Anytime you put Joe Bailey and Richard Payton on stage
together, one can expect comedic mayhem to break out. And when you add Suzy
Jacokes into the mix – well, you get “Clue on stage” at The Ringwald Theatre in
Ferndale, which runs through November 5.
Bailey – The Ringwald’s founding artistic director – and
Payton have appeared on stage together so many times that they work like a
well-oiled, laugh-generating machine. One only has to glance at the other – a
warning sign, to be sure – and a comedic melt-down of epic proportions is sure
to follow.
And that’s what happened more than once at this past
Saturday night’s performance of the riotous comedy adapted from the screenplay
by Jonathan Lynn.
Now, it’s a theatrical legend that the second performance
of any run is generally a let-down from the night before; that all the
anticipation and pent-up energy generated throughout the rehearsal process is
expelled on opening night with little left to power the show the following
night.
That certainly wasn’t the case with this production. That’s
partly because director Bryan Lark puts his actors through such a vigorously
draining pace from start to finish that it’s easy to believe the cast will shed
a collective 900 gallons of sweat at the very least throughout the run of the
show.
But it’s also because Bailey and Payton took advantage of
both their love of one-upmanship and a few goofs to such a degree that I
suspect most in the nearly packed audience couldn’t have cared less that a few
lines of dialogue were flubbed or props didn’t end up where they were supposed
to be.
Instead, we laughed our butts off. And when Jacokes
chimed in – she, too, gets that certain gleam in her eye and sly grin on her
face when inspiration is about to hit – it became obvious we were watching
masters of their craft take the show to an unanticipatedly high level of
comedic entertainment.
If there’s a comparison to be made, Saturday night’s
performance was like watching an episode of “The Carol Burnett Show” when
Harvey Korman, Tim Conway and Carol went off script and the results were
hilarious. Yes, The Ringwald Trio were that good!
Also good – no, great, actually – was Donny Riedel, who
plays Wadsworth the butler who serves as the show’s ringleader. In “Clue,” an
oddball group of people are invited to a dinner party thrown by the mysterious
Mr. Boddy. Once there, they learn they all have one thing in common – and that’s
when the bodies start dropping. Riedel’s is a masterful performance, one in
which every nuance of his character is so thoroughly examined, explored and
expelled at such a high-octane level that one expects him to physically and
emotionally collapse long before show’s end.
The Bottom Line: So while some nitpickers may find fault with actors who have
some fun when things go awry on stage or when one simply looks at another and
hilarity ensues, at The Ringwald that means one thing: We’re about to have an
even better time than we initially anticipated.
For complete show details, CLICK HERE!
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| Donny Riedel |
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