ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT - BY: IRV RIKON
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TWO THEATER REVIEWS
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For more than 40 years, Fanny Brice was arguably America's best known, most beloved comedienne. Long before there was Lucy or Carol, Mary, Maude or Rosie, Ms. Brice starred in variety shows, burlesque, on Broadway, the Ziegfeld Follies, movies, radio and, finally, television.
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In David Bell's play, Fanny Brice: The Real Funny Girl, being given its World Premiere production through November 24 at THE MALTZ JUPITER THEATRE in Jupiter, she tells her life story to a book writer and to us, the audience.
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Hers was indeed quite a story, but the play fails to live up to expectations. Ms. Brice was married three times, in her youth to a young man whose name escapes memory, later to Nicky Arnstein, a Wall Street manipulator who eventually wound up in federal prison, later still to Billy Rose, a Broadway producer who loved the limelight.
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As important as these men were to Fanny, equally so was Florenz Ziegfeld, who pushed her along the road to Stardom. Mr. Bell's script, though, tends to leap from man to man, leaving the tale rather disjointed. Worse, it's hard to attribute real emotions to any of these people. It's mentioned, for example, that Ms. Brice had two children, but nothing further is said about them or how Fanny felt about motherhood and raising kids.
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Both Arnstein and Billy Rose are treated as arch-villains, the former as a strong, silent type, the latter as a little hustler. In other words, they're one-dimensional stock characters, not flesh-and-blood living people.
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Playwright Bell was influenced by the mega-hit stage musical and motion picture, Funny Girl, which thrust Barbra Streisand into stardom when she portrayed Fanny Brice. That script, he felt, over-glamorized and told not The Real Story. The fact is, however, in viewing a musical about Flo Ziegfeld and the Follies, plus Billy Rose, who owned the renowned Diamond Horseshoe nightclub and staged lavish Broadway productions, (Jumbo even featured a live elephant,) you expect glamour and pretty girls elaborately gowned: that's the milieu in which such folks worked.
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In the '30s, gangsters were glamorized and, to this day, despite the recession through which we're living, Wall Street holds glamour for most of us. But this production has just four actors; the action takes place backstage in a dark, dingy-looking theater; the producer clearly has an eye on future productions this season.
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Meanwhile, on this production the theater is skimping, and it shows.
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As for the cast, all four are good. Marya Grandy, as Fanny Brice, lacks the charisma to be thoroughly convincing, but she's certainly adequate. As Flo Ziegfeld, Frank Kopyc is very good both acting and singing, and I enjoyed Stef Tovar as Billy Rose in what I perceive to be a thankless role. Lance Baker's role, as Nicky Arnstein, is equally hopeless.
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The big saving grace lies with the songs and musical numbers, several of which Fanny included in her routines and are still audience-pleasers.
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Lost in Yonkers, Neil Simon's autobiographical Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning comedy, runs at the Maltz December 1-13. La Cage aux Folles, another Tony Award winner, one of Broadway's all time biggest hits, with a great score by Jerry Herman, plays January 12 - 31. The producer is planning to go all-out, with "beautiful show-girls and colorful production numbers". For reservations and additional information, telephone 575-2223
Clive Cholerton, the new Artistic Director of THE CALDWELL THEATRE COMPANY, Boca Raton, makes an auspicious debut in producing The Voysey Inheritance. This drama, which runs through December 13, was written in 1877 by British playwright Harley Granville-Barker and adapted for contemporary audiences by the award-winning David Mamet (whose American Buffalo will be shown at Palm Beach Dramaworks starting February 19.)
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The Caldwell's own publicity speaks of this in terms of the Bernie Madoff scandal, which does its production a disservice. It's a much better play than art imitating life or vice versa. Mr. Mamet leaves the play in England. The year is 1903. The family is in the library of their estate, where all the action takes place. In a tense opening scene between Mr. Voysey (Peter Haig) and his son Edward, (Terry Hardcastle,) it develops that the older man's firm, in which family members work, has been bilking investors.
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The money is gone, and the family inheritance will be basically nothing. Most of the rest of the play describes everyone's reaction, especially Edward's, to the news. And when word get out, as it must, the public also reacts to having been swindled.
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At its best, this is a multiple character study, a joy to watch, all the more so for the reason contemporary writers seldom write in terms of character. We've all grown accustomed to viewing situations rather than the people who get caught up in them.
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Mr. Cholerton directs, his pace perhaps a bit too deliberate at the outset, but the play gathers steam and the director with it. Besides, he's working with a large cast of excellent actors, many of whom have garnered Carbonell Awards as "Best" actor or actress. Besides Mr. Hardcastle, who is brilliant in his role, and Mr. Haig, who has never given a bad performance locally, the cast includes Marta Reiman, Lourelene Snedeker, Dennis Creaghan, Dan Leonard, Jim Ballard, John Felix, Kathryn Lee Johnson, Stephen G. Anthony and a pair of newcomers.
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While several are not onstage for very long, that's all the more reason to pay close attention. This is the kind of play which cannot be described in detail, for that would diminish the fun of it. The plot is always interesting and seemingly timeless in its endless variations, but the greatest pleasure comes from watching a flawless cast do its thing.
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Alberto Arroyo designed the excellent period costumes and Tim Bennett designed the set totally appropriately, as invariably he does. Thomas Salzman did the same with lighting. It's a serious play, although some audience members giggled at superficial similarities to the Madoff case, but if you like good drama and acting that puts it across, this is for you. Go see it.
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Chemical Imbalance, a farce based on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, runs January 3 - February 7.
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