By Kai Bisby

Love is a Shoe

Shoes and bad dates: two things that gays and straights share. We can all agree that dating is a difficult endeavor that is riddled with more misses then hits. But as long as we have a fabulous pair of shoes, bad dates could always be worse. Experience one woman's attempt at finding her way back into the dating world, and finding salvation in her shoes, in the West Coast premiere of Bad Dates, which opened Sept. 18 at the Laguna Playhouse (606 Laguna Canyon Rd.). Star Beth Broderick (Psycho Beach Party and Aunt Zelda from Sabrina the Teenage Witch) and director Judith Ivey (two-time Tony Award winner) are sure to deliver a stellar production of Theresa Rebeck's work that was first produced in New York at Playwrights Horizons in June 2003. The sultry-voiced Broderick is excited about taking center stage in this one-woman odyssey. "[The character] has left an abusive husband, moved to New York, successfully built a career, and raised a child. Now that she is in her 40s she feels that she should consider going on a date. She throws herself back into the dating scene and finds herself going out with some pretty odd characters." Broderick plays a woman who is in complete control of her life until she starts looking for love in all the wrong places. "She is scared and awkward and doesn't know exactly how to communicate or what to look for in a guy," says Broderick. "If she knew what to look for she wouldn't be single." Director Ivey sees the single-looking-for-love-bad-date phenom as a universal experience that does not discriminate between sexual orientation. "I think a lot of us have gone through that, where we get used to running the show as a single person and then step back in and try and have a relationship," explains Ivey. She also points out our universal knack for making the mistake of going after the bad boys instead of the good ones right under our noses. "We dismiss the good guys a lot of the times. We don't have good sensors. There is something about that person that is hard to get." Eventually, after putting ourselves through the ugly and sometimes horrid dating scene, we wise up and choose good guys that offer much more than a night of danger. And don't forget about the shoes. "Trying on shoes, taking them off, and putting them on. The love of shoes is universal." As is the tricky world of finding love. For tickets and information, call (949) 497-2787.