Joe Beck (left) plays domineering television star Max Prince to Jon Koons's eccentric and vulnerable staff writer, Milt, in Laughter on the 23rd Floor.

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This anarchic writer’s room comedy has to be one of the most aggressive things Neil Simon ever wrote. Sure, the narrator, Lucas (George Coe), is a warm Simon-surrogate, and the cast is full of loveable misfits like the witty and vulnerable Milt (Jon Koons) and the Woody Allen-like Kenny (Trevor Dow), but at the center of the madness stands Max Prince (Joseph Beck), the enraged and outrageous star of the show. Max has a lot to be mad about. There’s the pressure he’s getting from the network to shorten and dumb down his show, but there’s also Joe McCarthy and the blacklist, poisoning the atmosphere for creative people, and sending Max into paroxysms that often end with his fist buried elbow deep in the nearest wall. And despite the best efforts of every character to bring harmony to Max’s world, there’s just no way to paper over the forces that are riding him.

Under Judy Garey’s sure-handed direction, and with so much talent in the cast (Leslie Gangl Howe is terrific as Carol), Laughter on the 23rd Floor ought to be a hit for the Santa Barbara City College Theatre Group, and audiences headed to the intimate Interim Theatre space can expect the usual virtues associated with this esteemed company, including split-second timing, complex ensemble work, and seamless transitions. Beck in particular is to be commended for bringing Max Prince—the wall puncher—fully to life. As a character, Max is all bottled up, both in the sense that he can’t express his emotions effectively, and in the sense that he is pickled in a stew of liquor and pills a lot of the time. Beck manages to galvanize the scenes in which Max gets comedy out of his explosive nature, and add some idiosyncrasies that hint at a more varied set of feelings running beneath Max’s fiery surface.

As Milt, Koons continues to impress with his superb timing and gift for physical comedy. The role of the lead writer, Val, gets a terrific performance out of mainstage newcomer Jerry Vassallo. The rivalry between Irish Hollywood wannabe Brian (Justin Stark) and neurotic hypochondriac Ira (William H. Waxman) provides the show with some of its funniest moments. And Rebecca Ridenour gives just the right touch to Helen, the hapless secretary who wants to be a writer. But don’t go to Laughter on the 23rd Floor expecting nothing but fluff. Amid the gags, comebacks, and laughter on this 23rd floor, there’s a very real lion of anger, and it roars.

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