|
||
|
Disclaimer:
The reviewers' opinions are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of TheatreLouisville.org. |
Peer Reviews Moon Over Buffalo By Ken Ludwig Reviewed by Craig Nolan Highley Entire contents copyright © 2008, Craig Nolan Highley. All rights reserved.
I've been working in the Louisville theatre scene for over ten years now, and while I know I'm not famous by any stretch of the word, and there are certainly many who are more talented than I am, I like to think that I'm not completely unknown. At the very least I expect to be remembered when I run across someone I have worked with in the past. At the end of the opening night performance of Bunbury's excellent production of Moon Over Buffalo, I discovered just how easy it is to be put in your place when you have such an attitude. After the curtain call I approached one of the actresses in the show, a very talented lady whom I've had the pleasure of working with before. I imagined I would speak to her, she would brighten with recognition, give me a hug and we would spend some time reminiscing and catching up on what we'd both been up to since last we'd met. It would be a wonderful, happy moment. So when I approached, I touched her arm and she turned to me. I congratulated her on an excellent performance in an excellent production. She smiled, shook my hand, and said to me: "Thank you, and I'm sorry, what is your name again?" I suppose I had that coming. It was a bracing moment, and one that could have happened to the characters in the play I had just seen. Moon Over Buffalo is a hilarious farce concerning George and Charlotte Hay, a pair of aging, husband-and-wife actors at a Buffalo theatre in 1953. Both are vain, in denial of their advancing years, and determined to leave the stage behind for a career in the movies. On an afternoon where everything goes wrong (temperamental actors quit, George's extramarital dalliances are discovered, etc.), it is revealed that none other than Frank Capra will be in today's audience. Ronald Coleman and Greer Garson have just dropped out of Capra's new movie, you see, and the famous director is considering George and Charlotte as replacements. That's the setup for a door-slamming stage farce, and Bunbury's cast pulls it off amazingly. This type of broad comedy is very easy to screw up if not done exactly right and with perfect timing, and they kept me cackling through every drunken rant and case of mistaken identity. By the time the doors started slamming and the actors were running breathlessly in and out of every stage entrance, I was laughing so hard I couldn't catch my breath! Perhaps buoyed by the exuberance the show instilled in me, I was not so easily put off when my fellow performer didn't recognize me. So when I told her my name, she smiled and said, "Oh, yes, sorry! I saw you in the audience and thought you were another guy I know, named Marty." "Not Feldman, I hope," I replied, thinking of the late, bug-eyed comedian and pleased at myself for my quick wit. "Oh, no, not Feldman," she answered, completely serious and missing my joke completely. Sigh, strike two. When Moon Over Buffalo opened on Broadway in 1995, it was notable as Carol Burnett's return to Broadway after a thirty-year hiatus. As Charlotte in the Bunbury production, Liz Vissing manages to evoke some of Burnett's hilarity and comic timing without resorting to imitation and makes the role her own. Likewise, Roger Fristoe brings tortured dignity to the role of George, and his portrayal is all the funnier for it. The rest of the cast is also spectacular. Katherine Mapother as the Hays' daughter Rosalind and Sean Childress as fellow actor Paul are the show's straight characters and bring a level of sanity to the proceedings. Ted Lesley, as Rosalind's clueless weatherman fiancé, steals every scene he's in. Olga Maria Cruz makes the most of her fleeting appearances as George's pregnant mistress Eileen, making what could have been a throwaway character memorable. And Bunbury regular Matt Orme is suitably sleazy as the Hays' lawyer and Charlotte's paramour, Richard. Juergen K. Tossmann's expert direction keeps the mayhem moving with no lulls in the action. Steve Woodring's set is a thing to behold, and works well in tandem with Cynthia H. Coomes' costume design to impressively evoke the period. About the only negative I could point out involved the stage telephone. Twice during the performance it kept ringing after an actor picked it up, which of course took me right out of the story. But that is a minor nitpick in an otherwise flawless production, and if I know stage directors, it won't happen again! So as for my reunion with my old theatre comrade, our conversation seemed to finally be back on track after the failed Marty Feldman joke. We laughed, we discussed the production, and then it was time to move on as another audience member wanted her attention. I excused myself to leave, to which she responded, "Okay, 'bye Marty!" and turned away. Oh well, at least I had the pleasure of seeing a wonderful production of a wonderful play!
Moon Over Buffalo
|
|