Timothy Willard and Fox Carney (Photo by Doug Engalla)
Reviewed by Martίn Hernández
The Group Rep
Through October 15
In 1937, playwrights John Murray and Allen Boretz scored a Broadway hit with this comic tale about the antics of a broke theatrical producer and his cronies as they scheme to find financing for their latest production. The play spawned a 1938 Marx Brothers’ movie and the 1944 Frank Sinatra musical “Step Lively”.
Try as they might, director Mareli Mitchel-Shields and her earnest cast can’t quite breathe new life into this chestnut. The play calls for a snappy pace and over-the-top performances, both of which are inconsistent in this production. Gags run out of steam, jokes about old Broadway luminaries go over folks’ heads, and the three-act structure may strain the patience of a contemporary audience, despite some engaging entr’acte vocalizing.
Deadbeat Manhattan theater producer Gordon Miller (Will Maizel) desperately needs a backer for his latest show, an American historical epic entitled God Speed. Miller so far has conned his way out of paying the rising hotel costs for himself and his cast and crew, thanks to exploiting the good will of hotel manager – and brother-in-law – Joseph Gribble (Tommy Jacobs), as well as his own exceptional talent for deception. Confounding matters are the arrivals of Gribble’s boss Gregory Wagner (Joe Eastburn), out to cut costs, and Leo Davis (Timothy Willard), the play’s naïve author who might switch producers unless he gets his next contracted advance payment from Miller.
Miller, his director Harry Binion (Sam Logan), and his assistant Faker England (Matthew McLaughlin), decide to skip out on the hotel bill. But when Christine Marlowe (Jackie Shearn), an actress in the show, finds a potential sponsor, Miller and his minions jump into action with increasingly outlandish plots to keep the show afloat and continue their stay in their luxurious lodgings.
Certain performances, such as Logan’s eccentric Binion, Chris Winfield’s Russian émigré waiter/actor, and the coy encounters off Willard’s Davis and Jessica Kant’s demure hotel secretary Hilda, add some comic flair. Mitchel-Shield’s choice to have performers deliver old show tunes while changing scenery adds to the production’s length but they are inventive (especially the one involving bananas) and well-voiced. Winfield also served as the designer of a standout art deco hotel suite that expertly depicts the period.
The Group Rep, Lonny Chapman Theatre. Fri.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 2 pm; thru Oct. 15. https://theGROUPrep.com Running time: two hours and 30 minutes, including two fifteen-minute intermissions.
