BWW Reviews: Open Fist Opens a Glamorous STAGE DOOR

Even if we've seen and heard it a million times over, the old show biz debate about devotion to stage versus film is a treat as served up in Kaufman and Ferber's Stage Door, being given a red carpet production at the Open Fist Theatre.

This 1936 play was the basis for the 1938 film of the same title with Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Eve Arden, Lucille Ball and Ann Miller. However, the plot line of the play is radically different. The one thing they have in common is the suicide of the young Kaye Hamilton (Rebecca Rosenak Phelps) who would rather die than live in a state of constant career rejection. The other characters like Terry Randall (Amanda Weier) and Jean Maitland (Kim Swennen) have dissimilar entanglements. On stage, Randall, no great beauty, but a true artist, vows to make it big on Broadway; gorgeous model-type Maitland sells out to Hollywood and stardom at the cost of cheapening her acting style.

What makes this production such fun to watch are the simply scrumptious costumes from Shon LeBlanc, incredibly on target hairstyles of the period and a wonderful staging by Schofield of 24 actors whose chemistry together just crackles, especially the female contingent. The entire company is having a ball and it shows. Kudos to everyone, with standouts: Weier as Randall, a delightfully real actress with a down-to-earth approach, Judith Scarpone, just precious as elderly but elegant Mrs. Orcutt, Stephanie Erb a delight as wisecracking Judith, Arthur Hanket debonair as David Kingsley, Michelle Lema and Laetitia Leon as Big and Little Mary, who travel as a pair, et al.

This is a fabulous presentation that I could sit through again and again. It's visually splendid, beautifully directed and acted. There's no business like show business! A must-see!

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Stage Door, by George S. Kaufman & Edna Ferber is presented by Open Fist Theatre Company and directed by Barbara Schofield.  The production runs through March 13. For more information visit www.openfist.org.

 

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