Monday, March 20, 2023

From the Desk of Jim R, Take 2, Column 381, A Review: "Moon Over Buffalo" (Sacred Heart University)

By James V. Ruocco 

What is farce?
In theater, farce is a silly, very giddy entertainment featuring characters, situations and dialogue that are purposely exaggerated, absurd, ridiculous, improbable and over-the-top.
Laughs, of course, are plentiful as farce relies heavily on physical humor, double entendres, deliberate nonsense, parody, choreographed confusion, mockery, lies, deception, swift action and broadly stylized performances to get the point across - all for the sake of humor.
Quick comebacks, tart witticisms, crude one liners, politically incorrect dialogue and misunderstood sexual repartee also play a key role in the ongoing buffoonery at hand.

Not one to disappoint, playwright Ken Ludwig ("Lend Me a Tenor," "Baskerville," "The Games Afoot") fills "Moon Over Buffalo" - a 1995 Broadway comedy that originally starred Carol Burnett and Philp Bosco - with enough slapstick humor, sexual innuendo and high energy to keep the two-act face fueled and ready for non-stop, door-banging fun reminiscent of "Noises Off," "Run for Your Wife" and "No Sex Please, We're British."

Here, George and Charlotte Hay, two fading, narcissistic, egotistical stars of the 1950s find themselves moonlighting at a theater in Buffalo, New York performing Noel Coward's "Private Lives" and Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac" in repertory alongside five other performers.
However, once they learn that filmmaker Frank Capra ("It's a Wonderful Life," "It Happened One Night") is coming to town to catch them in a matinee performance, all hell breaks loose. Rumor has it that Capra is scouting talent for his big-budget movie "The Twilight of the Scarlet Pimpernel," a period costume drama which, if he likes what he sees, could find the duo playing the principal roles of Sir Percy Blakeney and Marguerite St. Just.
This being a farce, Capra's arrival in Buffalo doesn't quite go as planned. There's also plenty of backstage confusion involving who's who, who's mistaken for somebody else, who's in the wrong costume and what play is actually going to be performed once a switcheroo is made on the repertory performance callboard.

As corny as this sounds, "Moon Over Buffalo" - as staged and performed by members of the Sacred Heart Performing Arts Theatre Arts Program - is tossed and bandied about with gleeful abandon, laugh-a-minute chutzpah, ceaseless energy and double-trouble thrill and spill.
Doors slam or open in rapid succession.
Costumes are accidentally ripped in two.
A lead male character is overcome by too much alcohol.
Someone accidentally falls offstage and into the pit.
An illicit affair with a co-star comes with a pregnancy announcement.
Pratfalls, sidesteps and drunken behavior are misconstrued as homosexual acts.
And oh, yes, where the hell is Franck Capra? And when, exactly, does he show up?

As farce, this production of "Moon Over Buffalo" is off-the-wall, precision-drilled mayhem tossed off by a cast of eight with well-sustained fun, frolic and dangerously silly roar and delight.
It's inked and dotted with farcical color.
It's dizzying and playful.
It's knockabout silly.
It teases and cajoles with immersive, hot-on-the-heels engagement.

Staging "Moon Over Buffalo" at Sacred Heart University, director Jerry Goehring (a Tony-nominated producer with credits on Broadway, off-Broadway and in London's West End) grabs hold of Ludwig's farce, kicks it into high gear, lets it breathe and resonate and fulfill its duties as an eight-character comedy knee deep in absurdity, improbable situations and patently silly giddyap.
The horseplay that ensues is matched boldly and confidently by Goehring's keen directorial stokes (at SHU, he has staged more than 40 different productions), all of which take their cue from the farce handbook - fast, furious, ridiculous, exaggerated - and hilariously accentuate the wit, gait and eccentricity prevalent in Ludwig's playscript. Here, comic timing is everything. One false beat, one wrong move or one missed cue, and it's over.
Not to worry, though.
Directorially, "Moon Over Buffalo" moves seamlessly from one scene to the next with everyone on stage perfectly in sync with the mechanics, mindset and melodrama of farce and how it is to be portrayed and reenacted through a live performance with push-and-pull momentum and frenzy. In turn, the rewards are boundless, thus, signaling a landscape of viable comic language, comfy acquaintanceship, actor-audience collaboration and zing and snap fulfillment.

"Moon Over Buffalo" stars Jordan Pita as George Hay, Abigail Palmer as Charlotte Hay, Maggie Devlin as Ethel, Maggie Ives as Rosalind, Graig McMenamin as Howard, Nora Delehanty as Eileen, Samuele Deluise as Paul and Samuel Easton as Richard.
Silliness, of course, is the key here, matched by alertness, inventiveness and movement pivotal to the story, its focus, its pacing, its timing, its mass confusion, its misunderstandings and its characterizations.
With Goehring pulling the strings, so to speak, all eight actors come to the Little Theatre stage with a full understanding of how to play physical comedy, how to articulate it, how to set up jokes, how to make sense out of every outrageous situation and more importantly, how to make the action flow seamlessly without missing a beat, a tick, a pulse, a pause or a rhythm.
It's a feat they pull off swimmingly, never once wasting an opportunity to make "Moon Over Buffalo" spark and shine or wear out its welcome before happily fading to black leaving plenty of room for applause, achievement, gratification and a healthy smile or two.

"Moon Over Buffalo" is being staged at Sacred Heart University (The Little Theatre at the Edgerton Performing Arts Center, 5151 Park Ave., Fairfield, CT), now through March 26, 2023.
For tickets or more information, call (203) 371-7908.
website: edgertoncenter.org

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