AISLE SAY Berkshires & Environs
JUNE MOON
by Ring Lardner and George S. Kaufman
Directed by Jessica Stone
Williamstown Theatre Festival, July 2-13
wtfestival.org 413-597-3400
1000 Main St. (Rte. 2),
Williamstown, MA
June Moon, the 1929 comedy by Ring
Lardner and George S. Kaufman, has just opened the 2014 season at the Williamstown Festival. (I attended
the final preview performance.) The story revolves around hapless Fred Stevens (Nate Corddry), who boards a train in Schenectady headed for New York where he dreams
of being a Tin Pan Alley lyricist. In short order he teams up with Paul Sears (Rick Holmes), whose wife, Lucille (Kate MacCluggage), introduces Stevens to her
golddigging sister, Eileen Fletcher (Holley Fain). At the same time, Stevens is
attracted to the sweet and innocent dental hygienist, Edna Baker (Rachel
Napoleon), and it is her honesty that
eventually wakens him to the values of loyalty and selfless affection.
Most fascinating about this play is the mix of comic
and decidedly non-comic characters. Furthermore, the play doesn’t apologize for
the unhappy marriage of Paul and Lucille. Nor does it soften the
manipulative Eileen. In fact, the
blend of comic and serious characters, and the situations in which they find
themselves, makes for an unusually satisfying experience – unusual for someone,
like me, who had anticipated a sweet revival of a little-produced period play.
The festival has spared little in bringing this play
to the stage: a cast of 27, designs that accurately reflect both the period of
the setting and the style with which the originals may have been created. June Moon is a lovely way to open any
season and I anticipate that word-of-mouth will be positively enthusiastic.
Nate Corddry is an actor of great charm and gentle
delivery. He wisely understands that his character, the engine of the play, is
on a constant journey of discovery and must, therefore, react to events and
people around him. He is often required to deliver the straight lines that set
up others with the punch lines. Not all actors accept this responsibility with
grace, but Corddry never fails to play the tone and tempo of each scene with
precise understanding. Rachel Napoleon, who plays opposite him as the wide-eyed
innocent, Edna, is occasionally over-pitched
with excitement, but their balance is convincing and genuinely touching. Kate
MacCluggage and Holley Fain, as the wife and her sister, successfully avoid any
apology for the characters they play. These are women who know what they want
and need from their men, and the world around them, and they sacrifice nothing
as they achieve their goals.
The production is further enhanced by the parade of
character actors who provide great snapshots through all three acts. Rick
Holmes plays the beleaguered husband, and though not a comic character, the
actor’s astute playing reinforces a reality in a world that could so easily
revert to caricature. David
Turner uses his skill at underplaying comedy to
great effect. He lands every comic line but never loses his humanity that, late
in the play, sounds a lonely note. Christopher Fitzgerald is just plain
funny. His every entrance is the running gag that the audience anticipates and
never fails to acknowledge.
The play is well directed by Jessica Stone, though the short rehearsal period reveals that the shifting tone
between bitter truth and broader comedy is not yet clear. There are transitions
between scenes that feel fractured, as though the actors could have used more
time to erase the seams. The ending is abrupt and unsatisfying, made the more
so by an extended blackout before the entire cast is revealed onstage singing
the title tune. This, too, feels hastily assembled, as though the plan might
have been for the ensemble to be moving, or at the very least more physically engaged
than they were, seated on chairs around the set.
June Moon is a reminder, and a lovely one too, that forgotten plays can be
retrieved and given a life that goes beyond museum artifact. Thanks to the
Williamstown Festival for reviving this little gem.
Return to Home Page
Road
(National) Tour Review Index
New
York City & Environs Theatre Review
Index
Berkshire,
Massachusetts Theatre Review
Index
Boston
Area Theatre Review Index
Florida
Theatre Review Index
London
Theatre Review Index
Minneapolis/St.
Paul (Twin Cities) Theatre
Review Index
Philadelphia
& Environs Theatre Review
Index
San
Francisco Bay Area Theatre Review Index
Seattle
Area Theatre Review Index
Toronto,
Ontario (Canada) Index