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Jellison plays Steve Gallop, a down-on-his-luck producer in search of a show to produce. At the suggestion of theatre columnist Randi Lester (Bonnie Comley), he decides to produce a musical based on the life of Frank Sinatra. The mob, in the form of Joey Fingers (William Marshall Miller), gets involved, and cliches and implausibilities (and a Swedish lumberjack) abound.
The authors of this "play" are Stewart F. Lane and Ward Morehouse III. Lane is a producer, Morehouse a former theatre columnist. Forget the ridiculous story and the plot holes large enough to drive a Buick through, the scariest thought you have while watching If It Was Easy... is, "It took two people to write
Would-be jokes are telegraphed obviously ages in advance. The second that Gallop comments about his closet door having a tendency to get stuck, it's evident that someone will get trapped inside. Not long after his new secretary (Vicki Van Tassel) announces that she's from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, there's a couple of lousy gags about the Amish. And the title, which is grammatically incorrect for no good reason (it comes from Gallop's commenting, about producing Broadway shows, that "if it was easy, anyone would do it;" Lester immediately corrects him (it should be "if it were easy"), and that's the end of that.
Jellison, as mentioned, comes off as a likable guy trying desperately to patch the holes in a sinking boat; unfortunately, this is no dinghy —this is the Titanic. Miller and Van Tassel at least come off as attempting (and failing) to overcome their material. Then there's Comley. She demonstrates a complete lack of talent, speaking every line (the funny, the sad, the wistful, the ridiculous) with the exact same intonation.
Lane also directed, unfortunately; his skill in that area is about as equal to his talent with a pen, which is to say nonexistent. Michael Anania's single set (Gallop's office) is passable, the highlight being several comedic fake window cards hanging on the wall (among others, Gallop seems to have produced a play entitled Yellow Gunmarine). Steven Epstein's costumes and Phil Monat's lighting leave no impression.
Perhaps the strangest thing was noticing just how surprisingly full the audience was, and then noticing how almost nobody left during intermission. The response at the end simply wasn't; everyone must have stayed to see just how much worse things could get after the break. The answer is quite a bit. If It Was Easy... starts below ground level and digs, digs, digs. Maybe Lane and Morehouse thought that, if they went far enough down, they'd strike oil. They haven't.
If It Was Easy . . .
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