The Rainmaker
It’s always a tricky tightrope walk to revive a show from the 1950s in the jaded 2000s. First there are the plot conventions: three acts instead of two (exposition, crisis and finally, climax and resolution, slavishly applied); rapid resolution wherein everyone gets what he or she always wanted; and clearly defined stock-characters. The 1954 play, “The Rainmaker,” seen as a movie starring Burt Lancaster and Katherine Hepburn and then as the musical, “110 in the Shade,” does not wear as well as plays that are not so transparently well made.
Ah! But the product is greater than its parts in A Noise Within’s rendition, due to the confluence of excellent acting, subtle Americana in set design and split-second staging by director Andrew J. Traister. “The Rainmaker” centers on a young spinster, Lizzie, and her family. The boys work the ranch that their father, a wise but strong individual, developed with his own hands. Lizzie has been content to function as their housekeeper, but the men are concerned that she will never marry, and set about trying to make a match, mostly with no result. Into this double drought steps Starbuck, a charismatic stranger, who purports to conjure up rain as well as dreams.
And you can guess what happens then!
Company stalwarts, Mitchell Edmonds, Bo Foxworth and Steve Weingartner create an ensemble spirit with the newcomers in the cast. As the father, H.C., Edmonds radiates a sense of surety and strength, while Steve Weingartner, as his eldest son, creates a foil that eloquently divulges the family’s underlying tensions. Bo Foxworth, on the other hand, is curiously subdued as the flamboyant Starbuck. Unlike the rest, Foxworth unfolds a much more nuanced character – a man who is tired of running.
As Lizzie, Bridget Flanery delicately picks her way through her initial vulnerability and arrives at a self-confidence nourished by Starbuck’s dreams. Her intended, File, winningly played by Scott Roberts, is a handsome hunk with vulnerability of his own. As his partner, Sheriff Thomas, Leonard Kelly-Young makes the most of a thankless role. But I’ve saved the best for last. Ross Hellwig as Jimmy Curry makes his built-in naiveté downright sweet instead of cloying.
Tinkering with what was originally a potboiling melodrama, Traister punctuates the humor that he has mined in the piece with well-timed comic schtick, thus keeping the audience contentedly traversing that tightrope that I mentioned at the beginning. His clarity of directing is matched by the sets and lighting of resident designer, James P. Taylor, who balances attention to realist detail with stylistic silhouettes against a backdrop that periodically looms out of the darkness. Bravo.
Costumes by Julie Keen, expert wigs and make-up from Byron Batista and properties gathered by Dicapria Del Carpio remain in the naturalistic mode, while incidental music by ANW music director, David O, contributes to the ambience.
A Noise Within’s The Rainmaker performs in repertory with Hamlet and Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist at 234 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale 91204, for 12 more performances beginning on October 19th at 2:00 P.M. and 7:00 P.M. through December 6th. See www.anoisewithin.org for complete schedule. Tickets from $40.00 to $44.00. Phone (818) 240-0910 or online.