Solid cast, production keep the comedy in holiday classic
Director Jeanne Cairns has her hands full with Kaufman and Hart’s “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” a three-act satirical comedy being presented by American Repertory Theater of Western New York.
Cairns keeps the action moving. With a cast of 17, some in multiple roles and all kinds of kooky stage business, the feat is a marvel of logistics. It’s all in good fun — and seasonal too.
The play, written in 1939, is a classic. And while most viewers will feel “in” on the jokes, mayhem and occasionally mean-spirited merriment, depending on their generation, some may miss out on historic references and concepts.
The main character, Sheridan Whiteside, is based on drama critic and radio personality Alexander Woollcott. Woollcott was known for his acerbic wit and his fawning over/longing for celebrity. Kaufman and Hart ably demonstrate the crasser points of Woollcott’s larger-than-life personality.
Theater Review
“The Man Who Came to Dinner”
★★★
Presented by American Repertory Theater of Western New York through Dec. 21 in Theaterloft, 545 Elmwood Ave.
For more information, call 884-4858 or go to www.artofwny.com.
The back story finds Whiteside, played by Christopher Standart — well-cast, in a finely focused portrayal — in the midst of a pre-Christmas speaking tour.
In Mesalia, Ohio, he has been “cajoled and badgered” by Mrs. Stanley (Kathleen Bestko Yale) to have dinner at her family’s home. As the matriarch of the well-to-do yet provincial family, Bestko Yale seemed slightly adrift. And the casting of Ronald J. Leonardi, who appears to be several decades younger than her, as her husband, the gruff Mr. Stanley, was disconcerting.
Unfortunately, the story goes, the revered Whiteside slips and hurts himself on the Stanleys’ doorstep. Somehow he ends up convalescing at their home for a month.
The action begins with the household excitedly agog; their celebrity invalid is finally emerging (he was sequestered in their library, regaining his strength). They go from elation to misery in two minutes; Whiteside rudely harangues the family, instructing them not to use their telephone, dining room or front door.
Complications ensue when Whiteside’s secretary, Maggie Cutler (the lovely and effective Kelly Ferguson Moore) falls in love with a local man and threatens to quit her job. In a nutshell, Whiteside’s desire to stop this from happening is the motivation for the rest of the plot.
Additional storylines abound, many offshoots of Whiteside’s self-centeredness. He plans to poach the Stanleys’ servants, encourages their children to run away, ensnares the goofy town doctor (Jim Maloy, eyeballs a-buggin’) in his plot and abuses his nurse.
The cast is a mixed bag, the actors varying from veteran to newbie. Local favorite Lisa Ludwig Kramer is perfectly overdone as cloying actress Lorraine Sheldon, maximizing her womanly wiles. Doug Crane is terrific in a brief turn as Beverly Carlton, a Noel Coward-based character. Handsome and confident, his recent return to Buffalo, mentioned in the program notes, is good news.
This play is still vital and applicable, and the production is entertaining. Even though technology and culture have changed, people have not. Their venal (and often funny) motivations, the use of Christmas as a setting and the eventual comeuppance of deserving characters are all quite satisfying.
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