Light Up The Sky
For anyone who decries the demise of the “good old days” on Broadway, Moss Hart’s 1948 comedy, “Light Up The Sky,” provides a nearly photographic look at commercial theatre and gives us at least one good argument for a better system (Well, all right. It is a BIT exaggerated).
I do not mean to wax too philosophical, however, for “Light Up The Sky” paints the large cast of stock characters in deliciously broad strokes. The ensemble has invaded Boston for out-of-town previews of an unusually sensitive new play written by a mid-western yokel, Peter Sloan (played by Dominic Spillane), bankrolled by the richer-than-dirt industrialist cum producer, Sidney Black (Benjamin Burdick) with his gaudy wife, Frances (Andrea Syglowski). The action takes place in the hotel suite of the glamorous star, Irene Livingston (Laura Flanagan) who never travels without her domineering mother, Stella (Barbara Schofield). Her accountant husband, Tyler (Richard Michael Knolla), very wisely stays out of it.
Then we have the efficient secretary, Miss Lowell (Amanda Weier), and the director, Carleton Fitzgerald (Colin Campbell), augmented by an assortment of admirers and hangers-on, all trooping through the apartment before, during and in the wee hours after the first out of town performance. Offstage, the play and playwright both are run through the gamut of praise and blame during every twist and turn of “Light Up The Sky.” Playwright Moss Hart, being, of course, Moss Hart, is a master of this type of play, so favored on Broadway just after the war years. He kept the wise cracks and shenanigans coming through three fast moving, pell-mell acts.
Open Fist’s season-opening production is blessed with the services of seasoned performers like Flanagan as Irene who brings the classical theater diva to life. Cambell’s fey director is suitably flamboyant, and the card-playing duo of mother Stella and Frances Black, punctuate their chorus-like characters with quirks of the trade. As the callow playwright Spillane really is callow. As the Shriner Andrew Ortiz stands out in what could be described as a cameo role. But Burdick steals focus with his Nathan Lane-like version of producer Sidney Black. He saves the day in an otherwise out of control second act as he rises above the sort of bickering chaos that requires split-second timing and has, since opening perhaps, become muddy. It may be time for director Bjorn Johnson to take another look.
If there were no other reason to produce this comedy, the costumes by A. Jeffery Schoenberg are magnificent from Irene’s negligee to her apré show evening dress. His designs remind that hats once meant more than mere covering, clothes were meant to be draped, and even one’s robe (in this case, Stella’s) made a statement. The clothes gain authenticity from the impeccably researched hair styles created by Kristen Shaw. In contrast, Victoria Profitt’s scene design wrestles with the demands of multiple doors, nooks and crannies, while Ellen Monocroussos’ lighting meets the demands of the production. Period music from Peter Carlstedt is bouncy and fun.
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Theater: The New Open Fist Theatre - 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood 90038
Web Site: http://www.openfist.org/
Tickets: (323) 882-6912 (All tickets, $20.00)
Dates: through March 7, 2009