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On the Razzle
Reviewed by Neal Weaver
Theatre West
Through November 2
The name Johan Nestroy looms large in German-language theatre, but it probably doesn’t mean much to American theatre-goers, though perhaps it should: One of his plays, Einen Jux will er sich machen (He Wants to Go on a Spree), provided the basic plot for Thornton Wilder’s The Merchant of Yonkers, later developed into the hit comedy The Matchmaker, and finally into the musical Hello, Dolly! (The character of the wily matchmaker Dolly Levi was lifted, with embellishments, from Moliere’s The Miser.) More recently, British playwright Tom Stoppard wrote this free adaptation of the piece, garnished with his own brand of wit and wordplay.
In a suburb of Vienna, prosperous and pretentious grocer Herr Zangler (Andrew Walker) has his hands full. He’s planning to spirit away his daughter Marie (Chloe Rosenthal) to Vienna to separate her from her persistent but penniless suitor Sonders (Frank Gangarossa), and he’s also planning to go to Vienna himself to provide a birthday dinner for his fiancée, the milliner Madame Knorr (Cathy Diane Tomlin). Once Zangler has departed, his chief clerk Weinberl (Joey Jennings) and his apprentice Melchior (Jeanine Anderson in a bit of gender-blind casting) decide to take advantage of his absence to go on a spree of their own in the big city.
Once all the characters are on the loose in Vienna, Weinberl and Melchior are fearful of meeting up with their boss, and take refuge in Madame Knorr’s millinery shop, along with an attractive widow, Frau Fischer (Maria Kress). Before they know it, the two boys are inveigled into taking Madame Knorr and Frau Fischer to dinner at an expensive restaurant they can’t begin to afford. Soon all are involved in a series of disguises, mistaken identities, and chases, involving among others, an irascible Coachman (Donald Moore), the romantically inclined Miss Blumenbatt (Mary Garripoli), and her maid Lisette (Lindsay Jean Roetzel), who’s soon launched on an orgiastic encounter with the Coachman.
Director Peter Parkin gives the piece a brisk and inventive production, though occasionally the verbal wit gets swamped by the knockabout staging. Not all the actors can sustain the needed light touch, but they succeed often enough to keep the plot bubbling along. Joey Jennings provides a manic, stylized performance as the harried Weinberl, and Anderson is a physically exuberant Melchior. Maria Kress lends a note of breezy serenity to the proceedings as Frau Fischer, and Garripoli etches her two characters with a sure hand. Walker and Moore work a bit too hard, as Zangler and the Coachman, but Roetzel shines as the happily ravished maid Lisette.
Jeff G. Rack’s sets are clever and flexible, but a bit on the dark side—perhaps to avoid competing with Marjorie Vander Hoff’s colorful and stylish 19th Century costumes.
Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Boulevard West, Los Angeles. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun., 2 p.m. (323) 851-7977, https://www.theatrewest.org.
