A tale of two newlyweds

  • By Dale Burrows For the Enterprise
  • Friday, March 7, 2008 2:02pm

Versatile Village Theatre, fresh from their success with “King and I,” flex from major musical to straight comedy.

The offering is Neil Simon’s “Barefoot in the Park,” reportedly modeled after Simon’s early marriage to his first wife. It zeroes in on that period of adjustment when newlyweds first roll up their sleeves and start building a life together. The honeymoon is over. What do they do? Where do they begin?

Clue: part of the answer is in the title.

Marriage, as some of us know, is no walk in the park.

Well, newlywed, Corie Bratter (Jessica Skerritt), doesn’t just want her marriage to be a walk in the park. She wants to walk “Barefoot in the Park.” Which is to say, her head is in the clouds and her feet anywhere but on the ground.

On the other hand — you guessed it — hubby, Paul Bratter (MJ Sieber), is all work and no play. Responsibility — that bugaboo that haunts most married males — has reared its ugly head. He is an up and coming attorney with a wife to support and a career to start out. A walk in the park, he might fit into his busy schedule. But “Barefoot in the Park?” No way, Jose.

If that’s not stuff enough for pop comedy, how about throwing in widowed and straight laced mother-in-law, Mrs. Banks (Ellen McLain)?

Just for kicks, match La Belle Banks with health nut cosmopolite and penniless European gentleman, Victor Velasco (John Patrick Lowrie).

Stick the Bratters (Notice the “brat” in Bratters) in a tiny five-floor walk up in New York, 1960’s. Situate Velasco in a cubbyhole above the Bratters, one that Velasco has to access through the Bratters’ bedroom closet and then out onto a ledge above their living room skylight. Think our newlyweds get the privacy they had in mind?

Anyway, drop that combination of characters into Simon’s comic machinery, and you’ve got a fair picture of where things stand when the curtain goes up.

Not that you have any right to expect anything other than laughs.

This is romantic comedy with a fairy tale ending. A refreshing change of pace and a tribute to Village’s ever-expanding contribution our region’s performing arts culture. Director, Jeff Steitzer, keeps his finger on the pulse. The cast delivers.

Reactions? Comments? E-mail Dale Burrows at grayghost7@comcast.net or entopinion@heraldnet.com.

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