Boys' Life

CAD ABOUT YOU Biggs, Coiro and Scanavino, from left, talk trash.

Photograph: Simon Kane

“Would you like to talk?” Jack (Rhys Coiro) asks attractive stranger Maggie (Stephanie March), as they share a park bench. “I think we could talk about some things. Listen. I want to talk to you.” The line gets an uneasy laugh at Second Stage Theatre, especially as delivered with focused, reptilian cool by Coiro. Conversation is the last thing on this aspiring lothario’s mind. The carnal subtext is almost embarrassing. And please note: Jack is the subtlest of his poon-hound friends, who form the acrid, cynical center of Howard Korder’s Boys’ Life.

Shame-filled, nebbishy Phil (Jason Biggs) and immature slob Don (Peter Scanavino) have a harder time getting laid in the big city—but at least they don’t have a wife and kids like amoral Jack. The three college buddies swap sex-war stories in this 1988 comedy-drama, which seemed naughty back then, but now comes across as cheap and not terribly profound. Men are pigs and they refuse to grow up. Got it.

Still, Michael Greif’s brash and slick staging gives off sparks, with an appealing young cast and designer Mark Wendland’s series of large boxes on wheels (pushed around by the ensemble). These dioramas neatly underscore Korder’s urban anthropological study.

One detail of the production doesn’t hold up, though: Betty Gilpin plays Lisa, a frustrated artist whom Don eventually marries. At their wedding reception, Jack sneers that Lisa’s a “bowzer.” Phil never corrects him. We have seen the trim, lovely Gilpin in several scenes, even in her underwear. Now we know Korder’s males are not only craven; in this version, they’re insane.