TheatreDate.com Reviews

Just in time for Father’s Day fun, the Chico Theater Company presents a family show about a family man in their production of “Father Knows Best.”

Based on the show that amused both early television viewers and radio listeners alike, this production is entertainingly outdated.

The play revolves around one man’s home coming after a long day at work. Jim Anderson (played by Darren Clark) comes home expecting to find a hot meal and a happy family. He takes off his sports jacket and slips into a comfortable, baby blue sweeter anticipating some peace and quiet. But his peace is quickly broken when his loving wife Margaret (played by Andrea Doughman) informs him that the washing machine is on the frits and even worse, dinner isn’t ready.

Jim makes the best of the situation by sitting down with his daily newspaper before dinner for some quiet reading. But he reads troubling news about a teenage couple’s failed elopement. Outraged by the over-sexed youths of the day he forbids his oldest daughter Betty (played by Cassi Nicolas) from going out on a date she has planed for the evening.

In an attempt to protect his family from a hostile world he demands that all his children and his wife cancel their evening plans. His son Bud (played by Kevin White) can’t go to basketball practice and his youngest daughter Kathy (played by Courtney Doughman) has to cancel sleep over plans with her friend Patty (played by Katie Van Patten). Instead of going out, Jim tells his family to invite their friends in. Soon Betty’s date Ralph (played by Tyler Davis), Bud’s basketball team and 10-year-old Patty are all set loose around the house.

In addition to their other guests, Margaret’s rumor spreading society friends (played by Lindsay Ashcraft, Morgan Reeves and Ronda Morse) drop by, along with a washing machine repairman (played by Roger Hart) and Jim’s prospective business client Mr. Brinkworth (played by Marc Edson).

When Jim’s daughter Betty tries to escape with her date in all the pandemonium, Jim calls the police, and the party is soon joined by Officer Johnson (played by Mark Doughman) and wayward youth specialist Detective Jenkins (played by Brandy Jackson).

All of Jim’s best intentions turn against him and everything that can go wrong does. But like all good sitcoms peace is soon restored and, of course, it all works out in the end.

Director Joe Garrow loved the script when he and producer Marc Edson read it over vacation, he said. Of the dozens of scripts they read “Father Knows Best” stood out.

“We really look for more family oriented, light hearted stuff,” Garrow said. “I’ve always been a fan of the old black and white sitcoms.”

Indeed “Nick at Nite” would be proud of this production, which draws upon all the old sitcom sappiness. Clark’s portrayal of the overbearing 1950’s style dad is comical and committed. His interaction with the other members of his family builds on the strong foundation of the Kristin Sergel script.

In addition to the fine work of the cast playing the Anderson family, the colorful collage of supporting cast members adds a good deal of depth to the comic layering of the play.

Garrow was pleased with the efforts made by the cast of mostly fresh faces, he said. Actors with limited stage experience filled many of the play’s lead roles.

“There are a lot of new comers in this show,” he said.

But at least one of the play’s performers is no newcomer to the CTC experience. In fact he’s kind of the theater’s resident father himself. Marc Edson is the theater’s owner, and although he obviously spends a lot of time around the set, he’s not usually on stage.

He asked to be in the show, Garrow said, and the director was happy to put him in the cast.

“One thing about Marc and I is we really work well together,” Garrow said.

Edson’s addition to the cast rounded out a quality group, and if you want to see him on stage this might be you’re only chance till next season. Directing shows and running a theater doesn’t leave much time for acting Edson said, so this was a pleasant, but rare experience for him.

“About once a year I can get up there,” he said after the show.

So go see him and the rest of the cast before it’s too late. And if you still can’t decide what to get your own father for Father’s Day, don’t forget that there is a special Father’s Day matinee at 2 p.m. on June 17th.

In the spring of 1939 one of the most daring Hollywood producers of the day, David O. Selznick, began production of what would one day become one of the greatest Hollywood epics of all time.

Everyone he knew told him it would be a turkey.

But he was determined to see it through. Still, after one week of production on the film “Gone With the Wind,” he saw his vision of the story falling apart.

After just one week of production he halted the shooting of the film, fired his director and threw out his original screenplay.

He needed a new script and a new director and he needed them both fast. He turned to longtime friend and screenwriter Ben Hecht, who met with Selznick in his office early one Monday morning. Director Victor Fleming soon joined the two. What happened next has gone down as one of the strangest myths of Hollywood screenwriting.

The play “Moonlight and Magnolias” showing at the Paradise Theater on the Ridge explores what might have happened on that spring morning and the events of the subsequent days. Legend has is that Selznick kept Hecht and Fleming prisoners, locking himself and his two cohorts in his office until the new script was written.

Feeding his prisoners nothing but bananas and peanuts for five days Selznick and Fleming act out the novel in its entirety for Hecht, who hasn’t read any of the book with the exception of the first page.

