THEATER REVIEW

Tom Titus

The Grim Reaper may be the sixth character in Ivan Menchell’s offbeat

comedy “The Cemetery Club,” but for most of the show he’s not all that

grim.

In a play centering largely around death, its characters--three Jewish

widows--rediscover life in an enjoyable if uneven production at the

Menorah Theater, a project of Costa Mesa’s Jewish Community Center.

The humor, at least in the first act, is of the soft variety, eliciting

gentle chuckles as the characters and situations are established. The

second act, however, cuts loose with more substantial guffaws,

particularly in the scene in which the three old gals arrive from a

wedding reception, smashed to the gills.

Veteran director Terri Miller Schmidt stages the comedy with a tender,

loving touch, overcoming the talkiness of its first act with extensive

emphasis on the contrasting characters. One widow is a shameless flirt,

another locks her feelings inside and the third totters on the edge,

tentatively desiring another relationship.

Of the three, Laurie Freed in the latter characterization is the most

fully realized. Although a bit shaky in the opening scenes, Freed brings

her role into sharp focus when a potential romance develops with a

butcher who’s also lost his mate. Her facial expressions convey her

feelings in volumes during this period.

Ann Ross virtually steals the show as the man-chasing widow, boasting of

her conquests with hedonistic glee. She is endowed with the play’s

funniest lines, and she fires them with abandon, particularly during the

post-wedding scene as she paces the tipsy tipplers.

Less effective is Elizabeth Jaquay as the more reserved member of the

trio. Jaquay’s role allows for a minimum of showiness, and the critical

scenes she does have are diluted by a lack of dramatic emphasis.

Tom Leary enacts the uneasy widower with a natural sense of reserve,

rendering his halfhearted advances with a splendid aura of credibility.

His uneasy relationship with Freed is especially well presented.

The appearance of Marie Nussle in the second act spices the proceedings

considerably. Nussle is a hoot as the flashy, gum-cracking “date” of

Leary, whose presence unhinges the others, particularly Freed. It’s a

pity she wasn’t written into the first act, which could use this sort of

comic adrenaline.

The conservative residential setting, also designed by director Schmidt,

is well appointed and serves as a natural backdrop. The cemetery scenes,

played downstage, effectively shift the location of the action.

“The Cemetery Club” may move at a funereal pace during its opening

scenes, but its second act clips along at the pace of an Irish wake. It’s

a fine present for the Menorah Theater’s 10th anniversary season.

FYI

* WHAT: “The Cemetery Club”

* WHEN: Closing performances are 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday

* WHERE: Menorah Theater, Jewish Community Center, 250 E. Baker St.,

Costa Mesa

* HOW MUCH: $15 for JCC members, $18 for nonmembers

* INFORMATION: (714) 755-0340