THEATER REVIEW: 20TH CENTURY

Myrtle Clark (Beth Leckbee) in 20th Century.

Backward times

By Ed Rampell

There’s no reason to board a streamlined train and chug down (or rather up) to the Sierra Madre Playhouse to see 20^th Century – unless, that is, you relish experiencing laugh riots on the live stage. Bard Ken Ludwig’s adaptation of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s 1930s play and movie versions of 20^th Century retain the rat-a-tat repartee of this screwball script, while Michael Lorre’s adept direction maintains the comedy’s madcap pace.

Egomaniacal theatre impresario Oscar Jaffe faces personal and professional ruination -- unless the producer can persuade his ex, movie star Lily Garland, to return to the footlights on the Great White Way to play the lead in a Jaffe production. Oscar woos and wows Lily with promises of the greatest female role ever in a Broadway adaptation of the age-old “Passion Play” – which, the fading showman hopes, will restore both his show biz fortunes and relationship with Lily.

Unlike in the 1934 film version this entire theatrical production takes place aboard the fabled 20^th Century Limited train as it speeds from Chicago to New York’s Grand Central Station. Kudos to set designer Adam Smith, who has turned the Playhouse’s stage into the interior of a streamliner worthy of, well, the wealth of nations. A little motion, however, would enhance the illusion of being on a swiftly moving train, but that’s a mere quibble, as the set, with its luxury lounge, sleeping quarters, et al, is a co-star.

Arthur Hanket as imperious Oscar, however, is the first among equals in this ensemble cast composed of zany characters brought to life by zesty actors. With his wild grandiose mood swings and theatrical elocution, Hanket steals every scene he’s in. (In Charles Bruce Milholland’s source material, Oscar was reportedly inspired by producer David Belasco, the so-called “Bishop of Broadway.”) In Howard Hawks’ 1934 movie, John Barrymore portrayed Oscar, and hammy Hanket does the “Great Profile” proud.

As Lily Garland (uh, or is that the character’s real name?) Stephanie Hanket Erb holds her own in the role Carole Lombard immortalized onscreen. In his efforts to win the winsome actress who has gone Hollywood back to him and the legit stage, it’s no holds barred for Oscar. He discovered and knew Lily when, and holds this over her head with relish.

The rest of the ensemble cast keeps up with the leads’ onstage antics. In a dual role, Grant Bociocco depicts a female nurse and goes all Groucho as rival producer Max Jacobs. La-La-Land denizens are used to wannabe writer/ waiters with scripts in their pockets waiting to pounce on celebs and suits, but Barry Saltzman has a comic turn as an adulterous doctor, no less, aspiring to turn in the stethoscope for the stage. Another standout is Beth Leckbee as Myrtle Clark, who plays an atheist’s delight: A bible thumper running amok aboard the train who, like many religious zealots, is filled with delusions – which are only matched by Oscar’s Newt Gingrich-like delusions of grandeur.

This character and the “Passion Play” subtext, however, triggered a religious controversy and attempts at censoring the 1934 screen version. The Hays Office, which oversaw the then-recently enforced notorious Hollywood Production Code, was anxious about the show's implicit critique of Christianity. The Hays Office's Grand Inquisitor, Joseph Breen, was nervous that “there will be serious difficulty in inducing an anti-Semitic public to accept a [motion picture] play produced by an industry believed to be Jewish in which the ‘Passion Play’ is used for comedy purposes.”

Furthermore, the Clark character (male in the movie) is what we would today call a fundamentalist, evangelical Christian who ends up in a mental asylum. Interestingly, the only actor from the Broadway play who was also in the film’s cast was Etienne Girardot, who portrayed this proselytizer. Given the current brouhaha over religion -- from the Planned Parenthood dispute to the controversy between the Obama administration and Catholic hospitals over contraceptives -- this topic remains timely.

Another important point is that 20^th Century was co-written by a Jew, Ben Hecht, whose screen credits include the 1930s classics Scarface and Nothing Sacred. In 2009 I saw a remarkable play called The Accomplices about the FDR administration and American Jewry during the Holocaust, and while many closed their eyes, nobody else did more to raise the alarm about what was befalling European Jewry before the U.S. entered WWII than “premature antifascist” Hecht. This courageous playwright/screenwriter was the great American champion of the victims of the Shoah, who campaigned relentlessly on their behalf in the press and staged star studded mass fundraisers at venues (such as, I believe, Madison Square Garden), to rouse the conscience of Roosevelt and the world before it was “safe” to do so

20th Century runs through March 17 at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre, CA 91024. For tickets and info: (626)355-4318; www.SierraMadrePlayhouse.com.