moon_over_buffalo

Replacement Actor Saves the Day after 'Moon Over Buffalo' Crisis

With leading man in hospital, director's husband steps up for Weathervane production

Everyone knows the show must go on. Even when your leading man suffers an emergency appendectomy just two days before your production is supposed to play before a live audience.

That was the case at Weathervane Community Playhouse last week, when John Bruce, co-star of Moon Over Buffalo, was hospitalized. Enter Terry Burgler, husband of director Nancy Cates and fight choreographer for the production.

Burgler, a professional actor, Shakespearean scholar and Kent State University theater professor, did wonders. On Saturday — just five days after stepping into the comedic role of leading man George Hay — Burgler had digested the role quite nicely. (The theater is unsure if or when Bruce will be able to return.)

Ken Ludwig's farce follows the antics of nutty theater couple George and Charlotte Hay, who are past their prime but are trying desperately to hang on to their glory days.

They've formed a third-rate touring company that's performing Private Lives and Cyrano de Bergerac in repertory in Buffalo. In this cheap company, even the stage manager and wardrobe supervisor assume roles onstage.

When Charlotte finds out about George's extracurricular activities with the company ingenue, their marriage is in crisis. (In an interesting parallel to the last-minute substitution at Weathervane, in Moon, the Hays' visiting daughter Roz, played by Kimberly Mahoney, must step in when the ingenue boycotts a matinee.)

Burgler's George is bombastic by nature, while Dede Klein is the comic anchor as the oft-histrionic Charlotte. George's accusation that his wife is having a ''menopausal hallucination'' gives you a taste of their relationship.

This backstage farce was created by the same playwright who penned Lend Me a Tenor, which Cates directed to wild success in 2006 at Weathervane. But Moon doesn't sparkle nearly as brightly as Tenor. Despite the repeated slamming of doors and one mistaken identity, Moon's writing isn't nearly as inspired.

Carol Burnett starred in Moon on Broadway in 1995. While she and the cast earned praise, the work itself received mixed reviews.

At Weathervane on Saturday, the first-act setup for Moon's backstage confusion felt cumbersome, like it was moving in slow motion. The first scene was messy as war sound effects drowned out the actors in the opening Cyrano de Bergerac play-within-a-play. (Even so, a repeated sight gag concerning Cyrano's prosthetic nose is quite fun.)

At Weathervane, the humor finally starts to shine as characters run in and out of five doors trying to find each other at the end of Act I, with the crusty old wardrobe lady, Ethel, directing traffic. The zaniness picks up in the second act, including a laugh-out-loud scene in which the stage manager tries to get the drunken George into his costume pants. This scene is played to perfection by Burgler and Scott Shriner, as Paul.

Burgler shines most when George is rip-roaring drunk, falling asleep on a stairway banister or creating a hysterical onstage disaster in front of a live audience.

Mahoney is saucily cute as Roz and Tim Champion garners laughs as the barking lawyer Richard. Maureen Johnson also is convincing as the nearly deaf Ethel, Charlotte's mother and the fictional company's wardrobe lady.

Alan Scott Ferrall's turntable set is wonderful, depicting both a backstage green room and a stage set.

Moon Over Buffalo isn't bound to become a classic. But this game cast brings to life enough mayhem to evoke both smiles and some big laughs.

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Kerry Clawson can be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.