Theater Review - Neo Neanderthal

You can trace jokes about the battle of the sexes practically as far back as the dawn of time. You can probably find cave paintings of Stone Age guys getting in trouble for leaving the Neolithic toilet seat up.

Comedian Rob Becker turned Cro-Magnon couples into a theatrical gold mine with Defending the Caveman, a stand-up routine that broke records as the longest-running solo play in Broadway history. Caveman slouches to the 14th Street Playhouse for a month-long run, with Becker passing the spear to actor Isaac Lamb for the current tour.

Caveman first saw light of day in 1991 and is rapidly devolving into a period piece stuck in the era of Iron John and Men Are From Mars. Humor about the differences between men and women remains universal, but Caveman’s specific gags rely on stale subjects: Men hate asking for directions! Men love their remote controls! The show’s unifying argument holds up pretty well, though, maintaining that masculine behavior derives from primitive, narrowly focused “hunter” traits, which contrast sharply with more holistic, feminine “gatherer” instincts. Caveman even makes the case that male bonding has intimacy and Zen-like beauty, via activities like fishing, which require no actual talking.

Lamb’s delivery has a stagy self-consciousness - the laughs never seem as big as he expects - which could be due to the dated material, or maybe because he’s performing someone else’s act. He’s a likeably boyish performer, though, who amusingly captures that deer-in-the-headlights expression men assume when their wives ask for their opinions. “What kind of envelopes should we use for our wedding invitations?” “I don’t know … paper?”

Defending the Caveman appears constructed primarily for spouses on date night to nudge or glance pointedly at each other when a too-familiar detail comes up. Still, with tickets ranging from $35-$45 a pop, Defending the Caveman proves a bit steep for an evening that rehashes essentially the same gags you can see every week on CBS’ slobby Dad sitcoms.

curt.holman@creativeloafing.comDefending the Caveman plays through March 16 at the 14th Street Playhouse, 173 14th St. Thurs.-Fri., 8 p.m. Thurs.-Fri.; Sat., 5 and 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. $35-$45. 404-733-4750. www.woodruffcenter.org.??