Wheat Ridge Theatre Production struggles to find its footing

When two aging gay men feel the need to get some live-in help at their Denver home, they hire a male nanny — a “manny” — and hijinks ensue.

Or so we would think from that kind of premise. This new play by James P. Hayes, now up at Wheat Ridge Theatre Company, struggles to find its footing between drama and comedy while neither of those poles seem to click.

Peter (Dan Connell) is a retired lawyer married for many years to bon vivant David (Clint Heyn). When Peter’s daughter Susan (Sina Hirsch) shows up in response to an alarming phone call from the property manager at the high-end retirement community where the two men live, Peter acknowledges her concern. There was an incident involving a forgotten cake in the oven that set off a fire alarm, as well as issues regarding David’s barely clothed yoga activities on the balcony.

What would seem to be a major point of contention between Peter and David to get live-in help is glossed over with a quick decision to just hire someone. This leads to an interview process where two clear losers (Braden Nash as homophobic bro Skylar and Elliotte Enoch as a tight-assed nervous Nelly) lead to the hiring of more-or-less regular guy Travis Hennessy (Nick Galvez).

These highly awkward scenes take up the bulk of Act One, ceding a great deal of opportunity to develop the principal characters with ones we’ll never see again. There are a few laughs as the staid Peter tries to wrangle wacky David. But there are also quite a few gay jokes that cross the line into raunchy territory without garnering real laughs.

Director Maru Garcia struggles in Act One to manage the blocking, with a lot of unnecessary crosses and chair switches that don’t add much. In other places, the pacing is off as she tries to work with a script that lacks dynamism.

Hayes, who’s on the board at Wheat Ridge Theatre, has a decent premise and some potentially interesting characters in A Manny for Us, but this script is not quite ready for prime time.

In Act Two, he attempts to build meaningful relationships between the three men, but the stakes never materialize and there’s no real conflict to work toward a climax. What we get instead is an unexpected life event that changes the dynamic and a sudden ending that leaves the audience wondering if there’s another scene to come.

Wheat Ridge has done a lot of great work in its short history, with some bold material choices and solid productions. I love to promote original work by Colorado playwrights, but A Manny for Us isn’t quite there, despite a promising idea about a demographic we don’t often hear much about.