Theatreguide.London
www.theatreguide.london
The Theatreguide.London Review
In March 2020 the covid-19 epidemic
forced the closure of all British theatres. Some companies adapted
by putting archive recordings of past productions online, others
by streaming new shows. Until things return to normal we review
the experience of watching live theatre onscreen.
Act
One
Lincoln
Center and YouTube Summer 2020
American playwright-director
Moss Hart's partial autobiography was turned into a delightful stage play
by James Lapine and produced at New York's Lincoln Center in 2014. It was
recorded for broadcast on the American Public Television network and is
now streamed for home viewing.
Hart's story is of a poor boy
from Brooklyn introduced to the theatre by a star-struck aunt. Forced to
drop out of school, he fell into an office boy job for a third-rate
producer, wrote a play that actually got as far as an out-of-town tryout
before flopping, and wrote another play that came to the attention of a
real producer, who teamed him with established playwright George S.
Kaufman.
The writing, rewriting and
re-rewriting of Once In A Lifetime take up almost half the memoir and the
dramatisation, which ends on the opening night that would change Hart's
life. (Hart went on to a happy and successful career as both playwright –
The Man Who Came To Dinner – and director – My Fair Lady – before dying at
57.)
James Lapine's dramatisation
captures the happy atmosphere of can't-believe-his-own-luck that Hart put
into the memoir, making for thoroughly upbeat and entertaining viewing.
His mode is to have two
narrators, the older, reminiscing Hart played by Tony Shalhoub gradually
giving way as Santino Fontana's younger Hart takes over telling his own
story, injecting it with the excitement of
this-is-happening-to-me-as-I-speak.
In a delightful twist, the
elder narrator withdraws just as George S, Kaufman enters the story,
allowing Tony Shalhoub to play that role as well.
James Lapine serves as his
own director, and it is clearly his intention to present it all as a
larger-than-life adventure, with every actor encouraged to play broadly,
turning their characters into the hyper-real versions of themselves that a
young man might see or an older man remember.
As narrator, Tony Shalhoub's
mode is entirely presentational, as a genial tour guide to his character's
life, while as Kaufman he is a collection of tics, eccentricities and
obsessive-compulsive behaviours punctuated by surprising moments of
kindness and generosity to his overwhelmed collaborator.
Andrea Martin bravely plays a
trio of near-cartoon characters – the eccentric aunt, a pushy agent and
Kaufman's elegant wife – as near-cartoons, trusting us to discover that
she's not just overacting, but realistically acting a heightened memory.
There are also passing
appearances by such Broadway monsters as Jed Harris, Dorothy Parker,
Alexander Woolcott and Harpo Marx, each artfully sketched in as a young
man would see them.
Holding it all together is
Santino Fontana's wide-eyed innocent. Fontana has the difficult task of
anchoring the play in some kind of reality without being dull and
colourless compared to the rest, and he succeeds by creating a young Moss
Hart who is such an amiable and attractive guy that we wish the best for
him and take joy in all the good that comes his way.
The thoroughly professional television version – director Matthew Diamond – captures all the action and every nuance of performance, as well as a strong sense of being in the theatre.
Gerald Berkowitz
|
Receive
alerts
when we post new reviews
|