Jeff, our illustrious hero, is not what you would call tailor made for reality television stardom.
He’s a philosophy wonk drifting around searching for a dissertation topic. When he finds one, it’s a subject he is more inclined to deride.
His girlfriend Tanya is the polar opposite. She adores the hit reality dating show “Nobody Loves You,” named after the cruel goodbye uttered at the casted-off loser at the end of each episode.
But instead of giving game shows a fair chance, Jeff’s derisive approach to trash TV ultimately loses him his girlfriend, and soon enough, his dignity.
He winds up on a TV dating show in an attempt to win Tanya back. He does indeed find a love connection, but not the one was expecting.
That’s the premise of the comedic musical “Nobody Loves You,” American Conservatory Theater’s latest production that plays at the Toni Rembe Theater in San Francisco through March 30.
The show by Itamar Moses (book) and Gaby Alter (music) serves up belly laughs galore, as well as some serious commentary.
Once upon a time, love blossomed when people searched for companionship in parks, dances or from chance encounters. Coffee shops, a nice dinner, maybe a late-night movie were common entries into a life of romantic substance with a discovered soul mate.
Nowadays, passions are often found on prime-time television. Tight camera shots focus on the scene as roses are dispersed and tears are shed for those watching from their living rooms. What’s even more fun are the roseless denizens, those pathetic folks who truly believed that they had found a connection unlike anything they’ve ever experienced. They’ll have plenty of time to reflect on what went wrong on their way to the airport.
There’s something about reality television dating shows that caught the eye of Moses and Alter, two friends who grew up together in Berkeley and whose fathers were professors at the University of California.
While reality television is the jumping off point, the show has much more to say about social media, the ease with which one can create a misleading narrative, and our societal role in filtering truths that may be unflattering.
“If you’re not on a television show, then you’re performing or creating a kind of narrative with social media and dating apps,” said Moses, who won the best book of a musical Tony Award for “The Band’s Visit” in 2018. “There’s a struggle for people to connect authentically within this kind of universe where there’s all this performance going on, so even though our show is set in a reality television world, it’s really about these bigger issues that everyone has.”
Despite engaging with his share of these reality shows, Alter doesn’t have a lot of attention span for them. Ironically, the shows weren’t even on his television much during the show’s world premiere at San Diego’s The Old Globe in 2012. He ultimately found his way towards some of the more popular titles in 2020.
“In those first years when we were writing I never really dove into a reality show, but probably during the pandemic, I watched a lot of ‘Love Island’ and a bunch of ‘90 Day Fiance,’” Alter said, “So I got a better sense of what’s going on and how they hook you. People act in very bizarre ways, and there does seem to be a lot at stake when they form these relationships on camera.”
Authenticity is a word that reality shows struggle to parallel with. Reality television often features subjects who could not be considered actors or performers, but the hook is how participants can be framed by slick editing to expose hard narratives about the subjects. Moses sees how heroes and villains are crafted by storytellers and producers, which isn’t unique to the most ancient components of theater arts.
“The concept of high or low entertainment isn’t alien to the theater,” Moses said. “If you go back to ancient Greek theater or Italian art forms like Commedia Dell’arte, they traffic in the same archetypes as reality television, and that’s why it works. Our show really leans into that.”
While the show admittedly takes a certain inspiration from “The Bachelor,” TV’s iconic dating show., Moses insists that their show is not solely a re-creation of the hit series. They’re aiming to make a bigger point with hefty laughs.
“Specifically, we invented a fake reality show that doesn’t exist, that is also completely heightened and absurd in the way that it turns up the dial on all the stuff these reality shows do,” Moses said. “I will say in the decades since we did the first production of the show, reality television has caught up to our imaginations in its absurdity, and it’s getting harder to stay ahead of the stuff.”
David John Chávez is chair of the American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association and a two-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (‘22-‘23); @davidjchavez.bsky.social.
‘NOBODY LOVES YOU’
By Itamar Moses and Gaby Alter, presented by American Conservatory Theater
Through: March 30
Where: Toni Rembe Theater, 450 Post St., San Francisco
Tickets: $25-$130; act-sf.org