Theater Reviews

Jun 18, 2007 - Heaven can‘t wait: Reno Little Theater‘s "Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar and Grille"

By By Jack Neal

Playwright Bruce Graham‘s 1980s serio-comedy about Cold War deaths caused by a nuclear explosion, "Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar and Grille," is about what might happen when one is (or isn‘t) blasted somewhere over the rainbow. But, alas, the vagueness of Graham‘s writing leaves meaning, other than laughs, up for grabs.

"Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar and Grille," currently being produced by the Reno Little Theater, opened Friday (6/15/07) at the Hug High Little Theater. The set is wonderfully evocative of what such a bar and grille should look like, the acting for the most part is solid, Gary Helmers‘ direction has pace and punch, and all the other production values surrounding the play (sound, lighting and costumes) are first-rate.

What doesn‘t work is the play itself. Graham‘s lines are often funny, his characters screwball enough to be interesting, but the long first-act setup for the arrival after intermission of what the play is about is a wait for revelation that never happens.

The town in which the action takes place is but a dent in the road somewhere in Pennsylvania. The world-threatening disaster surrounding the action seems to make little difference to the bartender, Shep (Kirk Gardner), or the mentally challenged gas-pump jockey, Roy (Doug Mishler), or Willy (Paul Dancer) the terrorist nut cake (and lousy ad for the NRA), or Bullard (Michael Peters) an MD who just happens to crash the scene, or Shirley (Ellen Reiterman) who has the hots for Shep (and most every guy she encounters), or Virginia (Lisa Caldwell) the PE teacher who actually does fall for Shep and he for her.

Along the way there‘s much good-natured banter, and Shep, we learn, is an amateur writer of sorts who is hoping to be published. Enter Joe (David Zybert) in an after-intermission appearance as God whose demeanor and words of wisdom are supposed to give the play direction and make some sense out of its flimsy premise. Unfortunately, by final curtain there‘s no there there (thank you Gertrude Stein). What one gets is what one has gotten.

Fortunately, the performances are close to first-rate community theater caliber and enough to keep an audience tentatively interested in the action. Gardner (Shep) is, much like his character, reliable (good ol‘ Shep), but not the reason most customers would frequent the Rainbow Bar and Grille. Dancer (Willy) is the kind of actor Michael Moore would give his eye teeth to use as an example of rifle rage in one of those documentaries of his. Peters (Doc Bullard) has the thankless task of making something out of the least colorful character on stage, but Peters is a master at making something out of very little.

Reiterman (Shirley) may not be the sex pot to end all sex pots, but she‘s an attractive enough actor to make her sex-kitten antics and other-woman behavior believable. Caldwell (Virginia) is not riveting (it‘s not her fault, it‘s the writing), but she makes Shep happy and that helps pass the time. Zybert (Joe) doesn‘t replace George Burns as God Most Lovable, but he does deliver with reasonable conviction Graham‘s litany on what‘s wrong with religion and how religion should be re-interpreted.

The class-act award for this production goes to Doug Mishler who makes Roy, the gas-pump jockey, terribly amusing, deftly philosophical and slightly touching. Mishler is magnetic, but never over plays. To his credit he‘s a team player all the way. Credit the remainder of the cast and director Gary Helmers for a glow that transcends the script.

For RLT‘s "Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar and Grille" divine intervention is more a matter of local involvement – an excellently presented interpretation, than of fabulously written prose.

"Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar and Grille" can be seen at the Hug High School Little Theater at the intersection North McCarran Boulevard and Sutro Street, Reno, Nevada, June 15, 16, 22, 23 (2007) at 8 p.m. and June 17 and 24 (2007) at 2 p.m. For information call 775-329-0661.