The Arlington Players have tackled Stephen Sondheim’s purest comedy work three times in the past and now they return to its inspired tomfoolery with a sparkling performance in the lead, a pair of fine ones in important major roles and an absolutely hysterical one in what must be one of the most memorable smaller roles in all the catalogue of the American musical comedy.
Who is the comic who makes the very, very small part very, very funny? Albert Coia. He plays Erronius, an old man who is sent off to run seven times around the seven hills of Rome by a con man who needs to get him out of the way while he works his con. Coia, who was nominated for a Washington Area Community Theatre Honors (WATCH) award for his work on this stage in "The Pirates of Penzance" and a Helen Hayes Award for his fondly recalled music hall stint in the Interact Theatre Company’s holiday show, "Down at the Old Bull and Bush," uses his compact body with precise bursts of energy to make the recurring gag of his circling Rome delightful interruptions to a thoroughly enjoyable comedy. He brings the audience in on the gag, seemingly making eye contact with the entire assembly as he recites the sequential "First time around," then "Second time around," etc.
The show is filled with comic bits as is to be expected of a show that begins with the song "Comedy tonight" in which a comedian announces that the evening will include no tragedy, but, rather, "pantaloons and tunics, courtesans and eunuchs, funerals and chases, baritones and basses, panderers, philanderers, cupidity, timidity, mistakes, fakes, rhymes, crimes, tumblers, grumblers, bumblers, fumblers." Sondheim’s lyric magically describes the entire evening in just twenty-five words.
Andy Izquierdo is the comic who delivers those words, and so many other funny ones written both by Sondheim who handled lyrics and by Burt Shevelov and Larry Gelbart who wrote, with liberal lifts from the Roman comedies of Plautus. After delivering heavy drama so effectively in "Blood Brothers" for the Elden Street Players and "A New Brain" for the Kensington Arts Theatre. Izquierdo now demonstrates a fine comic touch, shedding any reservations to put across even the corniest of jokes. He also has a fine voice and provides leadership for the big numbers and fine collegial cooperation for the comic highlight of the score, "Everybody Ought To Have A Maid."
That "Maid Number" also highlights the stage persona of Bill Karukas, that other solid foundation of the cast. He, along with Ross Wolfarth who gives good voice to the role of his son, the love sick youth, fill out the line of standouts. There are, however, others who make substantial contributions, most notably Kate Roehr as a virgin who sings that she’s "Lovely." Ian Grossman is a bit slow getting into a comic mode but he helps make the finale a joy.
All of this takes place on the large stage of the Thomas Jefferson Theatre which is bedecked with three substantial Roman villas designed by Jared Davis and the cast cavorts in the colorful costumes of Barbara Esquibel. In the large pit, Mark V. Deal conducts a twenty-player orchestra, getting solid rhythmic support for the cast even if there are a few sour notes from time to time.
All in all, the package under the direction of Malcolm Edwards does justice to a fine, fun and all together funny show with a superbly enjoyable musical score.
<i>Brad Hathaway reviews theater in Virginia, Washington and Maryland as well as Broadway, and edits Potomac Stages, a Web site covering theater in the region (<a href=http://www.PotomacStages.com> www.PotomacStages.com</a>). He can be reached at <a href=mailto:Brad@PotomacStages.com> Brad@PotomacStages.com</a>.
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