Production
about imaginary bunny a really good
show review
of "Harvey"
The Energizer
Bunny, Roger Rabbit, Peter Rabbit,
Bugs, Thumper, Frank from Donnie Darko
- bunnies do seem to be omnipresent,
especially this time of year. They’re
cute, they’re furry and everybody
likes them. The beloved bunny has
burrowed itself into our affections
and established itself as an icon
of popular culture. While the Cadbury
Bunny may just be headed off for a
long vacation, another bunny is just
returning from a little rest, that
mischievous rabbit in the fedora,
Harvey.
Created and brought to life by playwright
Mary Chase, the antics of a man and
his drinking buddy bunny were captured
in her classic play "Harvey,"
have been amusing and entertaining
audiences for more than 60 years and
continue to do so in its present production
at Curtain Call Theatre in Latham.
This popular, well-worn comic fantasy
is the story of the winsome Elwood
P. Dowd and his invisible friend,
Harvey, a 6-foot-31⁄2-inch-tall
rabbit. When Elwood starts to introduce
his fluffy friend Harvey to guests
at a party, his social-climbing sister,
Veta, and his amative little niece,
Myrtle Mae, decide to have him committed
to Chumley’s Rest, a local sanitarium,
to hopefully spare their family from
future embarrassment. Problems arise,
however, when a young attending physician
mistakenly commits Veta. After myriad
comic moments, the truth comes out
and a final decision is made on where
Elwood’s home should be and
who gets custody of the bunny.
"Harvey" was the surprise
hit of the 1944 Broadway season, running
five years, winning the Pulitzer Prize
and returning comic actor Frank Fay
to the front rank of stage stars.
Incidentally, Fay wasn’t the
first choice to star in the play,
nor was a 6-foot rabbit the title
character in Mary Chase’s first
draft. Broadway legend states that
the piece was originally penned for
Tallulah Bankhead, with her best friend
and drinking companion as an invisible
4-foot-tall canary. Whether this bit
of trivia is based on one of Bankhead’s
well-documented public debaucheries
or just another bit of Great White
Way fantasy, theater audiences should
be thankful for rewrites.
While this production has a winning
cast and a first-rate design team,
there are a few missteps that mar
an otherwise pleasant production.
"Harvey" is a deceptively
simple play. Usually tossed off as
an easy-to-produce slight little bit
of comic fluff, just behind the laughter
is a poised social commentary. The
message is not to be preached out
like a sermon, but it is there and
should be acknowledged. Unfortunately,
director Cindy Brizzell-Bates has
made rather torpid and unattentive
choices in her approach to the play,
allowing the talented cast to flounder
at times and search for attention
and the laughs.
Few stage characters are as well loved
and cherished as Elwood P. Dowd, and
Curtain Call veteran Kevin McNamara
creates an engaging, amiable man who
just wants to be everybody’s
friend. As usual, McNamara manages
to mine the comedy from every moment
and charm the pants off the audience
and sanitarium staff doctors alike.
The quibble is that Elwood should
seem somewhat normal and slightly
off–center, and McNamara has
been allowed to go a little bit too
far. There are a few times too many
where choices made place the character
on the far side of crazy, allowing
the audience to believe that the sanitarium
is the best place for him and Harvey.
Managing all of the baggage of Veta’s
social-climbing motivations (and the
most challenging role in the play),
the ever-steady Paula Ginder’s
Veta doesn’t seem exasperated
enough by her brother’s actions,
but Sara Paupini-Fitiizzi’s
Myrtle Mae seems overly so, creating
an odd and incorrect balance between
who should be doing the commitment
of Elwood and bunny. Sanitarium staff
Kevin Gardner, Ellen Meehan, Ian LaChance
and Gary Maggio work well together,
but each seems to have flashes of
character realizations that they forget
to impart and when remembered they
rush to get them out for the audience
to enjoy.
But the boo-boos here belong to Brizzell-Bates,
who allows her cast to seem tentative
about the delivery and the style they
should be using and never firmly roots
the play to its proper period. While
hardly fatal to the enjoyment of the
evening, these oversights do obscure
and partially bury the message behind
the laughter.
While there are a few faux paws with
style and delivery, there are few
if any with the technical aspects
of the production. Despite a couple
of glitches on the opening night —
perhaps the prank of one of Harvey’s
friends — the setting designed
by Jason Sims is well done and appropriate,
moving the action between Elwood’s
home and the office at Chumley’s
Rest with ease.
Lighting by Greg Goff finishes Sims’
set well, adding subtle touches that
never overwhelm or overstate. Anna
Lacivita’s costumes are well
designed and executed with all of
the style and flourish of the period,
with attention to detail that is both
germane and relevant.
