If you enjoy farce, “Theatre People, or The Angel Next Door” by Paul Slade Smith, is a show you don’t want to miss. Now running at Act II Playhouse and directed by Artistic Director Tony Braithwaite, it follows the company’s production of “The Outsider,” another Slade Smith play presented last year.
It is 1948, the heyday of screwball comedy and (thanks to scenic designer Will Bryant) you are in the luxurious bedroom of a seaside mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. A husband and wife playwriting team, Charlotte and Arthur Sanders (Morgan Everitt and Joe Mallon), want to produce a play based on their young protege Oliver’s novel, “The Angel Next Door.” There is a hitch: Oliver (Carl Nathaniel Smith) has to publish the story first.
Oliver balks at signing the contract because he bases the book on his “love affair” with Margot (Renee McFillin), a Broadway star, and wants her to read his work before publication. Turns out he only met Margot one time at a party; the love affair consists of an exchange of letters. Does the actual Margot match the one Oliver imagined?
The playwrights arrange for these two to meet at the mansion where Oliver is comically introduced to Broadway’s amorous ways. Through paper-thin walls, Oliver learns Margot is not the angel of his dreams. This rude awakening throws him into paroxysms of despair, jettisoning the ambitions of the playwright team as well.
All seems lost, but the magic of theater comes to the rescue.
“Theatre People” tries to build on the success of “The Outsider,” a dark comedy that satirized American politics. In that play, laughs shared the stage with high-stakes drama, as principled characters confronted the manipulations of cynical operators. There was no clear winner, and the comedy was also disturbing theater that offered plenty to think about.
By comparison, “Theatre People” is not mature comedy. It is light entertainment, and the production is on the hook to make the show eventful. Rising to the challenge, Braithwaite’s talented cast of six had the audience guffawing all night with bountiful physical comedy, as though the actors engaged in an unspoken contest to get the loudest laughs.
High honors go to Sabrina Profitt, who plays Olga, a grouchy, world-weary Russian maid. The character is a scene stealer, and Olga’s caustic reproach, “Theatre People!” never fails to hit its comedic mark. But this play is also an homage, and Olga’s conversion to thespian enthusiasm in the show’s second act follows the piece’s larger themes, as well as being funny.
Costume changes by Bridget Brennan accent Smith’s dynamism, as though Oliver were searching for the right suit of clothes to constrain his frenzy. Likewise, as Margot, McFillin’s garish wig allows no confusion over her classic ditzy blonde character.
Kevin Toniazzo-Naughton plays lover boy Victor, a character too comically dim to realize he is being ridiculed in Charlotte’s play, while Mallon’s Arthur does not seem to know his wife runs the whole operation. Everitt’s Charlotte, the only straightforward character, proselytizes theater as having the power to change the world.
“Theater People” runs through Sept 7 at Act II Playhouse, 56 E. Butler Pike, Ambler. Tickets are available at 215-654-0200 or Act2.org.
