Peter Bergman Theater Reviews

“Noel Coward in Two Keys” by Noel Coward. Directed by Vivian Matalon. At Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stockbridge.

Playwright, composer and actor Sir Noel Coward undertook the journey of completion late in his life by writing three plays to facilitate his return to the London stage. The year was 1966, and his brand of sophistication was already outdated.
The young middle-aged man who wrote and performed in “Private Lives” 36 years earlier was now an old man, and he required a vehicle that would show him off, present his best side. He began with a long two-scene play that could easily be played as a two act vehicle, calling it “A Song at Twilight.” Not completely satisfied with it, he wrote a lighter, airier curtain raiser entitled “Come Into the Garden, Maude.” Still not where he wanted to be he composed a third play, “Shadows of the Evening.”
Now the show was too long, so he split it into consecutive evenings, appearing with Lilli Palmer and Irene Worth. Directed by Vivian Matalon, the shows played under the title “Suite in Three Keys,” and were well received, bringing about the revival of interest in Coward’s works after long years of neglect and a lot of sniggering by the young bucks of the British theater.
Coward died in 1973. The following year, his “Suite” plays were finally brought to Broadway, again directed by Matalon, but reduced to a single evening of two plays (“Shadows of the Evening” bit the dust). The shows in that 1974 New York production starred Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy and Ann Baxter. Flash forward to 2008 and here we are again, with Matalon bringing the “Two Keys” version to the Berkshire Theatre Festival to end the company’s 80th anniversary season.

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“The Sound of Music,” book by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein, II, music by Richard Rodgers. Directed by John Saunders. At the Mac Hadyn Theatre in Chatham, N.Y.

There is usually a simple answer to any question, a solution to any problem. For the Von Trapp family, the answer comes in the spritely package of novice nun Maria. Without batting an eyelash she gets the seven kids singing, the servants looking away and the father, a semi-retired captain in the Austrian navy, a widower with a bitter streak, strumming a guitar and developing his soft side. When the Nazis threaten their future Maria answers that challenge by taking her new family to the nuns who hide them and inspire them to "climb every mountain, ‘till they find their dream."
That dream, in case anyone didn’t know it, was to lead them to America where they opened a camp for music and became a successful, if quirky, folk-song-singing musical troupe. It would seem that the solution to the problem of how to focus on your future in show business is find a bunch of Nazis and a whole lot of nuns.
It’s really not that simple, although the musicalization of this story tends to put it that way. On stage at the Mac Haydn Theatre in Chatham, N.Y., a talented company makes it seem all that easy but you can tell from the hyperactivity in the blackouts that there’s a whole lot more going on.

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"Grease,” book, lyrics and music by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Directed by Artie D’Alessio. At the Theater Barn.

It seems that the most famous words ever to emerge from a Broadway musical, other than “Some Enchanted Evening you may meet a stranger” and perhaps “Oh, what a beautiful morning...” are “Rama lama lama, ka-dinga, ka ding-dong” and “Shoo-bop sha wadda-wadda, Yippity boom-de-boom.” Those last two phrases come from the musical now playing at the Theater Barn in New Lebanon, N.Y.: “Grease.”
Trying vainly to remember the original cast and the replacements in that remarkable long run the show had in 1972, long enough to replace all the Rodgers and Hammerstein shows as long-run winner, I went and looked them up. During that first New York run, not counting the revivals, the cast of the show included all of the following folks: Barry Bostwick, Jeff Conaway, Peter Gallagher, Patrick Swayze, Treat Williams, Adrian Zmed, and as their understudy Richard Gere, all in the pivotal male lead role of Danny Zuko. Betty Rizzo was played by Adrienne Barbeau and Judy Kaye, Kenickie by future director Jerry Zaks, Sandy, the heroine, by Carole Demas and Ilene Graff and others in the company included Tony winner Walter Bobbi, Kathi Moss, John Travolta (who later played Danny in the movie but in the play he was Doody), Walter Charles, Jamie Donnelly (who repeated her Jan in the film), Marilu Henner, David Paymer, Nicholas Wyman, and local “singing realtor” Alaina Warren.
It’s an impressive group of folks. Each in his or her way brought an electricity to their roles that helped to keep the show alive and well — and none of them were stars when they went into the show, unlike the major revivals of “Grease” in New York which have kept their efforts going only by bringing in large name stars who will draw an audience to anything they do, including reading a phone book.
At the Barn there are no stars, but there are a few young actors who might just make it up that wobbly ladder to fame and success.

