Nick Jones’ Important Hats of the Twentieth Century has so many subplots, characters and parallel timelines going on at once, that to try summing them up for a synopsis would make anyone’s head spin. However heads would spin while wearing the delightful creations of fictitious 1930s fashion designer Sam Greevy (Carson Elrod), who as the play begins is crowned the “King of Dresses” by reporter T.B. Doyle (John Behlmann), who also happens to be his lover (“who made who?” is one of the recurring themes in the show). Greevy’s bright future is marred by the sudden success of his competitor Paul Roms (Matthew Saldivar) who by selling clothes for “regular people” represents Greevy’s complete antithesis.
Little does Greevy know that Roms’ “sweatshirts” and “hoodies” are in fact monstrosities he’s been stealing from the future, 1998 Albany to be more precise, where he travels using a time machine-hat invented by Dr. Cromwell (one of Remy Auberjonois’ several hilarious characters). Before one has had time to process the insanity of the time traveling, and often jabs at the loss of glamor in modern times (made all the more obvious by Jennifer Moeller’s extraordinary costumes), Jones throws in flying orbs, angst-ridden teens, cheated spouses, horny hairy creatures and post-apocalyptic butterflies, all of which make for a delightfully absurd romp.
Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel, who injects it with the same manic precision he showed in Hand to God, the play is surprising for how effectively it uses its aural elements to serve as an homage to the days when people got their stories through the radio. All of the actors enunciate and project their voices, as if they’re part of an Orson Welles’ tongue-in-cheek broadcast, which comes in handy considering how often you might be closing your eyes as you cry from laughter. While the play can seem as if it will explode on itself, Stuelpnagel keeps it as tight as the stitches on Greevy’s designs, which makes for a perfect allusion to how truly great fashion defies gravity and physics while looking absolutely effortless.
