the characters, at least most of them, have honest-to-God names, including Susan (Aubrey Plaza, reuniting with Coen after Honey Don’t!), who is attempting to hire a forbidding looking guy (Chris Bauer, another Wire alumnus), to beat up her ex-boyfriend Dan (CJ Wilson), who has taken up with another woman, Faye (Mary Wiseman).
When he tells her that the $20,000 she’s offering isn’t enough, she sweetens the pot by throwing in sexual favors, graphically describing exactly what she has in mind.
She makes do on her promise, but things get more complicated with the unexpected arrival of the intended victim who makes friends with his would-be attacker. And when Faye shows up as well, it adds yet another complication into the mix.
As the above quotes demonstrate, the one-act isn’t so much about love as it is about sex, delving into even more scandalous territory when Susan has a blind date with a mild-mannered young man (Noah Robbins) who, upon receiving her invitation for anonymous sex of any variety he chooses, reveals a kink that proves too outrageous even for her.
It’s all very silly in a Love, American Style kind of way, if that sitcom had been on late-night cable instead of broadcast television. But it’s also consistently amusing thanks to the delicious comic performances and Coen’s gift for laugh-out-loud lines, including one that makes excellent use of the word “glockenspiel.” Plaza, who specializes in acerbic characters, outdoes herself here, reveling in Susan’s sexual dominance and, at one point, simply making a face that reduced the audience to hysterics.
The titular third act finds Coen working in a gentler mode, at least when it comes to love. Those suffering from emetophobia, however, may want to stay clear, since the one-act involves a first date between a man (Noah Robbins) and woman (Dylan Gelula) that begins sweetly enough with the gift of a stuffed animal but winds up disastrously as a result of a case of food poisoning. Director Neil Pepe fully indulges the subject matter’s grossness to uproarious effect. And when the man recounts the story to a co-worker (Graham), his description “I barfed on her panda” provokes a response that brought down the house.
Let’s Love! would never be mistaken for a lost work by Noel Coward. At its worst, it’s puerile and offensive. But at its best, it’s very, very funny (individual tastes, of course, will vary) and is deliciously performed by its cast filled with ringers. As an extra treat, adorable cabaret chanteuse Nellie McKay is on hand to perform several love-themed musical numbers, dressed in outfits ranging from black tie and tails to folksinger casual, complete with acoustic guitar and harmonica. Even the curtain call is a treat, especially if you didn’t have seeing Aubrey Plaza playing a saxophone on your bingo card.
Let’s Love! opened October 15, 2025 at the Linda Gross Theater and runs through November 9. Tickets and information: atlantictheater.org
