Comedy stands the test of time

TOM TITUS

Reviving a comedy written more than 70 years ago could be fraught

with peril, since times and tastes have changed any number of times

since the Depression years of the early 1930s. Some plays simply

don’t stand the test of time.

“Holiday,” written by Philip Barry several years before he grabbed

the brass ring with “The Philadelphia Story,” is such a vehicle.

Its plot, somewhat daring for its time, is a bit archaic today,

which means a theater group requires a superlative company to bring

such a chestnut into the here and now.

Fortunately, the Newport Theater Arts Center has such a company.

Director Jack Millis has crafted a sparkling production that’s far

more entertaining than it has any right to be. Even if occasionally

overstated, Newport’s “Holiday” rarely descends into the chatty

social commentary it quite easily could.

Barry, who came from a privileged world, wrote of that society

with a wry sense of irony. As he stuck it to the working class in

“Philadelphia Story,” he renders the captains of industry somewhat

foolish in “Holiday.”

The play opens as a romantic comedy when Julia (Kathleen Chen)

brings her new love Johnny (David Farkas) home to meet her well-to-do

family. Daddy (Jack Reule) runs a tight ship, which his other, more

spirited daughter (Charise Greene) and perpetually inebriated son

(Norman Wilson) are inclined to jump.

Johnny, it seems, is somewhat of a rebel whose basic outlook is

“life is short, eat dessert first.” Having made a killing in the

stock market (an oddity for those Depression-era times), he intends

to enjoy his leisure years while he’s young before delving into the

family law practice.

This is the play’s basic conflict, and the camps are equally

divided with two relatives (Brent Weber and Sherryl Wynne) in

Johnny’s corner and two others (Doug Maly and Jennifer Faulkner)

aghast at the prospect. Which path does the young man follow, and

why?

Farkas, with the earnestness of a young Jimmy Stewart, exudes

charm and resolve as he endeavors to bring his fiancee over to his

way of thinking. Chen, however, is a frosty patrician not easily

swayed by unconventional ideas. As such, she comes off somewhat

stiff, as should her character in contrast to Farkas’ more

freewheeling persona.

The engine that drives this play, not to mention the entire

production, is Greene’s younger sister character, bubbling with

personality and a bundle of raw nerve endings. Her dynamic

performance, a beautiful blend of comedy and poignancy, sends this

antique vehicle into overdrive.

Reule is properly stuffy and overly conservative, as befits an

industrial lion, but he never allows the stereotype to dictate his

performance. Wilson, rarely glimpsed without at least one drink in

his hand, offers sodden, sarcastic comments on the life he lacks the

fortitude to flee.

Farkas’ allies, Weber and Wynne, offer richly etched portrayals of

a couple who have come to terms with their elevated station but

nevertheless are capable of enjoying life. Their opposite numbers,

Maly and Faulkner, press the snobbery pedal to the metal, with

Faulkner’s nose-in-the-air attitude immediately recalling the Gloria

Upson character from “Auntie Mame.”

David Carnevale’s setting is a bit spare for an upper-class

family, but it must be converted into an upstairs playroom in the

second scene, which limits its embellishments.

Three-quarters of a century have passed since “Holiday” first saw

the light of a stage, but Barry’s witty creation still possesses some

fine comic bite, particularly in the hands of this enthusiastic

theater arts company.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.