The Marriage Zone
Press Contact:
Ken Werther, (213) 716-0878
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THE MARRIAGE ZONE – 905 Cole Theatre
By Discover Hollywood on August 1, 2025
“The Marriage Zone” – 905 Cole Avenue, Hollywood
July 27, 2025
By Chris Cassone cc@chriscassone.com
The first five minutes of The Marriage Zone feel like any number of marital comedies: Beth and Cal, a comfortably numb middle-aged couple, volley barbs back and forth so crisply you almost forget you’re in a theater. Their passive-aggressive digs—about throat clearing to fixing an uneven table—are pitched with such authentic resignation that I was ready to reach for my phone. Then the doorbell rings, the Twilight Zone chord hits, and suddenly their twenty-something selves crash the party to challenge every assumption they’ve made.
Writer-director Jeff Gould’s premise riffs on A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life—but without tinsel or sleigh bells. Here, Scrooge (Cal or Beth) meets their spirited younger selves and older selves who confront the wisdom (or lack thereof) of youth. We watch three iterations of the same couple—green, settled, and seasoned—spar over the timeless questions of passion, fidelity, and regret. From the playful flirtations of newly engaged love to the jaded survival tactics of old married life, the play dissects how choices echo across decades.
Middle-aged Beth and Cal (Kelly DeSarla and Anthony Backman) anchor the show with seasoned comic timing. Backman’s Cal is a walking sigh—part teddy bear, part curmudgeon—while DeSarla’s Beth flutters between exasperation and longing in a performance that balances humor with heartbreaking honesty. Their big revelation—when a sudden crisis peels back years of armor—lands with real emotional heft, transforming bickering into bonding in a heartbeat.
Young Ellie and Skip (Cassidy LeClair and Ben Scattone) burst onstage with a heady chemistry. LeClair’s Ellie is all bright eyes and bravado, while Scattone’s Skip is an eager romantic whose earnest declarations will have you reminiscing about your own first love. Their unabashed physicality—constant entwining of their loins, disappearing into the kitchen, and even more risqué moments—provides a delicious contrast to the buttoned-up restraint of the older pairs. When the middle-aged and elderly versions try to shut down that youthful exuberance, the resulting comic uproar is irresistible—and then, like a wave, nostalgia washes over everyone so that even the crankiest onstage can’t help but join in the yearning.
Elderly Liz and Mike (Tudi Roche and Corbin Timbrook) bookend the trio. Roche infuses Liz with world-weariness that tips into wry humor, while Timbrook’s Cal is a portrait of sweet resignation with a side of harrumpf. They mumble about creaky joints and “kids these days” until Gould’s script allows them a moment of epiphany: that life’s regrets are best tempered by forgiveness. Their slow-burn thaw—sparked by the exuberance of youth—is a testament to Gould’s knack for blending laugh-out-loud wit with genuine emotional stakes.
His rapid-fire dialogue crackles with pitch-perfect comedic beats. One highlight: as the three women descend on the eldest Mike, they deliver the show’s best punch line: “You’re breakin’ my balls—in 3D.” It’s so absurdly specific you’ll laugh long after you leave.
Under Gould’s confident direction, the pacing never stalls. Scene transitions flow with the ease of a dream, and the actors play off each other with a trust that feels lived-in rather than rehearsed. The audience response ranged from uproarious laughter to hushed sniffles—a testament to the play’s skillful blend of comedy and poignancy. Anthony Backman’s set—a monochrome living room bathed in muted greys and soft mauves—feels both timeless and surreal.
At roughly 75 minutes (no intermission), The Marriage Zone jets by with wit, heart, and a dash of cosmic irony. By the bows, you’ll find yourself reflecting on your own “zones of marriage,” wondering whether you’d take your younger or older self’s advice—or at least laugh if you tried.
Rating: 4½ stars
A clever, warm-hearted reminder that if we won’t learn from our elders and our youngers, we’re doomed to re-bicker the same old arguments—again and again- or never sustain the love you started out craving.
The Marriage Zone
By Samantha Simmonds-Ronceros -07/17/2025 (NOHOARTS)
[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of SkyPilot Theatre Company’s The Marriage Zone, written and directed by Jeff Gould, running July 12 – August 30.
I was able to see The Marriage Zone in a previous production a few years ago. I loved it then, and this new production by SkyPilot Theatre Company is every bit as brilliant, and perhaps a little bit more!
The story revolves around a middle-aged couple who have decided to sell their house. The wife is convinced that in order to give their underachieving teenage son every advantage, they must move to a better school district, which is, of course, in a more expensive area. Putting additional pressure on them both financially and emotionally. It’s a big deal and neither of them is handling it particularly well.
On the first morning of their open house, they hear a knock on the door while they are arguing about, well, everything. It’s a young couple recently engaged, and in spite of the awkwardness, they let them in to look around. The couple love the house and as they all sit and talk, they discover they have a lot in common. There is another knock at the door and an older couple ask if they might take a look around also, although not to buy, but because they used to live there.
As the story unfolds, there are more and more coincidences between them all. They all have the same names, met in the exact same way and it becomes obvious that something very strange is going on.
