Stage West's Enter Laughing has excellent performances dragged down by too much talk and not enough humor.
By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN
Published May 10, 2003
Over the years, Stage West Community Theatre audiences have roared at Neil Simon's rapid-fire one-liners in The Sunshine Boys, Lost in Yonkers and Brighton Beach Memoirs, Ken Ludwig's slam-bang lunacy in Lend Me a Tenor and Ray Cooney's wild farces, Move Over Mrs. Markham and Run for Your Wife.
The current offering, Enter Laughing, is a comedy of a different kind, lower-key and not nearly as laugh-filled or as cohesive.
Despite some excellent performances, Saul Leibner's deft direction and quick scene changes, it has a pretty high doze factor, mainly because playwright Joseph Stein takes a long time and too many talky detours getting to one all-too-brief but hilarious scene near the end.
The side trips can be quite amusing, but, string them together and this theatrical jaunt still goes nowhere.
Based loosely on Carl Reiner's autobiography, Enter Laughing is about David Kolowitz (Daniel Brigbag), a Jewish teenager living in 1939 Manhattan who wants to be an actor even though his over-protective, manipulative mother (Lillian Falcone) wants him to be a pharmacist.
David works as a delivery boy for Mr. Foreman (Murray Serether), who repairs sewing machines and hopes that David will someday take over his shop. Early on, David's pal Marvin (Dan Karpan) spies a newspaper ad for actors, and David sees his chance for fame and glory. He shows up to audition for show producer/actor Mr. Marlowe (Tim Moon), but he knows so little about acting, he ploddingly reads the stage direction "enter laughing" along with the dialogue, thus the show's name.
Marlowe pairs David on stage with his daughter Angela (Regina Ballard), whose only requirement for a leading man is that he be at least as tall as she is. David stumbles, lusts and flirts his way among the actress Angela, the hatmaker's secretary Miss B (Morgana Sheldon), and his supposed true love Wanda (Rebecca Smith), who reminds David of his mother. But he makes no promises and no commitments.
The show sparkles when Brigbag's David and Ms. Ballard's Angela are the focus. Both have a natural bent for physical comedy, and their timing is right on. David is a cad when it comes to women, but the jaded Angela doesn't care, so long as she can get him on stage long enough to do a scene or two.
Richard Michaelis has the right attitude and physique to do Pike, the office manager for one of Mr. Foreman's customers. Michaelis' Pike roars during his first encounter with the easily intimidated David, unaware that he will later help launch the aspiring thespian's theater career in a most unexpected way.
Serether is a touching Mr. Foreman, his old country yiddish accent punctuating his pleas for David's loyalty and hopes for David's future.
A costuming and makeup misstep keeps Ms. Smith from realizing her character Wanda's potential. Instead of looking like the tempting vamp David's dialogue suggests she is - she shouldn't be out in public alone in "that dress," he exclaims admiringly when she shows up at the theater - Wanda's demure, Sunday morning attire and little girl hairdo keep her from looking like a grownup woman. This makes David look like a wolf instead of an ardent swain when he takes Wanda to a churchyard for a late-night smooch.
Enter Laughing has a lot of talent both in front of the curtain and behind it, and its production values are impressive. It's too bad that the script doesn't measure up to those standards.
Review
Enter Laughing, Thursdays and weekends through May 25 at Stage West Community Playhouse, 8390 Forest Oaks Blvd., Spring Hill. Shows at 8 p.m., except Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $14. Call (352) 683-5113.
