TANNERSVILLE — Neil Simon's "Sunshine Boys" is a masterpiece. It is one of the handful of perfect scripts, but that does not mean it cannot be murdered in the presentation. That did not happen last night at the Maude Adams Theater. Gary Falk and Michael McDonald had chemistry as Al Lewis and Willie Clark. The audience laughed from the first sight gag, when Clark calls the "Spanish Kid" super to come to "fix the TV," and the "kid" tells him over the phone to make sure it is plugged in. He looks, plugs in the TV and tells the super on the phone "Plug?, it was something else, but I fixed it."
With a filmed performance by George Burns and Walter Mathau, it is tempting to play Burns and Mathau, but Falk and McDonald brought their own identities to these parts while basking in the writing that makes them tropes of that age in whose twilight I grew up backstage. Vaudeville created more than the tropes of the quack doctor, the girl on the corner, the drunk, it created a personality that these two local actors captured honestly. Director Jacob Shipley and Assistant Director Rachel Ekstrom let the script lead the evening, keeping the performance simple and true to the intention of Simon.
Not every setting of this brilliant show has done that in the past. How wrong things can go is exemplified by the Woody Allen/Peter Falk TV version of the play. With the plus of the script being updated by Neil Simon himself, and a remarkable cast, I remember my disappointment at seeing it in 1996. A great part of the misfire comes from the fact that vaudeville by itself is funny. The word evokes a frantic variety show full of hyperactive hams. As Neil Simon points out in the Sunshine Boys, certain things are funny in themselves, "Fifty-seven years in this business, you learn a few things. You know what words are funny and which words are not funny. Alka Seltzer is funny. You say 'Alka Seltzer' you get a laugh ... Words with 'K' in them are funny. Casey Stengel, that's a funny name. Robert Taylor is not funny. Cupcake is funny. Tomato is not funny. Cookie is funny. Cucumber is funny. Car keys. Cleveland ... Cleveland is funny. Maryland is not funny. Then, there's chicken. Chicken is funny. Pickle is funny. Cab is funny. Cockroach is funny – not if you get 'em, only if you say 'em." Vaudeville is funny, early TV simply isn't funny.
Thank God or Saint Ed Wynn, this production realized that Neil Simon got it right the first time. They present the play in all its pure honest hilarity. There can be danger in this. I wrote a review of a new Black Face play in which this racist trope was revived with no point to the context. I didn't like it. On the other hand, the trope of the sexualized nurse (expertly played by Lisa Harrow -Chodock) in Sunshine Boys does not need cleansing or softening. It is vital to show the world of these old men. This revelation begins with the brilliant line delivered by the character Al Lewis. His nephew and agent Ben, is explaining why various parts are not appropriate for his aging and forgetful uncle. " "Because the show is all Black and you're not Black." to which Al responds, "I did Black in 1928..." The context of the man from a world that has grown past him without his noticing is a vital part of the dialectic shift which is the core comic trigger in the play. It is what makes the past funny when some may find that aspect of the past less than funny.
The evening began with a rousing curtain speech by Amy Scheibe, who is a perfect example of what my father would drill into our theater staff, that theater is also a part of the hospitality industry. As creative director of the Maude Adams Theater Hub, executive director of the Catskill Mountain Foundation, and producer of the Sunshine Boys, Ms. Schiebe makes the audience feel welcomed into the theater and the evening's entertainment. In the curtain speech, she informs us that the coming season will include, "What the Constitution Means to Me." This timely Pulitzer Prize-nominated script will star Molly Gaebe and John Remington as well as a collection of young actors. In the Catskills, there will be performances at the following venues: Loomie's Luncheonette (Catskill) – Thursday, October 22 at 7:00 PM; The Pull (Stamford) – Friday, October 23 at 7:00 PM; Van Dusens (Lexington) – Sunday, October 25 at 7:00 PM; Mary O's Pub (New York City) – Tuesday, October 27 at 7:00 PM; Open Eye Theater (Margaretville) – Friday, October 30 at 7:00 PM; and the Athens Cultural Center (Athens) – Sunday, November 1 at 1:00. Importantly, the Maude Adams Theater Hub will bring this show to New York City. This is important for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to spread the word to the potential tourist community that there is theater and fine theater here in the mountains. It is a very good reason to go to these shows and not only show your support to a company that will bring economic uplift through tourism, but will provide you with that world of wonder that is live theater. There is a symbiosis between audience and performer that cannot be felt by film or TV. You feel the presence of the performer, and they feel your response. Live theater is just that, alive. And this production of the Sunshine Boys reached the hearts and minds, the souls of the audience present.
Rachel Ekstrom played the home care nurse with wonderful bored exasperation. In this production, Ben is played by Ian Gilmore, a senior at Hunter Tannersville High School. He has played a number of parts on stage, as he heads towards a goal of becoming an architect. I understand that is considered by most to be a good life plan. A life in theater, however, has its rewards. As a bartender you will learn to mix every drink in the American cocktail canon, learn to deal with couch surfing poverty and disappointment for the hope of being one of the chosen few who rise above the egos of critics to win one of the few trophies and make a good living actually acting. But, young Ian, take it a old fellow who was born in a trunk, and spent seventy some years in theater, who got a law degree for some reason, but never strayed far from the footlights, the roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd, never forget that when the insane notion takes you, there is always a home for you in that big dysfunctional family of theater. Here you can always come home again and be Al Lewis or Willie Clark.
