240.
CHARACTER MAN
Searching
for gold in this season of theatrical dross has been a drearily exhausting
business, but a nugget, small as it is, has shown up in the form of CHARACTER
MAN, a one-man revue by veteran performer Jim Brochu, directed by Robert Bartley, at Urban Stages. Alone on
stage for 90 intermissionless minutes with a few theatre seats, a trunk, a dressing table, and a pianist (Carl Haan), the genial Mr. Brochu rambles entertainingly through
his life as a boy from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, who fell in love with the theatre, began his
career at 16 by selling orange drinks at the Alvin Theatre (now the Neil Simon), and
was mentored by various stars, most especially Tony winner comic actor David
Burns. His orange-drink selling memories become a running gag as the price of such
drinks rises through the years to where he eventually orders one himself and finds
he can’t afford it.
Mr.
Brochu, a portly, white-haired gent in his late 60s, wearing a trim white
beard, navy blazer, gray slacks, and red tie, works in various personal
biographical details, including a considerable amount about his father, a
handsome, well-to-do corporate lawyer on Wall Street, and world traveler who dated Joan Crawford for
three years (yes, there’s a line about Mr. Brochu’s possibly having become
one of that alleged child-abuser’s kids). Photos and videos (thanks to set designer Patrick Brennan) are flashed on
three screens to illustrate his career (I spotted a college friend, Laura May
Lewis [Laura Cupshan], as Mr. Brochu’s costar in UNFAIR TO GOLIATH, one of his early flops) and those of the stars--he calls them the "Jewish Knights of the Round Table"--he memorializes (including a tacked-on string of character actresses). Mr. Brochu
also sings a number of songs from shows he was in, including "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid," from A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, “Ya Got Trouble”
from THE MUSIC MAN, “If I Were a Rich Man” from FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, “Who
Shall I Turn To” from THE ROAR OF THE GREASEPAINT, THE SMELL OF THE CROWD, "Mieskeit" from CABARET, and "Mr. Cellophane" from CHICAGO.
Mr.
Brochu is a smooth performer who sings nicely, moves gracefully, and has a
direct and likable personality, without being too over-the-moon about himself.
I don’t know how many in his audience remember such performers (mostly, but not all, Jewish) as David Burns, Lou Jacobi, Jack Gilford, Cyril Ritchard,
or George S. Irving, and younger audiences will even have trouble with Jackie
Gleason and Zero Mostel, but for theatre fans who love trips down Broadway’s
memory lane, they could do much worse than spend an hour and a half in the
company of this charming host, listening to his many humorous and even touching anecdotes--or as the theatre's artistic director calls them in her program note, "antidotes." She's right, in a sense, since these anecdotes are worthy antidotes to a lot of recent theatre work that could use the magic touch of any one of the great old character men Jim Brochu recalls.