Last night I saw Arsenic and Old Lace at Glendale Centre Theatre. A friend of mine was in the show and as it turns out a few friends were in the audience as well.
I first discovered Arsenic and Old Lace via the movie version on TV when I was around college age. It was my introduction to Cary Grant. Love him in this movie. So damn funny. I like the play too. Not as much as some of the other classic Broadway comedies of that era but I still like it quite a bit. I tend to like the older plays from the mid-20th century (Kaufman and Hart's plays, Neil Simon's a couple of decades later). So many great plays.
So many plays that were standards in community, stock, college and high school theaters all across the country for decades. But these days, maybe not as frequently performed, although still done on occasion. Now I sometimes hesitate when I go to see productions of this era these days. Afraid they may not stay true to the era they were written by modernizing some references or clothing styles.
I am happy to report this production did not disappoint in that department. There was one joke in the second act that referenced Judith Andersen, and I had to process it. Mortimer says to his aunts who are dressed all in black for a funeral service, that they look like Judith Andersen. And then I thought to myself. Judith Andersen. Older actress, British Dame. Known for Medea. Oh! And the Alfred Hitchcock movie, Rebecca where she played Mrs. Danvers who was obsessed with the first Mrs. de Winter and is dressed all in black throughout the movie. Oh. Yeah. Funny! I wonder how many people in the audience got that. I'd say none based not he fact that it didn't get a laugh.
But back to the play. The pacing was good for the most part. There was one actor in the opening scene who did not have good pacing. I liked the actor playing Mortimer. He reminded me A LOT of Danny Thomas. I'm guessing if I told him that he would have no idea who Danny Thomas was. My one quibble with him was that he was considerably younger than the two actors playing his brothers. Both were also quite good as were the two aunts. What great parts!
The actor playing Jonathan was great. He looked scary and moved kind of like Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, (which is the main gag for his character). But he really had it down. He was funny.
The reason I'm going on about this is that about 10 years ago saw a production of Arsenic and Old Lace that was not good. And I saw it because I knew several people involved in it. In fact, they closed it down, re-cast a couple of roles and re-opened it. It was definitely better the second time around. But man, the first version. Yikes! I felt like the lead actors didn't get it. They didn't get the style at all. And this brings me to my point.
I feel that many actors who are a decade or more younger than me, don't get plays and TV shows from before the 1980s. Seriously. Like they don't know how to play comedy at all. And I'm talking about really good well-trained actors who are serious about their craft. And maybe that's my problem. Not that I don't take these plays seriously. But to me there is a whole style of acting that has gone out of favor. And its the kind of acting that I like. I feel like a relic.
I feel this type of play falls into the sitcom category as well. There were many plays on Broadway around the 1960s or so (like the Neil Simon plays) that come from the same type of humor...sitcom. Setup. Setup. Joke. Guaranteed laughs. But I think so many actors today don't grow with that so they don't get it. They try to dissect and analyze and approach it like a serious piece. And they miss the beats, the rhythms. Because all great comedy has a rhythm, a pacing, a style. You need to know this and feel it in addition to all the other acting research.
So I am happy to say that Arsenic and Old Lace at Glendale Centre Theatre got it right. It was a delight.
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