Moon Over Buffalo

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Spotlight Theatre opened last weekend in its new home in conjunction with The “E”-Project Theatre Company with Ken Ludwig’s fanciful, hilarious farce, Moon Over Buffalo.

Dan Connell and Nancy Thomas in a scene from Spotlight’s production of Moon Over Buffalo.

Fanciful this production is.

Hilarious, no question, and for a farce that speaks volumes for me.

Directed by Spotlight’s Pat Payne, Moon Over Buffalo sports a zany cast of eight actors knocking themselves out, and in one case almost literally, with all the energy required for this roller coaster comedy poking fun at a traveling theatre team.

While the “E” Project has been performing at the Full Moon Metaphysical Book Store, they have secured a fun space along with Spotlight in the Colfax-Kipling Center on W. Colfax at the Event Center, boldly marked with plenty of free parking. This is a brilliant move for two small theatre companies who want to be seen and heard with something to say, and definitely deserve to be seen and heard.

Having mastered the art of farce, which not everyone can do, the cast plays the topsy-turvy upside down rollicking play with as straight a face as possible, allowing the situations speak for themselves, guaranteeing one laugh after another.

Arthur Pierce brings George Hay to life, and with all of his stumbling, fumbling, rolling, and falling he manages to keep him very much alive. In the end George survives, but more importantly so does Pierce.

Nancy Thomas takes on Charlotte, George’s harried near hysterical, controlling wife. Charlotte survives Thomas and Thomas survives Charlotte, which is also a very good thing.

In 1953 George and Charlotte are on tour with their theatre company at the Erlanger Theatre, Buffalo, New York performing Private Lives and Cyrano de Bergerac in repertory.Rosalind, (Heather Kaloust), their daughter having vowed to never step on stage again, returns with her fiancé, Howard (Jack Wefso) to see her parents. Their first encounter comes with Grandma, Ethel (Marion R. Rex). Hard of hearing, Ethel prefers not to wear her hearing aid, causing words to turn upside down and sideways happily feeding her tantalizing misconceptions.

Life gets complicated for Rosalind, as her ex-fiancé, Paul (Colin Ahern) tours with the company. Supposedly Rosalind doesn’t know Paul is there. However, Rosalind isn’t as innocent as her bright eyes indicate.

Already in a dither, George and Charlotte express angry disappointment they missed out on Frank Capra’s new movie. Of course, they should have been cast, according to their opinion, of course. In her own madcap dither, Charlotte melts under Richard (Dan Connell), their lawyer from New York’s slick talking advances. Wanting to take her to lunch, he makes it quite clear what he really wants is for her to run off with him. Connell plays Richard straightforward thinking with his tongue hanging out.

In the middle of the hullabaloo, word arrives that perhaps the Hay’s will get a second chance at Capra’s film, and he is flying in to catch the matinee, which according to the posted notice is Private Lives. At least, the word is Capra wants to have a second look at George. This is not exactly the news Charlotte wants to hear.

George disappears; the frantic chase of finding him begins. The stage becomes a carousel as the characters race through doors running in circles. Ah, yes, George returns inebriated from the top of his head to the soles of his feet, and everything in between.

Coffee, that’s what he needs. Only Ethel misunderstands thinking the request is now for Irish coffee, adding a bottle to the pot.

In his tethered raucous state, George changes the schedule to Cyrano.

Bothered by shy Howard’s constant interruptions, without finding out whom he really is, Charlotte mistakes him for Capra, lavishing confused gushing on him. Wefso captures some remarkable goofy, baffled expressions tickling the funny bone whenever he rolls his eyes.

Thomas plies her talent into Charlotte with force melting with Richard, exasperated over George.

Eileen (Timmi Ahn Lasley) complicates the situation even more when she becomes too sick to perform in the matinee. Sick? No, she’s not sick. She’s pregnant, giving Charlotte even more fuel for her fiery engine to smoke.

Paul attempts to make sense out of nonsense. Ahern does a good job of presenting Paul with a sense of logic swaddled in disgusted mayhem.

The Event Center’s small stage has been aptly designed for Moon Over Buffalo assisting to create attitude and atmosphere of where these off the wall characters live and play.

The element I would like to see improved upon is the use of arms, which for some reason don’t get used, especially with Kaloust. Having created a most believable Rosalind wanting to snuggle down with Howard, but obviously still very much in love with Paul, it would help at the beginning to find some natural business for Rosalind and Wefso rather than just facing each other in the middle of the stage. They’re good and they need to know it, and then take their characters into orbit telling their bodies to relax and go with the flow.

Rex has some of the funniest lines in the show and she knows exactly how to plunge them into the scenes. Even though some of them are anticipated, she makes them her own, which makes them even more laugh-out-loud-funny.

Pierce’s drunken choreographed acrobatics, however exhausting, is worth the price of the ticket. The timing of the cast surrounding and supporting him is thoroughly understood. Pierce allows himself to give into George’s reckless abandoned stupor. If he holds his breath, it doesn’t show. What he shows is total trust in his stage-sharing comrades.

Timing is extremely important for the success of this play, particularly on a small stage, and Spotlight Theatre wears its timing badge with pride.

A solid cast with solid direction brings out the laughs full force, even for me. Popular as Moon Over Buffalo is to perform and to see for its skillion laughs, wild and wooly misunderstandings, character confusions, mis-readings, and upside down identities, it is anything but an easy play to produce so that it reads well from the boards. This production understands what it is about with the entire how’s and why’s. Spotlight Theatre has reason to be proud of its new home, and reason to be proud of this production. It promises and it delivers. Moon over Buffalo smashes the laughter atoms until the ribs hurt.