Theater Reviews

Oct 4, 2008 - The Reno Little Theater's hectic romp through the backstage zaniness of "Moon Over Buffalo"

By Jack Neal

The title, “Moon Over Buffalo,” may be the funniest thing this backstage farce has going for it. Regardless, it’s an old-fashioned, knock-about farce and that’s something to be cherished.

Reno Little Theater opened its 73rd season Friday (9/26/08) at Hug High School’s Little Theater with “Moon Over Buffalo,” a vehicle that harkens back in time to RLT’s opening season for its zany humor. If “Moon Over Buffalo” seems a tad over-the-hill, at least it wallows in nostalgia for theater of Broadway’s golden era.

Playwright Kenneth Ludwig is obsessed with ‘30s and ‘40s movie director Frank Capra. In “Moon” Ludwig has Capra coming to Buffalo to see the on-stage work of has-been actress, Charlotte Hay, and her scoundrel actor-husband, George Hay. The couple is appearing in Edmond Rostand’s “Cyrano de Bergerac” and Noel Coward’s “Private Lives,” two once wonderful plays (until now), they and their second-rate company of five are playing in repertory. Capra is interested in George’s work because Ronald Colman is out of commission and George, if all goes well, is in line to be signed as his replacement in Capra’s new movie, “The Twilight of the Scarlet Pimpernel.”

One of the problems, of many, is that there’s confusion about which play, “Cyrano” or “Private Lives,” is being done and when. Things get mixed up – on stage and off. There are long episodes of drunkenness for George, and the accompanying sight gags that go with that once funny, now less funny behavior. There are much catch-me-if-you-can sexual shenanigans. There are new affairs. Once dead affairs, bloom again. There is, when all else begins to sag, mistaken identity.

The plot doesn’t just thicken, it pot boils.

Charlotte recalls her glory days at MGM, when she played an inarticulate squaw on one sound stage while next door Greer Garson emoted as Elizabeth Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice.” While Charlotte longs for a return to the silver screen, George has a torrid affair with their troupe’s ingénue – and, she’s pregnant.

“Moon Over Buffalo” is being given the over-the-top treatment by director Doug Mishler. Overplaying the play is exactly what it needs. Reminiscent of the hilarity in Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman’s “You Can’t Take it With You,” “Moon” reaches for funny without the innate wit prevalent in the Hart-Kaufman play. So give it the old high-school try, as Mishler’s cast does, and there are lots of laughs only broad farce provides.

As the fading actress Charlotte Hay, a role Carol Burnett could not turn into a long run on Broadway, Susanne Schweitzer makes the part her own, then works it to her advantage. Kevin Molina plays opposite Schweitzer as her mostly drunk husband and inept co-star, George Hay. Given the battering sight gags Molina brings off with damn-the-torpedoes abandon, “Moon Over Buffalo” - if nothing else - is a survival comedy worth seeing in troubled times. Particularly noteworthy in the confusion is Kristen Davis-Coelho as Ethel, Charlotte’s stone-deaf mother. It’s a chestnut role Davis-Coelho obviously relishes, as does the audience.

Also providing strong support is a cast of energetic farceurs trying desperately to make finished what playwright Ludwig has not been able to wrap up. Rachel Sliker is Rosalind, Charlotte and George’s daughter. Zachary L.J. Bortot plays Paul the stage manager who loves Rosalind and she him. Ryan Madison plays Howard the TV weatherman Charlotte mistakes for Capra. Ashley Horan is Eileen the ingénue that’s magna cum baby. Dave Martens is Paul, Charlotte and George’s hapless lawyer. It’s a triumphant gang that can be enjoyed for effort alone plus some nice individual moments.

But, alas, farce should celebrate confusion, not inspire it. “Moon Over Buffalo” is a hectic romp, not quite a celebration.

Reno Little Theater’s “Moon Over Buffalo” can be seen, Sep. 26, 27, Oct. 3, 4, 10, 11 at 7:30 p.m., and Sep. 28 (the performance reviewed), Oct. 5 and 12 at 2 p.m. at the Hug High School Little Theater, Sutro Street and North McCarran Boulevard, Reno, Nevada. For information call 329-0661 or go on line at renolittletheater.org.