BECK stages Neil Simon’s comic THE SUNSHINE BOYS

 

Broadway Theatre, from the mid-1950s through almost the end of the 1960s, went through a period in which the values, morals and attitudes of the post-World War II population were examined.  
 
Dramas by such luminaries as Arthur Miller, who asked, What is the best way to live?” in his  DEATH OF A SALESMAN, THE CRUCIBLE and ALL MY SONS. Tennessee Williams probed, “What is it like to live in a society that doesn’t understand you and you don’t understand it? in STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and GLASS MENAGERIE.  While, William Inge whose solitary protagonists were encumbered with strained sexual relations asked, “What are our hidden secrets?” in DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS, PICNIC and BUS STOP.
 
Neil Simon emerged as one of the most popular playwrights with his comedy scripts.
 
Simon was New York through-and-through.  He was born there (1927), lived his life and died (2018) in the area, and based most of his plays in Big Apple. 
 
His life was filled with conflict.  His parents fought a great deal and his own marriage was filled with angst.  In fact, he “blamed” his writing style on this.  He once said, “I think part of what made me a comedy writer is the blocking out of some of the really ugly, painful things in my childhood and covering it up with a humorous attitude ... do something to laugh at until I was able to forget why I was hurting.”
 
His productivity and success were unrivaled.  He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays.  He won a Pulitzer Prize, had 17 Tony nominations, four Tony Awards and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for four Academy Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards.   
 
In 1966, he had four successful productions running on Broadway at the same time and, in 1983, he became the only living playwright to have a New York theatre, the Neil Simon Theatre named in his honor. 
 
His play, The Sunshine Boys, now on stage at Beck Center, opened in 1972 and starred Jack Alberton and Sam Levine.  It was met with strong positive reviews.
 
The script’s protagonists, Al Lewis and Willie Clark (supposedly based on the real-life team of Gallagher and Shean), were once a major vaudeville comedy duo known as the Sunshine Boys. 
 
Their 43-year run was filled with conflict and when it ended, with Al retiring from show business, leaving Willie, bitter and frustrated.  The duo stopped speaking to each other.
 
It’s now eleven years later and we find Willie, struggling with memory loss living alone in the same apartment he had occupied most of his marriage-less life, being cared after by his nephew and “agent,” Ben.  
 
CBS wants the Lewis and Clark duo to recreate their famous “The Doctor Will See You” sketch as part of their history of comedy special.  This, of course, would require the cranky old men to speak to each other.  
 
When they reluctantly meet to rehearse, the reunion goes badly with the “boys” entering into heated arguments over the words they will use, the arrangement of the furniture, and the elimination of chest poking and spitted out words which started with a “t.”
 
The conflicts continue in the television studio.  
 
The ending--this is a comedy which requires that it have a happy ending--is endearing!
 
It is eye-opening that almost all of the famous comic vaudeville duos, such as Abbot and Costello, Gallagher and Sheen, Martin and Lewis, and Smith and Dale, all had tumultuous endings.

Beck’s production, under the direction of William Roudebush, works adequately well.  For this play to succeed requires that the audience warm up to the duo as, underneath their bluster, each is a teddy bear and that the comedy sketch be done with raucous abandonment, bridging on farce.

Doing Borscht Belt comedy is difficult, almost impossible for modern day actors.  It is not their fault.  It takes years to hone the skills of listening, reacting and recreating movements that bring the needed laughs.  That type of vaudeville is not something that someone who has not observed and practiced for years, can accomplish.

Rohn Thomas succeeds in making Al Lewis loveable, but Alan Safier’s Willie is sometimes so over-done that he becomes irritating and we lose our “love” for him.  

They try hard in the “The Doctor is In,” skit, but just don’t produce the perfection of farce comedy needed.  Not bad, (drum roll) but just not quite good enough.

Carolyn Demanelis is physically right for the role of the zaftig Vaudeville Nurse and Joyce Bell Linzy adds delight as the sarcastic Registered Nurse.

Capsule judgment:  It is enjoyable when a theatre reprises a Neal Simon comedy.  THE SUNSHINE BOYS, because of the requirement of enacting the classic comic routine is probably the most difficult Simon play to stage well.  The cast and crew give full effort, but don’t completely hit the bullseye!

