Honus and Me

Critiqued by Holly Bartges

Honus And Me, stands apart as one of the most charming warm-hearted plays to come along in quite some time. Directed by John Ashton, The Aurora Fox snatched it up for a Rocky Mountain Premier. Steven Dietz adapted the story from the Dan Gutman novel maintaining its heart, warmth, and a smiled soul.

Honus and Me at the Aurora Fox.

Right off. I’m not a baseball fan. For a while, I claimed the Dodgers as “my” team just to be obstinate toward over-bearing Rockies fans. A favorite painting features one of my most adored dogs wearing a Dodger hat. I put it on him just for kicks thinking he would instantly shake it off. He didn’t. He continued wearing it until I took his picture. I have been to a Rockies game three times, wearing my Dodger Tee shirt. Twice I had the privilege of sitting in a box getting to see the Dodgers play the Rockies. A friend commented on how exciting it was. I could only look at him as though he’d lost his mind. Exciting? Hardly. There were long stretches between plays. Most of the time the teams stood around doing nothing but ----never mind. From what I can gather, it seems Baseball of the past sporting numerous heroes like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Joe Di Maggio, and Jackie Robinson possessed an entirely different element fostering awesome heroes.

Even though I don’t cling to an appreciation of baseball, I do appreciate the Greats from every walk of life. I appreciate why youngsters love sports, dreaming of walking in the shoes of their heroes.

I say this because if there is any theatre person out there who might be tempted to pass up Honus And Me because it is about something they aren’t interested in, don’t. It doesn’t matter if one loves baseball or doesn’t, the heartwarming story supersedes the subject matter. It’s about a boy and his dream, about grappling over doing the right thing, over a love so strong, magical powers become reality.

Jack Wefso captures the persona, intent, and agony of 12-year-old Joey Stoshack. Wefso remembers the eagerness of a 12-year-old and delivers it with big eyes, 12-year-old believable mannerisms, 12-year-old heartbreak, and 12-year-old confusion. Wefso becomes Joey in all his magnificence.

Joey loves baseball, but Joey can’t play baseball, convinced he’s the worst player in the world. His teammates tease him. The opposing team ridicules him, and still he plays. He also loves baseball cards. Holding a card in his hands, his fingers begin to tingle until his whole body vibrates with tingling energy.

His parents divorced, Joey never gives up hope they will become a family again. Suzanne Conners Nepi takes on the role of Mom and Christopher Reid takes on the role of Dad. Michael McNeil not only plays Joey’s Coach, but the rough and tumbled Birdie, and Ty Cobb.

Joey doesn’t mind sitting on the bench. Coach tends to ignore Little League’s all kids will play rule. On the bench Joey can avoid menacing taunts. Dad, however, becomes a Little League stage mother threatening the Coach, pushing Joey, insisting he can do it.

An elderly woman, Miss Young lives close by. Mom promised Joey would clean out her attic for $10.00. “She’s a witch,” Joey yells. He knows she is. She rides a broom. He knows this for certain because every time he sees her she has a broom in her hand.

Miss Young, wondrously enveloped by Bev Newcomb-Madden, isn’t a witch at all. Joey discovers she was in love with a baseball player showing him a torn picture. She has his half. The player has the other. He was going to return, but never did. Anything Joey finds in the attic he wants to keep, he’s welcome to it.

Cleaning the attic is not something Joey looks forward to, emphasized even more when he sees the job before him. In his 12-year-old-state of grumbling, he stumbles on a small card, a baseball card. Not just any baseball card, but the 1909 Honus Wagner’s T-206. One in fifty in existence recently sold for $2.35 million. In Joey’s naive eyes, all problems are solved. They will be a family again. Of course, he isn’t going to tell Miss Young. After all, she said he could keep anything he wanted. Mom holds a differing opinion, however. Wefso miraculously transforms his grownup status to reveal the inside/outside attributes of the 12-year-old.

During an irrational moment, Mom tells Joey he must return the card to Miss Young. He can make his own decisions when he is grown up. Crushed, the young boy goes to bed clutching the beloved Honus card.

He’s already taken the card to a Baseball Card Shop run by Birdie, a rough and tough once-upon-a-time wrestler who recognizes the card and offers him $20.00. That doesn’t work so Birdie offers him $100.00. McNeil leans heavily on the thuggish gangsterish thrust to convince Joey the card isn’t real. It doesn’t work.

While asleep, clutching the card, something wonderful happens. He finds Honus Wagner, standing by the bed, dazed and confused as to where he is. Honus Wagner? How can this be? Tupper Cullum brings Honus to vibrant life. How accurate his portrayal of Honus is couldn’t be proven by me. It doesn’t matter. In a Pittsburgh Pirates uniform, Cullum adopts the baseball player’s stance; the athletic moves and speaks with baseball authority. The scenes between Joey and Honus, Wefso and Cullum are pure magic, touching, and grandly humorous. 2008 technology hardly fits into a 1909 vocabulary. Cell phone? Internet? Google? What’s that?

Ashton’s staging flows with Brian Mulgrave’s scenic design that begins with two benches on opposite sides of the stage and a large Baseball scoreboard. Slides appear in the middle of scoreboard showing Joey’s house, Miss Young’s scary house where tree branches scrape the windows, photos of Honus Wagner, baseball ballparks, adding a delicious touch to the story telling. The scenes with Miss Young require only the bare stage and Newcomb-Madden and Miss Young’s broom. Newcomb-Madden fills in the crevices of where a house might be. Nothing more is required.

In the beginning with Mom and Dad debating over Joey’s time, Nepi and Reid didn’t appear to be using stage voices. They spoke softly as though they were running lines during a rehearsal. Their words could be heard, but their tone and intent lacked charactered emotion. As the Auctioneer, Reid came on strong, and Dad warmed to stage temperament when confronting Coach. Nepi warmed up as the play progressed, but didn’t appear to be comfortable. The Little League Players: Brandon Thomas, Stefan Richmond, Katie Solko, Chris Black, Jessica Wilbanks, and Chandler Reed looked more like they were just playing catch in between scenes rather than projecting Little League characterizations. They did bring their characters to life with the taunting lines toward Joey.

Ann Piano’s costume design added delightfully to the illusion of this time travel fantasy along with Pete Nelson’s lighting design and John Sullivan’s sound design. The bright lights and fog created believability for the time travel.

This play belongs to Wefso, Cullum, and Newcomb-Madden. Their stars shine brightly through Dietz’ whimsical, warmhearted, stirring story of dreams, wants, hopes, agonizing decisions, and secrets of the heart.

One doesn’t need to be a baseball fan; one doesn’t even have to like baseball to love this enchanting play. No question. It should definitely be on the Must See List. It’s a grand family show. Little leaguers will become mesmerized as well as the not-so- much-little-leaguers. It contains compelling qualities reaching far beyond baseball.