Capital Region Performance Gallery

by Dick Frantzreb

Moon Over Buffalo, a comedy by Ken Ludwig, opened on Broadway in 1995, and it has become a favorite of community theater companies. Here is a synopsis of the play from Ludwig's website: “The hilarious Moon Over Buffalo centers on George and Charlotte Hay, fading stars of the 1950’s. At the moment, they’re playing Private Lives and Cyrano De Bergerac in rep in Buffalo, New York with 5 actors. On the brink of a disastrous split-up caused by George’s dalliance with a young ingénue, they receive word that they might just have one last shot at stardom: Frank Capra is coming to town to see their matinee, and if likes what he sees, he might cast them in his movie remake of The Scarlet Pimpernel. Unfortunately for George and Charlotte, everything that could go wrong does go wrong, abetted by a visit from their daughter’s clueless fiancé and hilarious uncertainty about which play they’re actually performing, caused by Charlotte’s deaf old stage-manager mother who hates every bone in George’s body.” I drove 68 miles (roundtrip) to Placerville to attend this show from my home in Roseville. If I'd known in advance what a good show it turned out to be, with its outstanding acting and directing, I would have gladly driven many times that distance. (Take note you readers in Sacramento and environs.)

Imagination Theater performs at the El Dorado County Fair & Event Center in Placerville. The theater is a little hard for the first-timer to find in the fairgrounds, and it’s not clear where to park. The building housing the theater is old, but you get a warm, welcome feeling on entering the lobby. On this opening night, there was a wine bar, a concession stand, walls filled with the posters of past shows ― and a congenial crowd in no hurry to take their seats inside. The theater seats a little fewer than 200, but the seats are comfortable and, because the back 2/3 are raked, every seat gives a good view of the wide stage.

As the audience entered the theater, we heard pop music from the 1940s and 50s, setting the mood for the play which was set in 1953. With the house lights down and the preliminary announcements concluded, the action began with 4 French soldiers running onstage in front of the curtain. They were practicing lines for Cyrano de Bergerac, and my first impression was that the costumes were quite good, an impression confirmed throughout the play. The laughs started with this brief scene, and the laughter (especially mine) was nearly continuous for the rest of the show.

(Click here to open the playbill in a new window.)

There was every kind of humor in this play. Sight gags (the Cyrano nose that eventually extended from different places in George’s face), physical comedy, one genuinely funny situation after another, and a witty, clever script that gave the actors so much to work with. And work they did. To me these were genuinely funny people ― completely uninhibited ― who had the skill to make the most of each comic situation. You can have humorous material, but without the right delivery and timing, the comedy falls flat. I never felt that during this performance, and for it, I credit the skill and dedicated work of both actors and directors.

Part of what made this all work was the sheer intensity of what was unfolding before the audience: people running across the wide stage, slamming doors, and one after another instance of frustration and anger. But that wasn’t the whole story. Each actor presented a wide range of comic moods; there was nothing boring or predictable in the character they presented. And there were frequent hilarious surprises, to the delight of the audience. And speaking of the audience, even though it was small, people were incredibly responsive and no doubt inspired a little extra from each of the performers.

I read the “Director Notes” while waiting for the show to begin. In them the late Lanny Langston wrote#, “I have worked with a lot of talented cast members over the years and this by far has been one of the best. They understood their characters and tackled their parts with zest and gusto. You will enjoy an evening at the theater beyond your expectation.” Reading that again now, I can attest that every word rings true. The bottom line is that these people, while making you laugh constantly, were just fun to watch as their world descended into chaos. At the same time, I forgot completely that they were acting; it was an engaging story unfolding in front of me, and the relationships all felt real.

The morning after this performance, my wife and I were in our recliners drinking coffee. She asked me why I was laughing. I was recalling the scene where Lorin Torbitt as the Hays' daughter, Rosalind, was trying to play the opening scene of Private Lives on a balcony overlooking a lake, commenting on the scenery to her husband who isn't showing up. She has to improvise dialog in his absence, and her discomfort, barely concealed through a forced smile, was deliciously funny. It was one of the many situations that I recalled with pleasure long after the end of this show. And speaking of the end of the show, when the curtain came down, everyone on the audience was immediately on their feet applauding ― and cheering when the first players came out for their bows.

My first experience with Imagination Theater was an original musical, Southfork Confessions in 2017 ― a remarkable work that should be picked up by other community theater companies. From a distance, Imagination Theater seems tucked away in Placerville and easy to overlook. But they have a 20-year history of producing 3 or 4 plays per year (5 in 2020), and that longevity and ambition alone tells you something about the quality and community acceptance of their work. And if you’re reading this while the show is still running, I’d rate Imagination Theater's Moon Over Buffalo a “must see.”

#Note:  I was informed after initially publishing this review that Lanny Langston, the intended director of Moon Over Buffalo, and the much-loved co-founder of Imagination Theater, passed on in December.

Moon Over Buffalo runs from February 13 to March1, 2020.  Imagination Theater's website is at www.imaginationtheater.net.

Photo credit:  Evan Miller, Sierra Foothill Photography