Crowded Kitchen's 'Animal Crackers': silly fun from beginning to end
By Myra Yellin Outwater, guest review (appearance courtesy of The Morning Call)
What do you do when your leading lady leaves town suddenly on opening weekend?
Well, if you are Ara Barlieb, director of the Crowded Kitchen Players, the show must go on and perhaps only a silly farce like the Marx Brothers' 1928 "Animal Crackers" could manage so successfully with its new leading lady, Sharon Ferry, playing the role of the pretentious Long Island society matron Mrs. Rittenhouse, script in hand. (Elizabeth Buss was unavailable because of family matters.)
Ferry went on with style, class, lots of expressive singing, dancing and emoting. She even added to the fun as she danced around the stage, often leaning backward to catch one more glimpse of the script which was always lying around in plain view.
I had no idea what "Animal Crackers' was all about but after a while I didn't care but just sat there and enjoyed the physical and verbal antics of this large and enthusiastic cast at McCoole's Arts & Events Place in Quakertown.
The atmosphere of this musical based on a Marx Brothers movie is set from the beginning by the haphazard hanging of Nora Oswald's lighthearted murals and her cheerful painted garden deck. This is a midsummer night's dream and a lot of fantastic events are about to take place.
Suffice it to say that that the show's slim plot is about the visit of a famous celebrity African explorer, Captain Spaulding, played with aplomb and an enchanting oblivious sense of reality by the verbally and physically agile David Oswald. Oswald is a master at reciting gibberish and giving speeches overflowing with non-sequiturs.
The Captain has just arrived at the home of Mrs. Rittenhouse in time to see a famous sculpture unveiled. But during the weekend, the sculpture will be stolen and replaced by not just one, but by two fakes in a series of very obvious misadventures.
Don't think that this silly fluff isn't entertaining. It is a veritable smorgasbord of puns, malapropisms and silly routines that bring on the laughs. In some cases the jokes must percolate before they settle in and produce loud guffaws.
This is a large cast and the cast does its best to play out each farcical event with sincerity. Dan Ferry plays Wally Winston, a snoopy gossip columnist who sells out his heart to Rebecca Burroughs for a scoop. Jay Fletcher plays his boss, a wily capitalist and alleged foreigner with a rapacious greed and ambition. Sarah Thomas plays the enchanting ingenue Mary Stewart, who has fallen in love with John Parker, an unsuccessful artist (Scott Van Nortwick). And Bill Gibson is a very opportunistic butler.
But it is Tom Harrison as Ravelli and Jack McGavin as the mute professor whose overcoat contains enough props to launch a thousand comedies who stand out for their physical tricks, pratfalls and nonsense. They are definitely a dynamic duo.
Pianist Bruce Rohrbach, wearing a purple hat, adds a special extra flavor to the show, as does a lovely period musical backdrop. My favorite numbers include the rollicking first act finale "Oh By Jingo! Oh by Gee," and the second act opening "Long Island Low Down."
¢"Animal Crackers," 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, through June 24, McCoole's Arts and Events Place, 10 S. Main St, Quakertown. Tickets: $19; $15, seniors; $10, students. 610-395-7176, http://www.ckplayers.com.
Myra Yellin Outwater is a freelance writer.