Theater Reviews

Sep 28, 2007 - "Fashion," a delightful old chestnut, is dusted off and polished up by Reno Little Theater

By Jack Neal

Thank heavens social climbing is still in fashion.

“Fashion,” Anna Cora Mowatt’s 1845 American farce about the foibles of mispronounced French and the indignities of high-society pretense, is being dusted off and polished up by Reno Little Theater. Amazingly, it works. It opened last Saturday (9/22/07) and it’s loaded with laughs.

In 2007, any play that places a man servant in black face as a legitimate harkening of yesteryear in New York can be in trouble. Once past the political correctness of the political incorrectness of it all (sadly, it was the way we were) part of the farce of “Fashion,” and the moral of its story, is how foolish social graces can be when they are little more than silly snobbery from those who know not what they do.

With those thoughts and a few more in mind, “Fashion” is off and running with a stable of characters too numerous to count. No reason to be offended by any of this nonsense, minstrelsy included, since all the players in Mowatt’s play are lightweight characters of fun.

As Mrs. Tiffany (after the now famed Tiffany’s which opened in 1837), a fabulously flighty Kathy Welch is the fluttering center of this concoction. She wants to be part of New York’s upper crust and she has the crust to do it. There isn’t a moment when Welch doesn’t shine as she slaughters her way through the French language in the name of elegance.

In this pot boiler of giggles, French maid Millinette, a convincingly conniving Theresa Gabrielli, is the pot that calls the kettle black. And that kettle, whom she knows all too well, is the fake French aristocrat Count Jolimaitre, brought to the RLT stage by a delightfully hammy Tommy Vereen. A cagey George Triplett scores as Zeke the footman. Both Terri Bortot, as Mrs. Tiffany’s dour sister Prudence, and Neil Brown, as Mrs. Tiffany’s worry-wart husband who puts his hand in the till to make ends meet, are traditionally played, straight-laced and apt. Daughter Seraphina is played by a cool-headed Hannah Davis who’s not about to be married off to a stuffed shirt, especially when the quality of the stuffing is in doubt. An assured Megan Fitzpatrick plays Snobson, Mr. Tiffany’s clerk, who knows what a hand-in-the-till looks like and how to make a fast buck in return.

Camille Abelow is Gertrude the governess who attempts to make sense out of all this nonsense and her attempt is fun to watch. Andrew Mowers creates an Adam Trueman who postures shamelessly from one moralistic pronouncement to another. What he has to say hangs over the proceedings like a vulture in waiting. If one can’t catch everything Mowers says – or anyone else for that matter – it doesn’t make any difference. The plot is predictable, the ending happy, and all the right people get together.

Also featured in this RLT outing are Ellen Reiterman, Michael Newton, Sam Coleman, Amanda Alvey, and Frank Franklin. All make solid contributions to “Fashion’s” fun and games.

Doug Mishler, assisted by Tom Briggs, has directed this smorgasbord of words and it’s brought off smashingly. Mishler and Briggs have designed the production’s sets. They’re attractive and allow the action to flow and flow it does. Mishler has done the show’s lovely lighting, and it’s lavish costumes creating a look that’s entirely pleasant to behold.

Reno Little Theater’s “Fashion” can be seen September 22, 28, 29, October 5 and 6 (2007) at 7:30 p.m., and September 30 and October 7 (2007) at 2 p.m. at Hug High School, 2880 Sutro Street, Reno, Nevada. Information at 775-329-0661 or online at renolittletheater.org.