Theatre in Review: My Girlfriend's Boyfriend (Barrow Street Theatre) Mike Birbiglia is never such good company as when he wanders off topic. My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, like his earlier piece, Sleepwalk With Me, has a definite throughline -- if only he could stick to it. The ostensible theme of the evening is his vexed relations with the opposite sex, but, in a show that could be titled But I Digress, he can't stop himself from wandering down various blind alleys, keeping us in stitches over the oddest things. The woolgathering starts even before the show begins; Birbiglia sets out to give us the standard message about shutting off our cell phones; instead he heads off on an extended, hilarious riff on the impossibility of getting any real help from one of the phone companies. (He envisions a staff of five trying to deal with 10,000 calls from distressed customers.) An account of a disastrous early date, which took place at a carnival, leads into an amusing meditation on the ride known as The Scrambler. (Hint: Don't ride it with a date after you've eaten epic amounts of junk food.) Another passage from his adolescence, recalling a relationship with an astonishingly duplicitous young lady - he describes it as "the romantic comedy version of The Usual Suspects" -- also contains a hair-raising description of "cattle call dances," where, in a ritual that makes Sadie Hawkins Day sound positively civilized, girls are bused in from all over to a school dance in a frantic effort to land boyfriends. More to the point, Birbiglia provides plenty of amusing details about his current romantic partner, a young woman who thinks she can travel internationally without a passport or driver's license, and who sends him around the bend by tabling any argument by announcing, "That's just how I feel." Whatever her eccentricities, she also has his number, and the last part of the show follows them as they stumble toward commitment, despite his obsession with -- another digression!- - a near-fatal traffic accident. Once again, Birbiglia demonstrates his gift for making the entire audience his confidante; he is never so funny as when, having gotten a gasp from the audience, he responds, sympathetically, "I know." Even when the subject matter turns wild and woolly, he seems incapable of pushing for a laugh. And, unlike John Leguizamo, he's content to sign off after 90 minutes, happily leaving us wanting more. Under Seth Barrish's guidance, My Girlfriend's Boyfriend has a number of pleasingly theatrical touches, including Beowulf Boritt's blackboard set, which is covered with scrawled chalk marks, and Aaron Copp's lighting, which subtly supports and highlights the text. There's nothing fancy here, just good, solid professional work. That comment could extend to Birbiglia himself, a true pro who treats a well-worn topic with such originality and insight that he wins us over without seeming to try. I hope that he has more chapters of his life to share with us -- I look forward to the digressions.--David Barbour 
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