Theater Restoration

But, not the way you think.

After my horrendous evening in NY's Hilton Theater last Wednesday, I needed the glory of playgoing to be reconciled in my mind pretty darn quickly. Between the mess on the "Young Frankenstein" stage and the tourist kunckleheads who now comprise the majority of the Broadway audience, I wanted to know that it was still safe to go back into a legitimate theater. It's the old equestrian adage. When you fall off a horse, you have to get right back on.

As fate would have it, my new steed would gallop by a few nights later. In a rather prescient move last Christmas, I had gifted my good friend, Mr. Anonymous, with tickets for LA's Reprise theater organization's staged reading of Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple." And, with the traditional "ticket rule" intact, I was treated to the second ticket. So, three nights after my NY Broadway sewer back-up and still juggling sinus infection-required dosages of antibiotics, saline spray, Sudafed, and cough syrup, I ventured out into the rain to see just how bad another production could be.

I lived and I will tell about it.

Reprise is one of those theater companies that takes old musicals and plays and gives them a semi-staged onceover. Usually, they're light on the production values and the sets are strictly Ikea. I've gone to a few of their shows and, generally, they are quite good. In light of the news that Jason Alexander is now the artistic director for Reprise, they decided to hold a two-night-only charity event to raise money for the future. And the gimmick would be a reunion of "The Producers" for the LA production of Mel Brooks' hit musical---Martin Short and Jason Alexander. Given I thought that Short/Alexander were a much better and focused pair compared to the Matthew Broderick/Nathan Lane coupling from NY. Later on, the latter two would do "The Odd Couple" on Broadway. I heard the results were horrible. I bought these tickets for Mr. Anonymous, expecting little.

I got a lot. Compared to the million dollar fireworks and sets that dominated "Young Frankenstein," the Reprise reading looked like it had a budget of about 15 dollars. There was a single door that was probably "borrowed" from the Warner Brothers prop department. There were two tables and a bunch of folding chairs perhaps left over from the bar mitzvah of Mr. Alexander's son. The way they made Oscar Madison's apartment messy was simply by spreading around the sections from Saturday's Los Angeles Times. The whole thing looked like it had been financed by your cheapest relative.

None of it mattered. Because, when you get right down to it, good theater is all about the performances. And the words on the page. No one has ever contested the brilliance of Neil Simon's original play. But, at this staged reading, it seemed all new. I knew the jokes that were coming, but the cast put their own unique spin on it, as if Neil Simon himself had phoned in new lines the day before. It was as fresh as it was originally produced on Broadway in 1965.

Over time, "Oscar" portrayers Walter Matthau and Jack Klugman have always made it seem like their character got all the funniest moments. But, with the chemistry they shared, Jason Alexander and Martin Short seemed to manage once again to re-focus their performances, so that they both had moments to shine. And Short's always welcome mugging had more than several opportunities to be displayed. They both made extremely smart choices in all their beats on Saturday night.

While the cast was completely "on book" and holding scripts in their hands, you almost didn't notice. They remarked that they had only rehearsed first last Thursday, I got the sense that the entire cast had been stewing their roles in their heads for several weeks. I saw better polish in this simple staged reading than I did in the entire two hours plus of "Young Frankenstein." The whole "Odd Couple" cast was top notch and I even enjoyed Patrick "Rules of Engagement" Warburton, one of the worst actors on TV today, as one of the poker players. If you can leave the theater liking an actor you normally despise, some real work has been accomplished.

In a sidelight, it was pouring rain the entire evening and intermission found most of the audience huddled outside under a couple of makeshift tents. As I eavesdropped on several conversations, I was surprised to hear several folks talking about how much the dialogue seemed to be lifted from the movie. Didn't they know that it was a play before it was a movie and a TV show? With this much audience stupidity about, had I suddenly been transported back to NY? But then I saw Jacqueline Bisset sipping a Diet Coke and that shook me back to West Coast reality. And, of course, you don't go to a theater in NY and see Eugene Levy cheering his SCTV buddy from the front row.

It was simple. It was professional. And it sure was welcome.

Theater was back in my good graces.

Dinner last night: Italian grinder sandwich.