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Theaterweek

Christopher Brandjes and Dawn Woolacott in "Blithe Spirit"

BLITHE SPIRIT

Blithe Spirit, as performed by the Irish Classical Theatre Company, is the story of a rural physician’s wife named Mrs. Bradman, who has a fascination with the occult. When she is invited to a séance at the home of local novelist Charles Condomine, she is thrilled. Mrs. Bradman yearns for greater contact with “the other side” and has uncanny premonitions. She is, for instance, the first to notice the peculiar coincidence of two people in the household being mysteriously injured on the same day. Something more must be afoot!

This is, of course, not quite the play Noël Coward wrote.

Coward wrote a play about Charles Condomine, a novelist, who invites Madame Arcati, a vividly eccentric psychic, to the home he shares with his second wife, Ruth, in order to collect background for his next book. During the séance, Madame Arcati unwittingly conjures the ghost of Charles’ beautiful and outrageously spoiled first wife, Elvira. Hijinks ensue.

In Coward’s version, Mrs. Bradman is a minor character. Undertaken by a talent like Kathleen Betsko Yale in a production in which other roles are miscast, Mrs. Bradman becomes a force with which to reckon. Without ever overdoing her role or taking a misstep, Betsko Yale is able to squeeze the juice from even the most benign of lines. She creates a vivid and memorable personality. Her interactions with her husband, Dr. Bradman, played with almost equal agility by Gerry Maher, are priceless—as when husband is offered alcoholic beverages and wife, consistently, vetoes them.

Christian Brandjes and Kristen Tripp Kelley as Mr. and Mrs. Condomine rise to this same standard. Indeed, they hold the play together heroically.

Miscasting does diminish the evening, though by no means entirely. It is a talented crew, make no mistake. If the actors’ names were put in a cup, shaken and tossed out again, we might have theatrical Yahtzee. What we get is something rather less.

Attractive Dawn Woollacott, who plays Elvira, is an ingénue in search of her next career niche. She scored a bull’s eye in a former season with her fine dramatic performance as an attorney who gets involved too personally in Jesus Hopped the A Train at the New Phoenix Theatre. As the frivolous femme fatale in an urbane Noël Coward comedy, however, otherwise lovely Miss Woollacott comes across as mannered and is frankly outside her ectoplasmic element. She might have been lovely as Edith, the eager household servant with secrets of her own—though that role is ably handled by Susan Drozd.

Josephine Hogan, resident actress at the Irish Classical, often does eccentric characters to perfection. A resident artist, however, often must take on challenges that are not a perfect fit. Madame Arcati would be such a role for Hogan. Her interpretation, while game, is lacking in the pride and career ambition that drives the character. She is well-suited to the role of Ruth—again, already filled by the able Kelley.

The rest of the company must, more or less, navigate around the gaps. Luckily, they are quite adept. Add to that good fortune the fact that Coward’s play is a masterwork by a comic genius.

The verbal jousting between Brandjes and Kelley is great fun. Effective sound design by Tom Makar helps evokes the necessary magic, and we end the evening with our spirits decidedly higher.

BUFFALO MOVIE and

LOST IN HOLLYWOODLAND

While Blithe Spirit is held together by the power of Noël Coward’s writing and the talents of actors who are not uniformly well-suited to their roles, this week, two heroic casts buoy two Hollywood-oriented scripts aloft. The cast of Lost in Hollywoodland at the Alleyway Theatre and the cast of Buffalo Movie at Road Less Traveled never betray the slightest hint that either show might be a turkey. Far from it! In each case, we are treated to the sort of unbridled enthusiasm and “I love show business” bravura typically associated with blockbuster hits.

In fact, each of these shows does gobble a bit like holiday poultry, but each strives to make the occasion a comic holiday feast.

Buffalo Movie, the latest script by Jon Elston for Road Less Traveled, is all over the place. Overlong and unfocused, the comedy centers around a Buffalo film-maker and his screenwriter girlfriend, and their efforts to have a movie made in Buffalo. Enter a Buffalo-born Hollywood success, a local community leader and a star-struck waitress, and the farcical fun is supposed to begin. Sometimes it does.

Ultimately, we do not care much about the central couple. The more interesting character, played by Constance McEwen, is the ardent Buffalo booster and liaison to the film board, who develops the beginning of a relationship with the Hollywood director and, we quickly realize, has a sideline as a sniper who takes shots at people who embarrass or diminish her beloved city. This plot overtakes our interest, eclipsing the messy and petty foibles of the unlikely central couple with all their sitcom quirks. (Giving the screenwriter a day job as a cocktail waitress in a strip club gets old after its one and only chuckle.)

The cast, McEwen included, is uniformly excellent: David Oliver, Bob Grabowski, Bonnie Jean Taylor, Kathryn Hart and Lawrence Rowswell enthusiastically assay the material and do manage to lift it up to entertaining levels at regular intervals. The script, however, needs another draft or two.

Lost in Hollywoodland, on the other hand, is all about making a turkey of a movie on purpose. Here, a filmmaker makes a pact with the devil and sets out to make an Ed Wood-type film called Slug Queen of Uranus.

This show has book and lyrics by Alex Wexler, who was in town for a week to make cuts and changes; music by Bill Parsley; direction by Neal Radice; music direction by Michael Hake; and choreography by Carlos Jones. Again, a winning cast keeps material that is often one peg short of a Carol Burnett Show skit clicking along with enthusiasm. Seeing Tom Owen as the three-breasted slug queen is alone worth a visit. Christopher Parada and Jeffrey Coyle are marvelous as two Disney-esque evil sidekicks, and they perform Jones’ choreography with brilliance. Kim Piazza is in her comically deranged element and gets to wear great shoes. Casey Denton, Colleen Marcello and Roger Van Dette are all wonderful.

Various stage tricks—ghost gimmicks, hypnosis devices, etc.—are great fun, even and especially when they break down. The jokes will make you groan as often as laugh, but the show is entirely unpretentious and devised to delight. It often does. The show needs trimming, but it certainly trusts its comic impulses. I found myself laughing in despite myself and I certainly found the cast to be entirely appealing.

RAINBOW JOURNEY:

The Harold Arlen Story

Rainbow Journey: the Harold Arlen Story, at MusicalFare in Snyder, is chockablock full of great Harold Arlen tunes. We get “Over the Rainbow,” “Sleepin’ Bee,” “Stormy Weather”—it’s Harold Arlen heaven. It is not a great script. But we get sexy John Fredo, irresistible Kathy Weese, talented Todd Benzin, Doug Weyand, Joyce Carolyn and Norm Sham. And again, all those unforgettable Harold Arlen tunes. Add to that a gorgeous set by Chris Schenk. I’d rather not harp on the rest.