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| Jane Connell, Tom V.V. Tammi, Arlene Nadel, Louis G. Trapani. (Photos: Paul H. Hoeffler) |
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| Jane Connell, Fred Stuthman. |
This was a moderately effective revival of Goldsmith’s 1773
town and country comedy—a satire of the era’s sentimental comedy style—about
deceptions practiced in a country home. The chief victim of the foolery is
Young Marlowe (Robert G. Murch), who is convinced by Kate Hardcastle (Nancy
Reardon) that her home is an inn and she a serving wench. The Roundabout’s 1971
production (done in an intimate basement theatre) is not to be confused with
the company’s 1984 revival in a larger venue, with a different cast and
director.
Jack Kroll enjoyed it enough to say, “With revivals like
this, who needs new plays?” Mel Gussow considered the production “surprisingly
good,” with only a few “weaknesses,” among which were “an uneven acting company,
[and] a barrage of accents.” Gene Feist’s staging was adept and the period
flavor appropriate, but “the true character values are squashed, squelched and
suppressed,” Gussow added. There was also an unfortunate busyness to the
production, including too much “unfunny and irrelevant” business. Holmes Easley’s
set, though, was anything but busy, being little more than two straight-backed
chairs, with the visual emphasis placed on Mimi Maxmen’s sumptuous period
costumes.
Jane Connell, fighting hard to separate herself from the
indelible image she created as Agnes Gooch in Auntie Mame, was “inspired” casting in the secondary but fruitful role of
Mrs. Hardcastle, wrote Gussow. “Somehow, in the course of her years of playing
contemporary comedy, she has become a first-rate classical character actress. She
strides through this production with grace and confidence, never playing for laughs,
but getting most of them. Tricked into getting lost on her own property . . . ,
she explodes—not into a screech of self-pity, but into a quiet rumble. When she
softly moans, ‘I shall remember the horse-pond as long as I live,’ one knows
that she will.”
Others in the cast included Fred Stuthman as Mr. Hardcastle,
Louis G. Trapani as Tony Lumpkin, Philip Campanella as the comic servant
Diggory, Arlene Nadel as Miss Neville, and, among others, Tom V.V. Tammi as
Hastings.
