Christine Baranski (right) plays the lead in the Kennedy Center's production of "Mame." Harriet Harris (left) plays Vera Charles.

(photo: Joan Marcus)

SAUL ELKIN ON THE MEND

The heart of the theater community skipped a collective beat as word began to filter out that Saul Elkin, beloved founder of Shakespeare in Delaware Park and longtime member of the University at Buffalo theater faculty may have sustained a stroke. Word from the man himself, widely disseminated by email is: “It turns out I did in fact have a small stroke in a very vulnerable area of the brain, finally detected after a third MRI. Thankfully there have been no residual physical symptoms except great weariness…I am a little weak in the knees, and I have a ton of new pills…and I guess I’ve got to change my eating habits…and some other stuff…but onward…maybe one project at a time hereafter…more to follow…all my love, Saul.” The Jewish Repertory Theatre production of Old Wicked Songs, in which Saul was to star, has been postponed until next season.

CONRAD JOHN SCHUCK IN ANNIE

Continuing the theme of beloved Buffalonians, actor Conrad John Schuck is in town this week, starring as Daddy Warbucks in the national tour of Annie at Shea’s. Last in town to star in Mary Chase’s classic comedy, Harvey, at Studio Arena, Schuck’s father was formerly a professor at the University at Buffalo. The actor is best known for playing Sgt. Enright on television’s McMillan and Wife, starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James, and for his role in the film, M*A*S*H. He has played Daddy Warbucks before, including a stint on Broadway, and was Buffalo Bill opposite Reba McEntire on Broadway in Annie Get Your Gun. He also appeared with McEntire in the Carnegie Hall concert of South Pacific released on CD this spring. Schuck’s portrait hangs in the gallery of great Buffalo entertainers at Shea’s. Annie is at Shea’s through Sunday.

CHRISTINE BARANKSI IN MAME

No Buffalonian is more beloved than Christine Baranski, who is currently wowing audiences in a long anticipated and nearly sold-out run of Mame at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. One of the great Jerry Herman musicals, Mame was an early vehicle for Baranski, who played the role at Villa Maria Academy opposite Tom Owen when she was just a teenager. A revival or television version has often been discussed as a natural for Baranski, but talk has often revolved around her playing Mame’s tipsy bosom buddy, Vera Charles, opposite Cher or Streisand. Baranski has played her share of drunken best friends, and made it clear that she’d kind of like to play Mame herself! She’s taking full advantage of the opportunity at the Kennedy center, where she is incandescent as the Buffalonian Auntie whose credo is to live, live, LIVE!

Harriet Harris plays Vera Charles and Emily Skinner is Agnes Gooch, but Baranski is decidedly the center attraction. She sings the role commandingly, dances it winningly and nails the comedy like nobody else ever could. Her setup lines often get as much laughter as the punch lines, as when she misunderstands an invitation to play a round of Gin Rummy, or when she summons her Japanese houseboy, Ito. Just the name, “Ito,” becomes a memorable bit when executed with the comic genius of Christine Baranski.

The production falters in director Eric Schaeffer’s inability to overcome the shortcomings of the notoriously clunky Mame script. The action drops to a dull thud in between each scene and musical number with awkward inelegance. Produced on a regional theater schedule, however, the show had a lot stacked against it and still manages to be charming and wonderfully entertaining—and, of course, there’s Christine Baranski, who is perfection! For more information, see the Kennedy Center Web site at www.kennedy-center.org.

CLICK THIS :-)! AT ALLEYWAY’S MAIN STREET CABARET

Linda Stein stars in her autobiographical script, Click This :-)!, about her forays into the world of online dating, now at Alleyway Theatre. An engaging performer with a quick comic sense, Stein walks the familiar path of the lonely hearts monologue last traveled locally by Michele Ragusa in Studio Arena’s Bad Dates. The gimmick here is that Stein meets her string of losers by computer.

But the real theme of the play is not the heightened alienation that modern technology brings to the humiliation of dating. Rather, it is Stein’s terror that she is going to end her life as a cultural cliché, the desperate, lonely, Jewish girl who never got a guy to marry her, so starved for affection that she adopts a house full of cats.

And herein lies the twist.

It becomes clear, early on, that Linda Stein is no cliché. More than just a nice Jewish girl who can’t seem to find a nice boy—Jewish or otherwise—Stein is a funny, clever and abundantly sexual being who wants more from every aspect of her life. Libido drives her, but never leads her to happiness. In fact, her desire to be with somebody distracts her from what is best and most wonderful about herself, and soon the audience realizes, in a way what Stein’s onstage “Linda Stein” persona cannot, that she is going to be just fine.