Playhouse delves in history for ‘Desk Set’

Tom Titus

Remember how we all feared eventually being replaced by a computer?

No, not last week. Try about a half century ago.

When “The Desk Set” first appeared, about the time Elvis was

getting his career started, movie audiences chuckled at the antics of

Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in the movie version. The play

itself was an early-1960s attraction at the Huntington Beach

Playhouse.

Now in its 41st season, the playhouse is delving back into

American history as well as its own. It would have started the annual

reprises with “Harvey,” the theater’s very first production from

1963, last season, but the pros at the Laguna Playhouse beat the

community group to the rights for Mary Chase’s whimsical farce.

This season, the playhouse is opting for a nostalgic reprise of

William Marchant’s business office comedy, in which mayhem develops

when a male efficiency expert is sent to computerize a TV network’s

predominantly female reference department.

The Huntington Beach production, which opens Friday, has gone

through no fewer than three pairs of directorial hands. Veteran

playhouse actor-director Phil de Barros (whose service with the

theater stretches almost back to the first “Desk Set”) cast the show,

then turned the reins over to James W. Gruessing Jr.

Gruessing blocked the show and supervised the technical aspects,

but -- since he’s also committed to several other projects --

Michelle Calhoun-Fitts was brought in two weeks into rehearsals to

assist with the daily directing duties.

“I work with the actors on character development and ‘business,’

as well as work with the costume designer, stage manager and prop

manger,” Calhoun-Fitts explained. “The result is a great symbiotic

and collaborative working relationship.”

Answering the obvious question, Calhoun-Fitts remarked: “Yes, we

are keeping the play in its original setting of the late 1950s. Both

the basic main plot (fear of computer domination and change) and the

subplot (Bunny’s noncommittal boyfriend) still ring true today.

“There may be some small references that hail back to a different

era,” she noted, “but I personally feel that keeping it in its

original format will allow the play to be more accessible to the

Huntington Beach Playhouse’s audience. The quick wit, charming

characters and fast-paced story line will definitely appeal to both

our younger and our more mature patrons.”

Calhoun-Fitts points out that the play has a predominantly female

cast. “The women are intelligent, attractive, strong, funny and

endearing,” she says. “Each character represents women most of us

know -- our friends, our co-workers, or even our family.”

“The Desk Set” will be on stage for three weekends, through June

13, at the playhouse’s Library Theater at the Central Library

facility, 7111 Talbert Ave., Huntington Beach. Performances will be

given Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 3 and 8, Sundays

at 2 and 7, with ticket information available at (714) 375-0696.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.