This Neil Simon classic is the perfect way to end the weekend.
Produced by Stage Door Productions
Directed (and sponsored) by Kitt Murphy
Tickets available through August 11th
Oliver Wendell Holmes described the US Supreme Court as “nine scorpions in a bottle.” In Neil Simon’s play, this should read “Eight comedy writers plus one typist equals eight scorpions in a bottle and one confused typist.”
They come to work in order to live. And attack each other. However, this show works because each of the characters in the play secretly loves their writing partners better than they love their own lives outside the room on the 23rd floor.
It works because they are each other’s favorite audience. They engage each other in a constant battle of wits to impress their boss, the great comic showman Max Prince (Rae Ehlen)-who is based on Sid Caesar of “Your Show of Shows.” They live to make each other laugh and dare each other to laugh at the same time. First one who laughs, loses.
They face not only corporate indifference and interference from their bosses at NBC but also McCarthyism, jail sentences, and, even worse, not having an audience to entertain. Their comedy is their survival.
To make the performances work you need actors who can “forget” that they’re acting and just be their characters trying to impress each other and Max. When Stage Doors performers can do this (which happens just about all the time) their energy and drive makes real sense. This cast could just get by on sheer chutzpah and energy. The problem is that the script sometimes doesn’t give them support enough to keep the energy coming. This is clearly Neil Simon’s labor of love, but a play isn’t just about laughs. Exposition has to be as engaging as the action.
We see the scenes through the eyes of Lucas Brickman (Dawson Corneal), an up-and-coming script writer who’s just breaking into show biz. He’s a bit of a Max Prince fanboy. He’s articulate, smart, and slides easily into the office shenanigans that feed these relationships. At the beginning of a typical workday, one by one the coworkers are added into the mix: Milt Fields (Steve McCluskey), who reminded me of a more vulnerable Dan Fielding (remember “Night Court?”). He is a somewhat cynical battle hardened-veteran of the Great Wasteland. Val Slotsky (Ian-Andrew Cutler) is a Russian immigrant with a friendly, easy-going manner and an accent that won’t even let him say naughty words accurately. Brian Doyle (Roody Labaze) is Irish, an up and comer who is the most likely of the writers to succeed-he’s trying to leave the fold and grow his hair back.
(BTW, there are a LOT of naughty words.)
Mary Franks (Tammy Barboza) is a strong partner in the bullpen; frank, funny, and irrepressible. Carol Wyman sweeps onto the stage, the image of a tough woman in a tough business. Ira Stone, our final writer, shows up late. We learn that he always does-he likes to make an entrance and play a scene of his own creation. He’s hypochondriacally the focus of the scene he’s constantly writing for himself to star in. In the comedy game, Ira owns the world and everyone else is trying to horn in on the act. Helen (Alexandra Tugman or Cylie Robinson), as the typist and “girl Friday” for Max, is trying to keep up with the others but doesn’t quite get what comedy is for. This is sad because her dream is to write comedy.
The world is becoming a dangerous place for comedy at the opening of the show. The writers are nervous about being investigated by the HUAC, about the red scare, about how the show is going. Their lives are very precarious. They challenge each other, poke and prod at each other, ego-battle, and otherwise warm themselves up for the serious business of joke writing. As the play continues, there is a sense that they’re running through a work routine that primes them to create a work of comic genius.
Obviously, it’s a play and there are complications. Those complications, life issues, outside influences way out of their control, and work conditions slowly peel that cohesion apart. What happens to a network show when the network decides that it’s time to move on from that success?
Our first introduction to the group in the Stage Door production comes to us from the set. Taking up the whole stage space is an office with a coffee/hospitality station, a work table, uncomfortable (and very comfortable) chairs, two doors, and a window showing what might be the entire NYC skyline for 1953. Everything shows care and development. It’s a playground for adult kids and their dad, neutral and well planned.
Sound is clear and appropriate, well cued. The lighting works most of the time, although at times the reflections of the front light off the window coverings made it a little hard to concentrate on the actors’ faces in front of the windows.
