Production History

Statement:Producing the Play

Textual
Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman in many ways doctored a love letter dedicated to friends, the powerful, and Hollywood (all circa 1939) in the vehicle of the Man Who Came to Dinner. The scads of references has many audiences (circa 2009) seventy years later scratching their heads, speculating who this or that person is and why it's funny or valid for these characters. Most audience members will fail to find humor in a Zasu Pitts reference or go to pieces over the way "Beverly Carlton" exacts the mannerisms of the then-famous, Noel Coward. With well over one- hundred 1930's trivia plugs, one might be tempted to resort to a mini- dramaturg packet for each audience member, a who's- who guide to help translate the Man... into a comedy again. Timing and expression prove crucial in any comedy but uncommonly vital in this case due to the nature of the text. The production's length also constitutes an issue when appealing to an average theatre audience. Running in some cases over three hours- should there be two intermissions? Do you risk losing half the gallery following the slow-to-pick-up first act? In many productions, directors have chosen to trim off twenty to thirty minutes. Cutting the script must be cautiously approached, mindful to not lose the time or characters all together in attempts to speed up the run. The amount of characters could potentially create a problem for smaller companies to achieve. Double casting the various, eccentric comrades of Sheridan Whiteside appears commonplace and also gives the actors an opportunity to play creatively with their range. Technically, there's not much to fear when producing this piece. The Dramatist's script includes sheet music for Beverly's song, an extensive prop list, a set design and even a suggested text change section. There is a moving penguin prop that always provokes an inventive solution from designers along with some laughs.

Context
The largest obstacle to producing the Man Who Came to Dinner at Sam Houston (or anywhere for the matter) lies in the text itself. A dramaturg would definitely be necessary to educate the actors on not only whom or what they're referencing but whom their characters resemble from the 1930s. Though many attributes of what makes the Man.. a comedy transcend time, undergraduate audiences will largely fail to respond to much of the written humor, able to relate more to the situational/physical comedy of the piece. However, apart from the student-based audience, I would hypothesize that most subscribers to our theatre belong to a much older generation who could appreciate this time-capsule comedy. Casting might also prove problematic. Many undergrad actors experience difficulty playing age and with an overall older character list, these abilities become crucial. Just as an audience has difficulty believing a 30 something playing a teen, an audience would also be distracted by teens playing 40s-60s. The director at Stephen F. Austin did not audition anyone for the role of Whiteside and instead cast an alumni in the part beforehand. He explained that even though he felt talent to be abundant at the undergrad level, he did not think any college aged actor could do the role justice. While denying an undergrad actor this opportunity seems extreme, it also highlights just how difficult a director might find it to fill Whiteside's loafers.

Solutions and Critics
Most reviewers chief complaints have dealt with either the acting ability of the cast or simply the length of the production. I believe both of these issues correlate directly to the script. Many of the minor characters provide easy laughs with their outlandish antics and secure one-liners. However, many theatre authorities comment that these actors are either too out there or too mundane to notice in comparison. With the revolving door of characters in the script, many directors have double cast the more minor roles. So, when the strange Metz morphs into the smooth Beverly Carlton, the actor's credability is easily doubled in the eyes of audiences and critics alike. The wordiness of certain Whiteside monologues and excessive character establishment in the first act were cut from many productions. As a result, these productions heard less whining about the length and more praise for their precise comedic timing.





Roundabout Theatre Comany
American Airlines Theatre
New York, NY (2000)
Director:Jerry Zaks

Designers: Tony Walton (set)
William Ivey Long (costumes)
Paul Gallo (lighting)

Starring: Nathan Lane (Whiteside)


"Yet the production feels busy without being lively. Much of the acting is a series of flourishes that sell individual jokes and epigrams without being anchored to character. This, alas, includes Mr. Lane's performance.Mr. Lane spoke of his research on his role and his awareness, after watching Woolley in the 1941 movie version, of the dangers of making the arrogant, curmudegonly Whiteside too unpleasant. Yet if Whiteside isn't a convincing monster, the central joke of the play falls apart. Many of the supporting performances suffer from a similar feeling of distance between actors and their parts, a sense that lines are being played strictly for the comic moment with little regard for context."- BEN BRANTLEY, The New York Times http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?html_title=&tols_title=MAN%20WHO%20CAME%20TO%20DINNER,%20THE%20(PLAY)&byline=By%20BEN%20BRANTLEY&pdate=20000728&id=1077011432616

"From his opening, "I may vomit", Nathan Lane lands Whiteside's many hilarious insults with his usual perfect timing, With his shoe polish slick hair and satin lounging jackets he passes for a reasonable facsimile of the abrasive character created by Monty Wooley on screen as well as stage. Yet, except for some scenes when he doesn't say anything at all, and during the bit when he and Banjo plan to save Maggie's romance, Lane fails to project the mix of pomposity, urbanity and wit that the role demands. Walton's set satirizes upwardly mobile mid-Americans' conspicuous consumption with a house that's over elaborate, and then tips an admiring hat to the gorgeously renovated Selwyn Theatre-- oops, I mean American Air Lines Theatre."- ELYSE SOMMER, CurtainUp
http://www.curtainup.com/manwhocametodinner.html