I don’t want to spoil the unraveling for you. Suffice it to say that you’ve never seen a play quite like this one. The Marriage Zone is very much akin to The Twilight Zone…spookiness and all. But like the classic show, there is a distinct point to all the drama. In our present time of hellish and unnerving uncertainty, searching for reason and meaning in our lives seems more important than ever. We love and we are full of stress and that’s about it, isn’t it? Striving for what we are told are the most important things, to excel, to be successful, to be admired, and to compare well to everyone else. To have everything we could ever need at our fingertips, including a perfect spouse to support our every whim. Whatever we are sold as a good life by ‘society’ is all very well, but are we really happy? And if we had the opportunity to do it all again…would we change anything? Or everything?
The Marriage Zone explores all of this with a cast who are able to effortlessly convince us that they are all versions of the same people without mimicry or fakery. They are all so excellent in their roles that we quickly believe the whole scenario and their troubles and their choices are our own.
I’m not certain, knowing the outcomes, that I would make the same choices I did when I was young. Who among us could say they really would? But then, is there anything that is certain in this world? Any guarantees for happiness or peace or love? Of course not. Although we all strive to find those exact things and wrap them up in money and cuteness.
What I loved the most about The Marriage Zone is its honesty. There are some moments in the play that took me by surprise and some that I nodded my head vigorously to. The characters are written very well. These are people I know, or maybe myself. And even though the premise is odd and weird and maybe more than a bit unbelievable, it seems utterly sane and very real because of the truly phenomenal actors and this poignant, moving writing.
I highly recommend The Marriage Zone. Funny, moving and thought provoking, but mostly it’s about how we love each other, why we bother and if it’s worth it…which I strongly believe that it is.
Tickets:
https://www.onstage411.com/newsite/show/play_info.asp?show_id=7369
Where:
905 Cole Ave, Los Angeles ,CA 90038
When:
July 12 – August 31
Saturday at 8pm | Sunday at 3pm
The Marriage Zone Cast
The cast will feature (in alphabetical order) Sean Babcock, Anthony Backman, Dylan Bowers, Amberlee Clark, Kelly DeSarla, Jacee Jule, Cassidy LeClair, Ian Nemser, Tudi Roche, Ben Scattone, Morry Schorr, Shelly Snellman, Corbin Timbrook, and Laura Walker.
The Team
Set design is by Anthony Backman, lighting design is by Selena Price, and sound design is by Tina Walsch. Shelby Janes produces for SkyPilot Theatre Company, and Morgan Benson is assistant producer. Press Representative: KEN WERTHER PUBLICITY.
The Marriage Zone Review – a Twilight Travelogue
July 13, 2025 Elaine Mura Entertainment (Splash Magazine)
Written and directed by Jeff Gould and produced by Shelby Janes, THE MARRIAGE ZONE is an uproarious tale about the stages of marital bliss – or otherwise – told by an author who clearly knows how to make – and keep making – people laugh until their sides split. The current show is the fourth in a series of Gould comedies exploring the dynamics of relationships between men and women (“Troubled Waters,” “It’s Just Sex,” “Is There Sex after Marriage,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Divorce,” and “Love, Sex, and Misery”). THE MARRIAGE ZONE takes an unexpected and fascinating twist in the war between the sexes.
Just about to enter middle age, Cal (Anthony Backman) and Beth (Kelly Desarla) are selling their house – even though Cal has some misgivings about the effects the move might have on their finances and stress levels. Enter Skip (Ben Scattone) and Ellie (Shelly Snellman), a rapturously in-love engaged couple who are in the market for their first home. To complete the sextet, Mike (Corbin Timbrook) and Liz (Tudi Roche) unexpectedly stop by to take a peek at the house, now on the market, where they began their married life years ago. The three couples really hit it off – until they begin to see parallels in their lives. Maybe too many parallels. Clearly far too many parallels.
Jeff Gould has an uncanny feel for how marriages may change over the years; he also has the unbridled talent to take these subtle changes and turn them into hysterical situations which mimic real life just a little too closely. Both his writing and his directing reflect these creative aptitudes, honed to a fine point in THE MARRIAGE ZONE.
The talented ensemble cast also has a handle on how to convey these rollicking happenings while constantly tickling the audience’s funny bones. The play is dual cast; the actors sited in the review are the cast members who performed on the night of the review. THE MARRIAGE ZONE is a marriage in two senses: it is a cunning cautionary tale about the institution of marriage, and it is also a marriage of very funny material and comedic acting to produce a brilliant whole. One audience member commented after the closing curtain, “That was really funny…and it was also so true.”
Andrew Backman’s set is simple but adequate – for it is the actors’ words and actions that draw the audience in. Selena Price’s lighting and Tina Walsch’s sound also play an important role in the proceedings as “twilighty” events begin to occur. The audience should remember that “You are traveling to another dimension: a dimension of sight and sound and imagination.” Rod Serling is probably smiling from somewhere up there as he watches the play – or perhaps we should say he’s chuckling, giggling, and even guffawing with gusto. If you’re into comedy, relationships, or just feel like thoroughly enjoying the evening, THE MARRIAGE ZONE is for you.
THE MARRIAGE ZONE runs through August 31, 2025, with performances at 8 p.m. on Saturdays and at 3 p.m. on Sundays. The Sky Pilot Theatre Company performs at 905 Cole Theatre, 905 Cole Avenue, Hollywood, CA 90038. Tickets are $40.
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