‘Harvey’ revives gentle comedy

Tom Titus

When “Harvey” first hopped across the Broadway stage, the United

States was still embroiled in World War II. They named the Tony

Awards after the play’s original director, Antoinette Perry.

Now, nearly 60 years after Mary Chase’s gentle comedy won the

Pulitzer Prize, “Harvey” is headed back to the Great White Way once

more. And its genesis is the current revival on the stage of the

Laguna Playhouse.

In a hyperkinetic era where plays clock in under two hours with

one intermission, “Harvey” is something of a throwback. It remains a

three-acter and its pace is, to put it politely, leisurely. Director

Charles Nelson Reilly vowed to mount the same basic play he viewed as

a teenage usher in the mid-1940s, and it appears as if he’s

accomplished this goal.

There’s really no other valid approach. “Harvey” is a play about

an elderly fellow who leads an unhurried existence, accompanied by a

six-foot rabbit only he can see, much to the frustration of his

widowed sister and her grown daughter, who share the home inherited

by the bunny fancier.

At the Playhouse, veteran actor Charles Durning inhabits the role

originated by Frank Fay but most indelibly identified with James

Stewart. Durning has had a magnificent career, winning a Tony and

being nominated for two Oscars, but time has eroded the impact this

now-octogenarian can effect on an audience.

Durning performs in virtual slow motion, not always razor sharp on

his cues, yet he knows where the laughs are and how best to elicit

them.

His characterization is rich and robust even if his execution

often is not. His Elwood P. Dowd reflects bemusedly on the animated

antics around him and his glorious resume and high degree of

familiarity allows him enormous latitude as a performer.

The performance of the evening is that of Joyce van Patten as

Elwood’s frustrated sister, Veta Louise Simmons, who attempts to

commit her brother to a home for the easily amused, only to find

herself on the inside looking out. Van Patten nails this beleaguered

character beautifully, particularly during the scene in which she

returns, disheveled, from the hospital crying “white slavery.”

Her brother, noted actor Dick van Patten, is perfectly cast as Dr.

Chumley, ruler of the crazy house, who comes frighteningly under the

spell of the invisible Harvey. His authoritarian manner evaporates

superbly as he realizes he wants to “cure” Elwood only to have the

big rabbit for himself.

In a family triumvirate, James van Patten, son of Dick, portrays

the sanitarium enforcer Wilson with all the absence of subtlety

demanded by the role. He’s particularly enjoyable while flirting with

Veta’s daughter Myrtle Mae -- played with fine comic finesse by Jill

van Velzer as a bespectacled wallflower who blossoms under Wilson’s

overtures into a stunning beauty.

The romantic subplot between the second banana doctor and the

adoring nurse probably is the weakest element of the play, as

scripted. Which makes it quite rewarding to see Stephen O’Mahoney and

Erica Shaffer glean so much delightful mileage out of it. Somehow,

their antiquated dialogue fairly sizzles as these skilled actors play

out their love-hate relationship.

Supporting roles are especially strong in the Playhouse

production, headed by Jack Betts’ commanding portrayal of the family

lawyer, Judge Gaffney. Pamela Gordon enriches her party guest

busybody by employing an ear trumpet. Leslie Easterbrook is a

fluttering social butterfly as Chumley’s wife and William H. Bassett

is a gruff, no-nonsense cabbie.

Set designer James Noone has created imposing backdrops for both

the Dowd residence and the Chumley sanitarium, but the former

required some finishing touches opening night when Betts found

himself in possession of an AWOL doorknob on his first entrance. Ken

Billington’s lighting and Noel Taylor’s period costumes are

excellent.

You don’t see “Harvey” around the local theater circuit too much

these days (although you could have seen it at the Huntington Beach

Playhouse as that group’s 40th anniversary production in September

had the Laguna Playhouse not pulled rank). And you certainly don’t

often see it with the star wattage contained in the Playhouse’s

version.