The pacing of the show was intense. Neil Simon is like Gilbert and Sullivan’s song “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General” because you have to keep things fast and light because if you stop listening to think about what’s said your mind gets caught and you lose track of the through line from one message to another and then you laugh because something sounds like you should laugh at it and then you get stuck on that moment and then while you’re laughing you miss six words of the next line and then the next bit isn’t set in your mind before the punchline for the whole business gets delivered and…Well, it’s like a sentence with very little punctuation.
Not to say I wasn’t impressed by each and every individual performance. This was clearly a group of gifted actors given strong direction. Max, the leader of the pack and star of the show, has a delayed entrance. Ehlen’s delivery is like an intense New York jackhammer, all anxiety and drive. It’s a wonderful moment when the character is allowed to perform in a short reading of a script the group is working on. We see the comic genius that makes Max famous.
The writers are each a comic type in part because that is the role they play in their work persona. All form a really strong ensemble, which sets a high standard for each performance. Dawson’s Lucas has a very tough problem, as the new kid we hear his questions, but we really don’t get a strong glimpse of his character and opinions until very late in the script. Once we do it’s almost too late to go back and remember what we missed.
Contrasting this with both Carol and Mary: they are allowed from their first entrances to express opinions and speak directly without the ego sports that the males engage in. Barboza’s Mary is smart and blunt but clearly waiting for the correct moment for her comments to have an effect. She waits until her moment is right and cuts into the silliness with common sense. Jeffries’s Carol is politically aware and motivated, until a revelation late in the show allows her to give voice to what drives her toward comedy. She’s a swirl of energy and bright red lipstick. Even when she has longish sections of the script with little dialogue you’ll find her active listening drawing your focus. What she doesn’t say is as telling as what she does say. And a lot of what she doesn’t say is “Lord, what fools these fellows be.”
The remaining four writers reflect different points of view about success. You are left admiring their characters’ commitments to the personal goal of making funny happen. All of them appear to be immigrants, either recent (as are Brian and Val) or first or second generation ethnic types. To the actors and directors credits, they never force their characters into playing funny accents to get an easy laugh. Instead they throw themselves, emotionally and physically, into the inner life of the roles. Val is a recent Russian immigrant whose dialogue is written in dialect. Cutler’s interpretation of it is smart and humane. Val’s connection to his new culture is a challenge he’s happy to undertake.
Ryan is Irish, and is obstreperously given to the American dream of success in showbiz. Is he really as successful as all that? We don’t know for sure because no one else onstage ever seems to believe him. Since he’s a chain smoker and chronic cougher, I felt a little disappointed that we lost the cough almost as soon as it appeared. Still, a strong and energetic performance.
Milt seems to be trying to reinvent himself by constantly showing up in new clothing, as if he’s trying to costume himself outlandishly. There’s a moment of great irony when he has to borrow show costumes to make himself appear normal. The dynamic between Milt and Lucas is less antagonistic than some of the others which makes Milt seem the most empathetic of the writers.
Ira? Well, what can you say about a person who himself performs constantly as a part of a performance about a group of performers? Give him any audience and he’s unable to stop himself. Max enables him by never letting him stop. Ira is the most daring and naturally funny writer in the whole group. David Schubert’s manic interpretation energizes the room when he appears.
Simon has modeled the characters on real life colleagues writing “Your Show of Shows.” I’ll leave it to the internet to compare the reality of the show to the real world personalities. There are articles all over to argue who is who and how the characters reflect the real people. It’s a fun trivia game.
Will you enjoy the show? I believe you will, as much as the opening night audience did, and they laughed the whole time.
Dennis Wemm is a retired professor of theatre and communication, having taught and led both departments at Glenville State College for 34 years. In his off time he was president and sometimes Executive Director of the West Virginia Theatre Conference, secretary and president of the Southeastern Theatre Conference, and generally enjoyed a life in theatre..
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