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"See Rock City & Other Destinations," book and lyrics by Adam Mathias, music by Brad Alexander. Directed by Kevin Del Aguila.

"New" doesn’t come to mind. Sweet, fun, nicely done — those words apply when describing "See Rock City..." but not "new." Six musical sketches comprise this 93 minute review of quirky people in quirky places and a cast of seven talented players are performing it frequently on Barrington Stage Company’s second stage at the old VFW hall in Pittsfield.
The final entry in this year’s musical theater lab exposes some talented writers who seem to be caught in a rut left by the squealing tires of other, older musicals that often dealt with the same sorts of stories.

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"June Moon" by Ring Lardner and George S. Kaufman. Directed by Jesse Berger. At the Dorset Theatre Festival.

Innocence isn’t what it used to be, at least, I don’t think it is. In 1929, when George S. Kaufman worked with Ring Lardner to adapt his short story "Some Like ‘Em Cold" into a play, there were definitely innocent men and women, people who had no true comprehension of the world and what it contained. This play, one of the big hits of the 1929-1930 season with 273 performances, featured some very innocent types caught in a typical New York City trap from which it would seem there was no way out.
Of course, with true innocents, there is always a last minute realization and a loud questioning of morals. At least in a comedy — and that is what the Dorset Theatre Festival is presenting for its final entry of the season.

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“Home” by David Storey, directed by Joseph Hardy. At Williamstown Theatre Festival.

What do you expect the elderly, confined to a home, to talk about? That’s the crux of the issue here in David Storey’s 38-year-old play.
Two elderly gentlemen, Harry and Jack, meet in the garden of the complex in which they dwell, sit and talk incessantly, for more than half an hour, about almost nothing as they seemingly only half listen to each other. Non sequiturs fly, topics change and alter, disconnection seems to be the only thing they have in common. Ultimately they get up and leave, old friends, it would seem, out for a morning stroll. They are well-dressed — dapper actually — in that particular way that Englishmen seem to be able to pull off at age 75.
They are followed by two women named Marjorie and Kathleen, one with a noticeable limp, who take their place at the lawn furniture table and begin their conversation. Almost as disjointed as that of the men, but not quite, not ever quite, they discuss sexual libido and other subjects not usually on the table for women of a certain age. When the men join them, the conversation becomes both stilted and flirtatious. They go off for lunch. End of Act One.
Williamstown Theatre Festival is ending its very interesting summer season under Nicholas Martin’s new regime with this absurd piece of British theater. They have hired four brilliant actors to portray these somewhat peculiar, somewhat boring people, and brilliance combined with boring produces some brilliantly dull moments. Even so, you cannot help pay attention to what’s being said in this almost exclusively "talk" play because you are sure there’s something important about to be revealed. Ultimately, there it is.

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“Tilted House” by Susan Eve Haar. Directed by Linsay Firman. At Chester Theatre Company.

When a play throws around grandiose imagery in the mouths of folks who should know better, you know you’re in trouble. Clay, a youngish author, a Scots novelist with a sexy hankering for another man’s wife, tells her that when he sees her he becomes "composed entirely of yearnings." That happens in scene one after he enters her bedroom, barefoot, through her window, drink in hand.What follows is the usual seduction scene in which she shows little interest in him and then they are discovered by her husband, a man who hopes to become Clay’s editor.
Clearly there are a lot of "yearnings" at work here, especially when we can see that the wife isn’t particularly interested in the husband. What follows for two acts is a lot of literary, and literate, chatter.
Even when passions rear their ugly heads, they are referred to by the participants in passion’s play in the following manner: "Your body feels like an alternative universe," she says after sex. Later in the second act, she tells him that he has an "inability to adapt to the new." After two acts of this play, so do I, I fear.

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