THEATER REVIEW: THE SUNSHINE BOYS

Willie Clarke (Danny DeVito) and Al Lewis (Judd Hirsch) in The Sunshine Boys.

Tax/i-ng times

By Ed Rampell

The best thing about Center Theatre Group’s revival of Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys is its canny casting. At the heart of this comedy is the reunion of a hit vaudeville team, Lewis and Clark, who were  known during their 43 year-long run as “the Sunshine Boys,” haven’t performed together -- or seen one another -- for 11 years. It’s therefore a stroke of casting genius to reunite Danny DeVito (Willie Clark) and Judd Hirsch (Al Lewis) -- who co-starred in the beloved, long-running TV sitcom Taxi -- as the estranged vaudevillians. The problem is getting this divided duo back together again is more difficult than the reunification of North and South Korea.

Although I don’t think that DeVito and Hirsch had a rupture similar to that which led to the breakup of Lewis and Clark and their act, this production of The Sunshine Boys at the Ahmanson Theatre marks the first time they’ve worked together since Taxi rode off into the sunset of TV-land in 1983.

This is very much DeVito’s show, as Clark appears in more scenes and has more lines. He performs the schtick audiences have come to love and which he patented and perfected from 1978 to 1983 on ABC and in its final season on NBC as the opportunistic, irascible (and short!) taxi dispatcher, Louie De Palma. One could say that the flamboyant DeVito is playing a version of his screen persona, and he does so with verve and wit. There’s a hint of the reticent, morose, philosophical cabbie (and tall!) Alex Reiger in Hirsch’s portrayal of Lewis, but this seems to be more of depiction tailored specifically for the role Simon wrote.

Their onstage bickering, badgering and bantering is for the most part, amusing and it’s good to see these two old television favorites back together again. (Taxi alumna Marilu Henner and Rhea Perlman attended the premiere, as did Sunshine’s86-year-old bard himself, Neil Simon.) The playwright’s forte and specialty are love/hate relationships, as what is probably his biggest hit -- on the stage, big screen and little screen -- The Odd Couple and its various permutations attests to, as do Simon works such as 1977’s The Goodbye Girl, for which Richard Dreyfuss struck Oscar gold while the film received four other Academy Award noms, including for Best Picture, Simon for Best Writing and Marsha Mason for Best Actress.

The problem is, other than DeVito and Hirsch’s inspired casting, redolent of their offstage back story that mirrors the play’s reunification theme, this production of The Sunshine Boys has little else to commend it. The East Coast Jewish humor is very stale and dates back to 1972, when I saw it on Broadway with Jack Albertson. The opening night crowd at the Ahmanson laughed a lot, but your humble reviewer only smiled at around half the jokes and laughee out loud just a handful of times. Whereas in 1972, the play -- which is not updated -- did not strike me then as being passé and anachronistic, it does now. While the welcome mat is still out for Shakespeare’s far older comedies, this simple Simon play may have  worn out its welcome.

The play really comes alive when Lewis and Clark reteam and perform one of their old vaudeville routines, which within the play’s context they had probably premiered during the 1920s or 1930s. For some reason, the 1970s dialogue is far less funny than the humor from the much earlier period. The bit is enlivened by Annie Abrams’ leggy, busty Miss MacKintosh (get the apples reference?), although some might look askance at this caricature of a sexually attractive woman. With the jokes about the buxom blonde’s derriere and her skimpy outfit Miss MacKintosh might be more at home in a burlesque house or, perhaps, at the Spearmint Rhino, than on a vaudeville stage. Some may also feel that Johnnie Fiori’s turn as an African American nurse has stereotypical elements.

The sets by Hildegard Bechtler, which only change once in this two-acter, are likewise lackluster and Thea Sharrock’s direction is serviceable.


The Sunshine Boys runs through Nov. 3 at the Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90012. For more info: www.centertheatregroup.org/; 213-972-4400.

 

    

THEATER REVIEW: THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE

Mel Edison (Jason Alexander) in The Prisoner on Second Avenue.

A road of broken dreams

By Ed Rampell

I decided to take a break from all the political theater I’ve been reviewing lately and to go see some purely escapist entertainment, so I attended the premiere of The Prisoner of Second Avenue, a period piece set in early 1970s New York. I mean, it’s written by bourgeois lightweight Neil Simon and starring Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander; I’ll just be able to kick back, put my mind in neutral and laugh my head off. Right?

Wrong. On second look The Prisoner of Second Avenue is not only full of serious themes, but it has a political subtext. Alexander’s Mel Edison is one Manhattanite who doesn’t see the light. During the course of this play -- which premiered on Broadway back in 1971, starring Peter Falk, Lee Grant and Vincent Gardenia -- the Madison Avenue advertising executive suffers from insomnia, drinks too much, loses his job, has a nervous breakdown and needs a shrink. The romance has long left Mel’s marriage to Edna (Gina Hecht) behind, but what of the bond, the solidarity of their marital union? When his wife steps into the breach and becomes a secretary, Mel is only further diminished when the onetime housewife he supported turns into the family breadwinner.

Okay, it’s Simon, and most of this is played strictly for laughs, and these prisoners aren’t exactly storming the Bastille and Alexander is one of show biz’s best zinger slingers, and the award-winning Hecht, who’s also a sitcom veteran (Mork & Mindy, Seinfeld, HBO’s Hung), isn’t exactly a slouch in the one-liner department either. But during Mel’s extended period of unemployment he starts listening to talk radio and in one of the dramedy’s funniest and most harrowing scenes, this conned Edison delivers a rant on the “the conspiracy” aimed at eliminating the middle class.

Yes, the lines are droll and Alexander’s dead on delivery is high-larious, as is Edna’s reaction to her unraveling husband’s ravings. But on second thought, maybe Simon was onto something and had his pulse on the zeitgeist to come. The displacement of America’s white middle class (and middle aged) males by a confluence of forces – downsizing, outsourcing, feminism, gay lib, minority rights, the influx of immigrants, etc. – is now well-documented. Mel reveals what happened to the Mad Men after their heyday. This rage – which, as in Mel’s case is misguided, fuels and propels movements such as today’s Tea Party.

In Simon’s dramedy there’s much more comedy than drama, especially as the former finds lots of its laughs in the latter. Glenn Casale nimbly directs an expert ensemble cast that includes Ron Orbach as Mel’s more successful, but less beloved brother, Harry, and their trio of sisters – Carole Ita White as Jessie, Annie Korzen as Pearl, Deedee Rescher as Pauline. (The perils of Pauline?) Like Alexander and Hecht, their cast-mates skillfully pluck the humor out of the dialogue and situation with all the finesse of a humming bird extracting nectar from flowers. Simon provides lots of witty repartee here, ripostes ridiculing the American obsession with money and materialism. Orbach is especially touching as the wealthier, blustery brother who nevertheless envies the broken down Mel because he was the -- well, see it for yourself and find out what. 

The Prisoner of Second Avenue runs through May 15 at the El Portal Theatre, 5269 Lankershim Boulevard, North Hollywood., CA, 91601. For info: 866/811-4111;Prisoner.