The play is delightfully funny and the actors wonderfully charismatic. Selznick (played by Richard Lauson) is quirky and crazy. He seems unconcerned that his writer hasn’t read the book upon which the movie is being made, and acts blasé about shutting down production. But the audience gets the sense that his nonchalance is all a performance for the benefit of his coworkers. Lauson gives Selznick sudden eruptions of anger and agitation, adding to the complexity of producer’s character.

His interaction with Hecht (played by Michael Clemens) is uproariously funny at times and darkly meaningful at others. Hecht tries to act as Selznick’s conscience, reminding him of his responsibly as a Jew to tell audience members of the injustice of tyranny and oppression. As he becomes familiar with the storyline of the book his sympathy remains with the slaves and not with the main characters of the book, the elite southern landowners. Hecht draws parallels between the slave owners of the south and the tyranny of the Nazi invasion that was sweeping through Europe at the time.

Clemens was wonderful to watch. His portrayal of the cynical Hollywood screenwriter was immaculate. At the start of the second act all three men are ragged and tired. The office is strewn with the peanut shells and banana peals. Crumpled paper is everywhere and Hecht is asleep at the desk, comically typing involuntarily. Clemens looked as though he was genuinely and simultaneously going crazy and falling apart.

And then there was Victor Fleming (played by Jim Allison). Allison’s portrayal of the rough and tumble chauffeur turned director was an entertaining counter point to Selznick’s eccentricity and Hecht’s cynicism. While acting out the book for the benefit of the writer, he hams up many of the characters of the novel. Most memorably perhaps is his portrayal of the pregnant Melanie while Selznick danced around excitedly, acting out the part of the fiery heroin Scarlett.

Finally there is the small but important role of Miss Poppenghul (played by Teresa Hurley) Selznick’s secretary. She enters the office to replenish the peanut supply and tidy things up from time to time and seems almost more effected by the stress of the situation then the men actually being held against their will.

The play is well written, well produced and well cast. The set is by far one the best I’ve seen, full of the kind of details necessary for a set in such an intimate theater.

Director of the play Judy Clemens talked about the appeal of the Ron Hutchinson play.

“It’s really a great, great, great script,” she said. “It was the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time. I love the whole concept of the show.”

The challenge of directing a play with such a small cast didn’t slow her down at all, she said. She relished the chance to work with the actors to make the script come to life.

“I like working with smaller casts with a really meaty script,” she said. “It (the script) just makes me laugh, it makes me laugh out loud.”

Shakespeare’s plays, though well written, are full of deception, trickery, and fornication. In other words, they were made for Hollywood.

Back in 1934, Warner Brothers put that thinking to the test. The play “Shakespeare in Hollywood,” now showing at the Chico Cabaret, explores what might have happened on Director Max Rinehart’s set during the filming of the major motion picture, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

The movie features performers like Joe E. Brown, James Cagney and Dick Powell. In the play these actors and many more become involved in a tangled love affair when The Bard’s most infamous fairy’s, Oberon and his right hand “man” Puck, descend magically on the set.

Oberon (played by Cabaret newcomer Gabriel Moss) falls in love with one of Hollywood’s up coming actresses, a young woman named Olivia (played by Kate Ruttenburg).

Director Max Reinhardt (played by Jeff Dickenson) finds himself in need of actors to play the fairies in his film. He stumbles upon Oberon and Puck (played by Keilana Decker) entangled in an argument and casts them on the spot.

Oberon instructs Puck to use a magic flower to draw other suitors away from his beloved Olivia. But Puck, who is wrapped in a vale of newfound stardom, bungles the job. And of course hilarity ensues.

The cast is a comic mix of characters, amusingly arranged by director Sue Ruttenburg. She enjoys plays by writer Ken Ludwig because they often incorporate lager casts and lack a single starring role, she said. When she’s looking for plays to feature at the Cabaret, that’s what she’s looking for.

“It’s a real ensemble cast,” she said.

The actors in the show have a healthy understanding of comic timing and put on a high-energy show. Studio mogul Jack Warner (played by Tony Varicelli) and his male secretary Daryl (played by Conan Duch) keep the laughs coming along with help from Warner’s love interest Lydia (played by Jennifer McAfee) and many others.

Even the extras, which were not written into the play’s script but are an invention of director Ruttenburg’s imagination, create a sense of action on the set and provide a healthy heap of laughs.

But the creative culprit who steals all the show’s comic currency is undoubtedly Decker. Playing Puck, she steals every scene with a mix of physical comedy, funny voices and a healthy blend of theatric “magic.”

Director Ruttenburg, has put together a must see comedy show, but she admits she had a lot of help from the cast.

“I was just really lucky,” she said.

And so is everyone who catches this show.