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# ‘In The Wings’ flies high
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/in-the-wings-flies-high/
- Published: 2008-04-11T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T19:14:22.000Z
- Author: Cynthia Citron
- Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

A dazzling little jewel of a play has just begun its world premiere run at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks. “In The Wings,” written by veteran character actor Jerry Sroka, is a blatantly autobiographical squint at infertility and the toll it takes on a marriage and a 24/7 working relationship. It is also hilariously funny, brilliantly written, and beautifully acted. Let’s see if I can unravel its amazingly convoluted plot.

A play about a play, “In The Wings” is set on a tacky, undressed stage where a troop of actors is rehearsing a new production. Scheduled to open in less than two weeks, it is still being rewritten by the playwright/director, Sam (a rumpled and frazzled Daniel Hagen). His wife, Julie (an angry Annette Reid), who has been serving as the producer, has fired the lead actress and is taking over that role. (In a parallel universe, Sroka plays a supporting role in “In The Wings” while his real-life wife, the sparkling Mariette Hartley, is the actual producer).

Are you following me so far? As it turns out, Sam has written the play about the real dilemma he and Julie have gone through in five years of trying to conceive a baby. (A dilemma faced by Sroka and his first wife). Playing the hapless husband (the Sroka/Sam doppelganger) is Will Schaub, as Tony, the handsome hunk from the soap opera world who is, presumably, the “star attraction” and resident prima donna.

Greg Bryan plays the “six Jewish doctors” that Sam and Julie consult. (“Can’t I change the colors of my smock so you can tell them apart?” he whines). Sean Moran plays George, the Stage Manager, who fills in as the principals take turns leaving the stage in a huff, and has most of the funniest lines. Playwright Sroka plays Murray, Julie’s father. And Mariette Hartley plays everybody else. (She adroitly juggles the role of the actress Mary, plus two realtors, one of whom is an elderly German crone, the mother/mother-in-law of both Julie and Tony, a nurse, et al).

And rounding out this compelling cast is the terminally perky Liz Sroka (Jerry’s real-life daughter, who, by her presence, attests to the fact that Sroka and his first wife eventually overcame their fertility problems).

Don Eitner, who directs this uniformly excellent group, concentrates on timing and guarantees that the pacing never flags. Even in the dramatically intense scenes in which Tony and Julie (and Julie and Sam) deal with their marital disappointments.

I sincerely hope that my explanation of the relationships in this play have not confused you.

“In The Wings” will run Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. through May 11 at the Whitefire Theatre.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 11, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/041108.pdf?ref=smdp.com)