ANIMAL CRACKERS WILL DRIVE YOU BANANAS,
NO BIT TOO CHEAP, NO GAG TOO THIN IN OSF’S BRILLIANT ADAPTATION
The first matinee of my Ashland extravaganza of theatre brought me to Animal Crackers (by George S Kaufman and Morris Ryskind, Music and Lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, re-conceived from an adaptation by Henry Wishcamper) in the welcome air-conditioning of the Angus Bowmer Theatre. Allison Narver was a great match to direct this spectacle, as her fascination with the vaudeville era started with early stagings of Chris Jeffries’ The Fatty Arbuckle Spookhouse Review at the Annex Theatre, lo! these many years ago. She was prepared for leading an ensemble into the zanni-ness of the inimitable Brothers Marx. The biggest hit of the Festival, this full-blown musical is filled with spectacularly low brow comedy, high brow attitude, and drop-dead accurate imitations (the highest form of flattery after all). This is a no-holds-barred comic attack, with, as the vaudeville mantra goes, “no bit too cheap, no gag too thin.” Narver and company nail it.
We are in the mansion of dowager Mrs. Rittenhouse (larger than life in the hands of the great K.T. Vogt) who is hosting a reception of distinguished guests for the unveiling of a painting. Suffice it to say that by the end of the evening there are three such paintings, two imitations, and to tell you anymore would be ridiculous. Imitation is after all….(ba dum dum).
The gentlemen are tuxedo’d to the nines and deliver zinger after dance with fake cigars and physical aplomb. The ladies, of course, do all that, plus backwards and in heels. And best of all, we a it together, for clearly there is plenty of room in this adaptation for improvisations with the audience and with the mood. When a line is dropped in the viciously fast patter of this play, the laugh meter goes off the charts as the actors ad lib their way out of the mistake. “Let’s get back to the plot, caues we actually have one”, quips Groucho. This company is full of triple threat actors: they sing, dance, act, and now, the fourth threat is in place, they are brilliant stand-up comedians. When Groucho, Chico, Harpo and their rather invisible brother Zeppo mix it up, let any nearby wealthy members of society grab their purses and their underwear. Nothing and no one is safe. Mark Bedard (totally sanctified as Groucho as Captain Spaulding), Brent Hinkley (obscene and lovable as Harpo as The Professor), and Daisuke Tsuji (positively sublime as Chico as Emanuel Ravelli) are a triumvirate of hilarity, sabotage, connivery, and the oldest jokes in the book. Remembering that brother Zeppo actually snuck in to play Captain Spaulding in one scene in the classic film, I watch to see if Eddie Lopez (as Zeppo as Horatio Jameson and others) would get away as an impostor as well. Who knows? You just have to see it. I could have seen it more than once; I loved every single blessed minute of it.
In her program note, Narver suggests “a little frivolity can be serious business”, and she has certainly gotten down to it with this romp of a show. Just as in the Marx Brothers’ day, their comedy of (ill) manners exercises the satirical muscle of the immigrant and working class roots of the Brothers’ lives. Animal Crackers is foolish one moment, and the next is slyly delivering a scathing indictment of the upper classes. In one hysterical and wordless moment, Harpo must open his legendary trench-coat, and a cascade of stolen Rittenhouse silver spills forth out of his bottomless pockets. I cannot describe why this is so subversively funny that I was wiping tears away. This is the church of the other kind of Marxism, and I guess I am an acolyte. Anti-class buffoonery, thievery, ridicule…and of course, all in three part harmony and tap shoes.
Picture perfect art deco designs by Richard Hay (sets) , Shigeru Yagi (costumes), Geoff Korf (Lights) and Matt Callahan (sound), are absolute genius. Special kudos to the fabulous Jonathan Haugen as the deadpanning butler Hives and his blink-of-an-eye on-stage change into Roscoe W. Chandler. This is living proof of the wizardry a costume team and actor working together can make. You just gotta see it to believe it.
We are transported at once to a 1920’s nightclub, a stage set for a Fred and Ginger musical, and the foyer of Mrs. Rittenhouse “little” summer home. With the comically serious musicians onstage, the proscenium frame and grand red velvet drape, we never forget that we are watching a great big show. When the ad libs start flying, the theatre jokes do too, a special gift for the OSF regulars. “If I was Eugene O’Neill I could tell you exactly what I think of you” jabs Groucho, and the subtext begins takes over. Hilarity rules this world.
Wouldn’t it be great if the Seattle Rep brings a box of these Animal Crackers north for all of Seattle to munch on? Write your artistic directors now. Yummy yummy.
Animal Crackers, by George S Kaufman and Morris Ryskind, Music and Lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby, re-conceived from an adaptation by Henry Wishcamper and directed by Allison Narver. Plays through November 4. Go to www.osfashland.org for tickets and all things Ashlandian.