The Understudy is an allegory that we can all relate to, albeit somewhat uncomfortably; a black comedy that seamlessly transforms wishful thinking into a sort of telekinetic mayhem and turns Norman Vincent Peale's "power of positive thinking" on its head. Marin Ireland as Rebecca is a revelation. Her supporting cast is stellar. With the certain critical success of The Understudy, I hope we hear from co-directors Connolly and Davis again and again. One only hopes that the more established and perhaps undeserving directors in their path don't suffer the same fate as those unfortunates that Rebecca sought to supplant and that stood in the way of her ambitions. But, then again, some do deserve such a fate, if only in one's imagination.
Andrew Malekoff, Long Beach, New York
