'Now What?': An Unexamined Life Wouldn't Be as Funny

It was in "Swimming to Cambodia" that Spalding Gray, the late pioneer of the neurotic sit-down monologue, quested for the "perfect moment." Josh Lefkowitz, whose shaggy haircut and sunny personality evoke the young George Harrison, attains a perfect moment early in his charming, aggressively Gray-like "Now What?"

But of course he blows it, or where would the story be? And finding the next quirky, introspective tale to tell propels "Now What?," Lefkowitz's quietly impressive follow-up to last year's breakout Capital Fringe success "Help Wanted."

If you missed "Help Wanted," Lefkowitz's personal chronicle of trying to make it as a personal chronicler, no worries. In this premiere at Woolly Mammoth's Melton Rehearsal Hall, Lefkowitz agreeably brings everyone up to speed on all things Josh. This, as Spalding Gray fans will recall, is autobiography as a wise, funny, but most of all self-centered art, with the unspoken "Should I write about that?" looping like soft Muzak behind each personal experience, no matter how intimate.

Thus does Lefkowitz's girlfriend, Anika, become a major character, as success and professional separation challenge these young performers. (The trouble comes when Anika gets cast in a national tour of an unidentified show while Lefkowitz travels with "Help Wanted.") We hope she's not as breathy and mousy as he plays her; his own boyish persona is sometimes nearly too winsome to bear.

That might bruise his feelings, since he makes it clear he's acutely aware of not only the "people with pens" (a.k.a. critics), but also the inseparable "love me/love my show" hazard of this kind of gig. But that thin skin seems to be what got him here in the first place. He's not as high-strung or weirdly acerbic as Gray -- the hero of his earlier piece, as well as his artistic role model -- but he has absorbed the lessons of how to spin insecurities and restless probing into amusing material for the stage.

What makes it work is the performer's vivid depictions of the world he encounters, whether real or imagined. (Smudging the line between fact and fiction is something else Lefkowitz deftly borrows from Gray.) So we get impressions of theater groupies impressed by "Help Wanted," a similarly impressed agent who is both hilariously crass and frighteningly effective and even a droll take on Woolly's artistic director, Howard Shalwitz.

Funnier still is a bit in a bookstore when the procrastinating Lefkowitz is suddenly dogged by literary giants, with Herman Melville as a particularly colorful (albeit brief) presence. The characterizations are never belabored; each is effectively drawn and invoked no more than needed -- even the two thugs who counsel the melancholy Lefkowitz on a New York train.

That discipline in the performance is matched by craft in the writing, or whatever it is Lefkowitz does. The program says the show was "created" by Lefkowitz, but the prose often seems nicely thought out, from the affectionate description of Anika's nose ("shaped like an attractive anvil") to his low-key interpretation of thug style ("Yeah, my hat is crooked, but so's life").

In other words, in "Now What?" Lefkowitz gives every impression of knowing what he's doing, and he even edges away from some of his hero's hallmarks. Gray performed sitting behind a desk; here, Lefkowitz uses just a chair, and he's frequently on his feet as he animates his deceptively well-knitted anecdotes.

So he got the gig he wanted, but theater's rough, and so's life. Lefkowitz might get to hang on to this job for a while, but nothing's likely to wreck his uncertainty. He clearly can't do without it.

Now What?, created and performed by Josh Lefkowitz. Through Nov. 25 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 641 D St. NW. Call 202-393-3939 or visit http://www.woollymammoth.net