Review: MTP "Barefoot" an Engaging Walk in the Park
Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
The Mill Town Players’ "Barefoot in" the Park" is a carbonated, wacky comedy, with a small cast bubbling with big jokes and a running bit that leaves the actors breathless and the audience laughing.
Climbing five flights (six if you count the stoop) of stairs and right into the hearts of the audience, the cast keeps up a chippy pace as it winds through Neil Simon’s story of New York newlyweds as they transition from a luxury hotel to a cramped run-down apartment in the East 40s off Third Avenue, not far from Murray Hill.
The first, and my favorite victim of the stairs, is Will Landrum as the huffing and puffing red-faced telephone repairman. Landrum, who wowed crowds with his singing in MTP’s “Age of Aquarius,” channels the Bowery Boys here, with sly smiles and comic timing that shine whenever he’s on the stage.
The other actors dive into their own heavy breathing and stumble around after the climb, including Ed Chambers as the fun and silly delivery man, whose lines consist of exhausted gibberish, but Landrum's weary grin takes the weary climbing prize.
Corie and Paul Bratter (Meghan Wallace and Alex Robinson), who were portrayed in the original 1963 stage version by Elizabeth Ashley and Robert Redford, are well-paired newlyweds on the Mill Town Players stage, with performances that keep the punch in the three-act play.
Wallace embodies the role of the slightly-spoiled new wife with rose-colored glasses and fantasy notions, while Robinson as the steady-as-she goes husband is physically all over the stage in his good and bad moods.
The bickering in the second act almost pushed the play out of comedy into the ditch of bitter and dramatic marital fighting, but the performances of both Wallace and Robinson keep the audience spellbound, even when things are no longer funny.
Their rapid reconciliation is Simon’s doing, and though joyfully married to “let’s get a divorce” to happily ever after strain the fabric of the storyline, at least you are rooting for Wallace and Robinson in the end due to their performances.
Meanwhile Kelly Wallace (Meghan’s real-life mother), as Corie’s mother, channels Debbie Reynolds in the Albert Brooks film “Mother,” taking over the stage whenever she enters a scene. Her timing and transformation of character are dynamic and fun to watch, especially when interacting with the daughter. She brought an ease to both the physical comedy and verbal humor.
She also finds a worthy partner in stealing scenes in Bruce Meahl as Victor Velasco, a role from which he squeezes every ounce of joy, much to the delight of the audience. His aging man of pseudo-worldly ways and poverty-hampered existence brought some of the night’s biggest laughs.
Meahl made more of what could have been a cartoonish character as Velasco by adding a warmth to the silly boasting and preening.
As always, the stage was enchanting, something of a trademark for the Mill Town Players. Cameron Woodson, with assists from MTP Founder Will Ragland, brought New York City’s Mid-Town East of the early 1960s to life, even fashioning the apartment and its view through the skylight (including snowfall) after a building on East 48th. The view, which included a view of the ledge, a location which served both humor and heart, and neighboring buildings, was never a distraction as it created the illusion of joining the newlyweds in their new apartment in the city.
Meanwhile Reed Halvorson’s direction was tight, with an opening night on track from the beginning never missing a beat. I wasn’t at the rehearsals, but productions are not this good without a director’s support and unwavering encouragement of his actors.
“Barefoot in the Park” continues through June 23 at the Pelzer Auditorium. Tickets here.