THEATER REVIEW : Gender Politics : * The Actors Alley revival of ‘The Male Animal’ is true to the moral of the story as well as its humor.
VAN NUYS — James Thurber and Elliott Nugent’s “The Male Animal,†currently running at Actors Alley’s temporary digs at Valley College, is one of those comedies that deserve to be seen more than it has in the last couple of decades. It’s not only a “well-made play,†that anathema to many current artistic directors and critics, but it’s funny and it bears a moral that’s on target in today’s political climate.
Professor Tommy Turner (Bill Shick) says to a student in passing that he intends to read a letter by Bartolomeo Vanzetti (of Sacco and Vanzetti fame) to his college English class. The student, Michael Barnes (David Knell subbing for injured Stuart Fratkin), writes an editorial praising Turner’s courage and blasting the college’s deans and trustees as fascists.
This was pretty strong stuff in 1939, when the play was written. Sacco and Vanzetti--immigrant labor activists executed after being framed for murder--still made good editorial copy. The unreasoning terror in the minds of paranoid right-wingers of anything that was not to them politically correct was breeding the infection that later blossomed in Sen. Joe McCarthy’s witch hunts. Thurber and Nugent get the message of the dangers of limiting free speech across with ease. “The Male Animal†is a play of political import disguised, as all such plays should be, as entertainment.
The fun part is the effect on Turner’s happy marriage to Ellen (Diane Sainte-Marie) by the return to campus of the man who once stood between them, ex-superjock Joe Ferguson (John Edwin Shaw). Will flag-and-pennant-waving Ferguson break up the marriage? And will Ellen’s younger sister, Patricia (Kristin Carey), echo Ellen’s wisdom and make the right choice between her BMOC superjock Wally (Joe Taylor) and the intellectual Michael?
It is a tightly knit play that may not get all its laughs in this revival due to some sluggish tempos and uneven rhythms. When this cast gets up to speed, everything works fine. Director Michael Lilly hasn’t paid enough attention to keeping that energy consistent, though. What he has done is exhibit a keen eye for the look and feel of the play’s period and its antic sense of fun. Peter Parkin’s set and lighting design is right, Zale Morris’ costumes not only look right for the era but also look at home on the actors.
The sad news that actor Fratkin had taken ill on opening night turned into the pleasant surprise that Knell went on holding the script and turned his performance as Michael into a comic delight. Even his timing was on target. A fine comic turn is also given by Shick as the taciturn, bumbling professor. He knows how to milk a pause and has an imaginative flair for physical comedy.
The whole cast has an affectionate period feel, which helps. Especially notable are Shaw’s dumb older jock, Taylor’s even dumber young jock, Sainte-Marie in the difficult, underwritten role of the wife, Dale Kleine as the near-burned-out dean of the college and Jason Kelly as the early-McCarthyesque trustee, who hasn’t read the Vanzetti letter but is sure it will destroy America.
The only misstep is the zany, frenetic performance of Brandie Ilsen as bandleader Nutsy, way out of period and out of step with the rest of the production, which otherwise gets its laughs honestly and will get more of them once the company gets into high gear.
WHERE AND WHEN
What: “The Male Animal.â€
Location: Actors Alley in residence at the Little Theatre, L.A. Valley College, 5800 Fulton Ave., Van Nuys.
Hours: 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays. Ends May 1.
Price: $14-$18.
Call: (818) 508-4200.
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