University of Southern Maine
Gorham, Maine
Russell Hall, November 2008
Director: Thomas Power

Desingers:Charles S. Kading (set)
Nathan Speckman (sound)

Starring: Travis M. Grant (Whiteside)









"Sherry isn't just Perez Hilton for the New Deal set; he's a fully realized human being…Only Erol Ileri as Whiteside's raconteur actor buddy, Banjo, seemed to defy my sense of truth; he's very talented, and displays great physical ability, but he didn't seem to be in the same play as the rest of the cast, and at times, it felt like he was channeling Yogi Bear.The stagecraft at the theatre department, as usual, is top notch; the two-story set,besides one piano piece that sounds like it's being played on a Victrola somewhere in the house rather than by a character onstage, sound design is strong.."
- ALEX MERRILL, Free Press http://media.www.usmfreepress.org/media/storage/paper311/news/2008/11/17/ArtsAndEntertainment/The-Man.Who.Came.To.Dinner-3547795.shtml




Theatre Rhinoceros
San Francisco, CA
July 2004
Director: John Fisher
Starring: P.A. Cooley (Whiteside)
Matthew Martin (Metz, Carlton, Banjo)



"Director John Fisher has made this three act comedy very fast paced and slapstick, with some real over-the-top acting. I was told that during the one week preview before its opening, John Fisher trimmed 20 minutes off of the long, three act play..Most of the portrayals of Sheridan Whitehead I have seen have been neutral in their sexuality; they could be either gay or straight.This director has decided to make him gay. There is even a little cruise scene between Sheridan and reporter Bert Jefferson (Matt Weimer) to build up that impression."


-RICHARD CONNEMA, Talkin Broadway


http://www.talkinbroadway.com/regional/sanfran/s569.html




"The problem with setting Cooley loose on Sheridan is that his performance destroys any subtlety between the snob and his assistant, Maggie. There should be affection between them, veiled by savage wit, but Maryssa Wanlass has no chance to develop Maggie's character in the glare of Sheridan's queeniness. He likes to blow up subtexts until the old plays resemble queer farce. But a director should do it for aesthetic, not political, reasons. You do it because it's funny or illuminating, not to spread the gospel that there are really a lot more queers out there than you think."


- MICHAEL SCOTT MOORE, SF Weekly


http://www.sfweekly.com/2004-12-29/culture/dining-out/











Alley Theatre
Houston, TX
February 2009
Director:John Rando


Starring: James Black as Whiteside
Josie de Guzman as Maggie Cutler

Designers: Alexander Dodge (set)
Gregory Gale (costumes)
Pat Collins (lighting)




http://broadwayworld.com/article/Photo_Flash_THE_MAN_WHO_CAME_TO_DINNER_at_Houstons_Alley_Theatre_20090224





Chichester Festival Theatre
London, UK
August 1999
Director: Joe Dowling
Designer: John Lee Beatty
Starring:Richard Griffiths

"Dowling fails to realise that a sharp-tongued, antic comedy like this must move fast...When the well-cast Eve Matheson milks the emotional upset of Whiteside's factotum Maggie, it doesn't help us empathise with the character: it shows us how underwritten she is.The accents are pretty ropey, too.The pileup of events in the play generates its own impetus, but the zest is missing. We're left tittering quietly at the slow death of each potential belly-laugh, and idly matching up the thinly-veiled celebrity characters with their long-dead, real-life inspirations."


-NICK CURTIS, The Evening Standard (Lexis Nexis)




Stage West Community Playhouse
Spring Hill, Florida
Janurary 2009
Starring: Peter Clapsis (Whiteside)
Jeanine Martin (Maggie)
Cheryl Roberts (Nurse Preen)



"But it is Cheryl Roberts, who plays Nurse Preen as a cross between Cloris Leachman's Nurse Diesel in Mel Brooks's High Anxiety and Louise Fletcher's Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, who steals her every scene...Younger members of the audience may be puzzled and/or unimpressed by some of Whiteside's incessant name-dropping and also not realize that some of the characters are sendups of then-icons Noel Coward and the Marx Brothers. They will pick up on Dali and Disney, but perhaps not realize what a big deal it would be to get a personal phone call from Sam Goldwyn."


-BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN,St. Petersburg Times (Lexis Nexis)




Arena Players Repertory Theater
East Farmingdale, Long Island
December, 1983
Director:David Dubins


Starring: Charles Jerabek (Whiteside)
Mary Boyer (Maggie)
Aileen O'Riordan Kuss (Sarah)



"The Arena Players company has evolved a flamboyant acting style that for certain characters in this script works very well indeed. Charles Jerabek gives a one-level performance as Sheridan Whiteside, never changing expression or vocal inflection. For the rest of the cast, the company's style is not effective. ''The Man Who Came to Dinner'' is filled with eccentrics who take themselves very seriously. For them to be funny and for the play's humor to evolve, the actors have to convey a sense of love, or at least respect, for these oddball characters. Generally, the forced acting either exceeds the limits of acceptability or, at the other extreme, is bland to the point of blotting out the reason for the character to be on stage."


-LEAH D. FRANK, New York Times (Lexis Nexis)