THE SUNSHINE BOYS runs through October 6, 2024 at the Senney Theatre in the Beck Center of the Arts Complex.  For tickets call 216-521-2540 or go to beckcenter.org
 

Beautifully crafted script and production makes A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE a must see!

 

The post-World War II-era centered on the changes of, among other factors, the application of psychological principles to examine the happenings of the day.   Arthur Miller, William Inge and Tennessee Williams are considered to be the leading playwrights of that, the modern American era of theater.     Miller, who is the author of A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, which is now in production at Cain Park’s Alma Theatre, is noted for asking, in his scripts, “Is this the best way to live?”   In the case of VIEW, Miller’s dramatic tale examines such matters as difficult relationships, family honor, fear of loss, personal pride, forbidden love, assimilation and how justice and law often collide.  In the end, Miller seems to conclude that Eddie, the story’s protagonist, meets his end, being killed by his own knife, as a metaphor for his self-inflicted personal moral and ethical fall.   In examining the play, the writer’s own life may be the real topic.  “Miller was called to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee to name names of communist sympathizers in 1956, the height of the McCarthy Era. Miller refused to do so and was heralded by the arts community for his strength of conviction and loyalty.”   Miller, like Eddie Carbone, was faced with the problem of choosing how to live his life and affirm or reject his value system.   “Unlike Eddie Carbone, Miller chose to be loyal to his fellow artists, but like Carbone, Miller went against the cultural consensus at the time. Miller, in the play, chose to script a community that accepted and protected unlawful people. The consequences and eventual repercussions of naming names, for Eddie Carbone, are drastic.”    Miller used this play to strongly condemn the McCarthy trials and those who named the names of fellow artists.   This is not the only play in which Miller takes on the ethics of McCarthy and his committee.  In THE CRUCIBLE, which is being staged at Blank Canvas Theater, on Cleveland’s near west side, the topic of witch-hunting takes center stage, and much like A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, Miller points the accusing finger at the perpetuator of “evil” and comes to the conclusion that the action of the witch hunters and McCarthy, was and is not the best way to live. The story in A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE is narrated by Alfieri, who was raised in Italy, but is now working as an American lawyer.  Acting as our guide and commentator, much like a Greek chorus, he represents the “bridge” between the Italian and cultures of that era. The plot centers around the Carbone family – Eddie, his wife Beatrice and their niece Catherine. The family is awaiting the arrival from Sicily of Beatrice’s cousins Marco and Rodolpho, who have entered the country illegally.    The cousins arrive. Catherine and Rodolpho are attracted to each other, which annoys Eddi, who has feelings for Catherine.   Jealous Eddie finds more and more things to dislike about Rodolpho as the young couple grow closer.  When the duo decides to get married, Eddie reports the cousins as illegal immigrants. This makes his family and all the neighbors hate Eddie.  Marco and Eddie fight. Marco uses Eddie’s knife to stab him. Eddie dies.   The Cain Park production, under the wise guidance of director Celeste Cosentino, is compelling.  It is well-staged, the concepts clear, and the acting generally top-notch.     Dan Zalevsky gives full life to the role of Eddie.  Eddie lives through Zalevsky’s clear character development and concentration on being, not acting.   Ursula Cataan creates a Beatrice who is both sensitive and aware of her limitations and her role as “wife” to Eddie.   Arianna Starkman matures as a character as Catherine faces the reality of becoming a woman, rather than a girl.   Abraham McNeil Adams well-portrays Alfieri, our guide and commentator.   Santino Montanez sizzles in the final scenes, as his role as family member and provider is spotlighted.   Be aware that the tented Alma theatre has no hard walls. The ambient sounds of street noise, wailing ambulances and revved-up motorcycles, the size of the stage which hinders actor projection to all parts of the small auditorium, plus the necessary Italian accents, all blend to wipe out some speeches.    Capsule judgment:  A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE is a powerful and meaningful play that gets a fine production.  This is an absolutely must-see for any serious theater-aficionado.   A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE runs through September 15th.  For tickets call 216-371-3000 or go online towww.cainpark.com