March 10, 2011|By Kerry Reid, special to the Tribune
George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's 1939 comedy of bad manners, "The Man Who Came to Dinner," can make an ink-stained wretch of today feel nostalgic. Was there really a time when theater critics commanded international celebrity and influence — even with the denizens of small-town Ohio?
Mary Redmon's staging for Circle Theatre of this classic about Sheridan Whiteside, an acidic culture vulture waylaid at the Stanley family home in Mesalia, Ohio, after a fall on the ice who turns the household into a shambles (complete with cockroaches, penguins and the occasional showbiz eccentric), takes awhile to find its own feet. In part, that's because the script is peppered with jokes-of-yesterday that can cause contemporary audiences to scrunch their foreheads in puzzlement. (Heard any good ones about ZaSu Pitts lately? Exactly.)
But I'd also argue that, despite the stream of zingers and the fun of identifying the real-life parallels in the play (Whiteside is based on vinegary print-and-radio critic Alexander Woollcott, and Hollywood comedian Banjo is a hybrid of two Marxes — Groucho and Harpo), "The Man Who Came to Dinner" simply doesn't have the same staying power as Kaufman and Hart's other oft-produced comedy, "You Can't Take It With You."
The obvious affection the creators had for their eccentric Sycamore clan in that earlier play has soured considerably here (the Stanleys are mostly cardboard targets for the wacky show-folks), and the screwball plot feels more mechanical than organic.
But standout performances help carry the material in this production as it progresses, most notably Jon Steinhagen as Whiteside. If the character is all McNasty, all the time, this show quickly loses steam, but Steinhagen's peppery fussbudget, though he seems to have no end of self-dramatizing antics in his repertoire, also shows vital hints of a marshmallow center, particularly to his love-struck secretary, Maggie Cutler (Kieran Welsh-Phillips), and the young newspaperman/aspiring playwright she's fallen for. Add in some delicious over-the-top affectations from Heather Townsend as stage-and-screen diva Lorraine Sheldon and Jerry Bloom's double-duty turn as Noel Cowardesque Beverly Carlton and Banjo, and there's enough here to recommend it for Kaufman and Hart fans and newbies alike. Just pardon the dust on some of the one-liners.
ctc-live@tribune.com
When: Through April 3
Where: Circle Theatre,
1010 W. Madison St., Oak Park
Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Tickets: $20-$24 at 708-660-9540 or circle-theatre.org