By John Quinn
'Review: 'The Good Doctor'
Purple Rose hits one out of the ballpark with Simon comedy
Neil Simon is to the American theater what Babe Ruth is to baseball. He's been knocking out hits for over 40 years, and many of them have soared into the upper deck. His winners include "The Odd Couple," "Last of the Red Hot Lovers," "Sweet Charity," "Barefoot in the Park," and the three-bagger – er, trilogy, "Brighton Beach Memoirs," "Biloxi Blues" and "Broadway Bound."
But like the Sultan of Swat, not every turn at bat is going to produce a home run. "The Good Doctor" is more of a grounder to left field. As Simon himself commented, "Some of the scenes worked; others didn't."
That never meant that hustle couldn't turn a base hit into an opportunity to score. The talented team at work in the Purple Rose Theater's season opener has done just that.
"The Good Doctor," of course, is not a play at all," opines Simon. "There are sketches, vaudeville scenes, if you will, written with my non-consenting collaborator, Anton Chekhov. Not the Chekhov of "The Sea Gull" and "The Three Sisters," but the young man who wrote humorous articles for the newspapers to pay his way through medical school."
So in tribute to the great Russian playwright, Simon mounted pieces of his work with a particularly American sensibility. They range from the quiet simplicity to knockdown burlesque. Perhaps trying to encompass that wide range caused a few missteps along the way.
There are no missteps in the production of the play. The Purple Rose Theater is a great venue to see a show anyhow, and the production values are top drawer. The set and costumes are an elegant composition in black and gray, shown at their very best by a magical lighting design by Reid G. Johnson. Seating is three-quarters round, the actors seem to pop off the stage and into your lap (a very real possibility some night; actors are entering and exiting by way of the aisles all the time).
In the spirit of Chekhov, Director Guy Sanville is not above delivering a change-up pitch. Just when you get comfortable with stage direction as graceful as a ballet, bam, out comes the rubber chicken. The result of his craftsmanship is a production as lovingly detailed and as full of surprises as a Faberge egg.
Audience favorites in this gifted, seven-member cast are Ryan Carlson and his strong affinity for slapstick, frequently abetted by the redoubtable Paul Hopper.
But as one entranced audience member was heard to sigh while leaving the theater, "Weren't the women wonderful?" Oh, yes, indeed.
Terry Heck, Sandra Birch and Molly Thomas play their wide-ranging characters with deceptive ease and wonderful style. In "Too Late for Happiness," a charming musical duet, Ms. Birch and Mr. Hopper set a standard of excellence hard to equal. If the Tigers were this flawless, they'd be Series contenders.
The Good Doctor Staged Wednesday through Sunday at the Purple Rose Theatre Company, 137 Park St., Chelsea, through Dec. 20. Tickets: $17.50 – 32.50. 734-433-7673. www.purplerosetheatre.org.
The Bottom Line: With a first rate cast, brilliant direction and quality production values, "The Good Doctor" is the triple-threat winner so far this season. (P.S. Go Cubs!)
Review: 'The Trip'
Take a 'trip' with The African Renaissance Theater
As Indian summer fades faster than Grey Davis' political career, we need a little comedy to lift our spirits. But the California recall is over, so where can one find another farce?
An unlikely place to look is the industrial area east of the New Center, a neighborhood that gives new meaning to the term "gritty realism." But how wonderfully appropriate that Artistic Director Oliver Pookrum chose to locate a gutsy stab at cultural rebirth in the shadows of Detroit's industrial decline. Make no mistake: The daily newspapers can gush about the new Max Fisher Center (admittedly, a great asset to the community), but it's the little venues like the African Renaissance Theater where culture is really on the rebound.
How wonderful, too, that Mr. Pookrum chose to do one "for the ladies" and gives us "The Trip," by Crystal Rhodes, a short and sweet theatrical version of a chick flick. After last season's stunning "Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train," the diverting little comedy is showcasing the company's flexibility.
Don't try to find the Hastings Ballroom based on its address on Milwaukee. The street addresses on the industrial buildings are difficult to read after dark, and the traditional green and white street signs are faded to uniform spearmint. Take Grand Boulevard to Oakland and proceed south one block to Milwaukee. Voila!
Step through the door, and you'll think you've taken a giant leap into SoHo or Tribeca. A theater fronted by an art gallery – can we really still be in Detroit? There are NYC directors who would give up valuable portions of their anatomies to work in a space with such character.
"The Trip" is a very simple piece. Consider the possibilities when four long-time girlfriends from Chicago rent a car for a road trip to L.A. Consider the pressures of riding day after day with companions who are now literally too close for comfort. Consider the comic possibilities when the gloves come off and the claws come out. The script, in fact, may be a little too simple. There really isn't a lot there to work with, and it falls to the director and actresses to add meat on the skeleton. They've done so with fine humor and style.
The sophisticated ladies of the cast – Madelyn Porter, Yvonne Thomas, Sadie Bernice and Sandra Hines – bill themselves collectively as the MYSS Ensemble. That's as appropriate a name as you're likely to find. In an ensemble, each actress considers it her job to make her colleagues look good. Her efforts in a quartet, for example, are returned to her three-fold.
The seamless relationship among our actresses brings a wealth of fun for the audience; it's that much more believable that the characters are old friends, well acquainted with each fault and foible of the others. They manage a lot of action while perched behind the honkin' big grille of a Chrysler Imperial.
The Trip Presented Friday through Sunday by the African Renaissance Theater at the Hastings Street Ballroom, 715 Milwaukee, Detroit, through Nov. 2. Tickets: $20. 877-865-6818.
The Bottom Line: Get your laughs while you can; it may be a whole month or more till the next recall election.
