New York Review: "David Dean Bottrell Makes Love: A One- Man Show"
Katherine Hebert, Contributing Critic - New York City
Premiering initially on the Comedy Central’s stage in 2011 David Dean Bottrell’s one-man show: “David Dean Bottrell Makes Love” has returned to New York’s Triad Theater nearly a decade after its initial Los Angeles performance.
“David Dean Bottrell Makes Love” is an autobiographical exploration of love in all its facets. Bottrell achieves this through a series of vignettes from his own life surrounding the titular theme. At their core, these vignettes are love stories that are strung together by our hero’s varied attempts at creating a Match.com profile. Through this piece, Bottrell untangles his own personal history with love as he attempts to navigate relationships with his partners, family and himself as a young gay artist in search of meaningful connections. Despite its incredibly personal nature, Bottrell’s one-man show is about the very human struggle of trying to find and keep love.
People truly underestimate what an impressive feat a good one-man show is, particularly if it’s autobiographical. Oftentimes these pieces can feel vindictive, one-sided and at their worst self-indulgent. Fortunately, I cannot recommend “David Dean Bottrell Makes Love” enough. It is explicit, hilarious and honest while avoiding the traditional pitfalls of the one-man show format. Which is no surprise given both the show’s initial success in LA where the initial production ran for over a year, as well as the countless moments throughout Bottrell’s career he has proven himself as both an actor and a writer. The show moves at a steady pace blending comedy and tragedy together brilliantly. The show is funny until it isn’t, much like love, but this juxtaposition between these two tones keeps the audience engaged and on their toes.
Bottrell’s unique perspective on his love feels intimate, rather than keeping the audience at an arm’s length Bottrell invites us in on the funniest and what I’d imagine are some of the most painful moments of his life. By doing this Bottrell achieves a level of vulnerability that is rarely seen on stage, particularly in a show formatted in this way. One can’t help but admire an artist that willingly relives some of his most intimate moments of their life on a stage and tell those stories to strangers. I can’t help but applaud that with the fervent enthusiasm.
“David Dean Bottrell Makes Love”is at the Triad Theatre on February 19 and 26th with potential for more dates should the show continue doing so well. If you missed it or can’t swing the Triad’s two drink minimum “David Dean Bottrell Makes Love” has been turned into an audiobook by Penguin Random House available for purchase online.