by dick kerekes dickkerekes@yahoo.com
Orange Park Community Theatre (OPCT) opened the new year with something old, Neil Simon’s Come Blue Your Horn, which was a Broadway hit in l961 and his first full-length play. This is a very funny show and if it weren’t for the fact there are no cell phones or computers (and you could get a cab ride in New York for thirty five cents), you would never know this play is 46 years old! Director Susan Carcaba has made no attempt to update it and that what makes it so charming.
Simon has had thirty hit plays, but he struggled with this first one and he did 23 rewrites before it finally opened. Despite good reviews, it did not catch on in the box office initially. An impromptu visit to see the show by British playwright Noel Coward may have changed the course of Simon’s career. Coward saw the show on his last night in town and told a New York Post columnist “Come Blow Your Horn is the funniest play in New York.” The play went on to become a smash hit.
The action takes place in the very attractive, Sue Scanlon-designed apartment on 63rd street in New York. Alan Baker is a swinging bachelor playboy who has wall-to-wall women and blows his horn all over town. His kid brother, Buddy, moves in and becomes his understudy in playboy-hood. This causes much heartburn to dear old Dad, Harry Baker, who happens to employ both his sons in the waxed fruit business. The play is much like a farce; the set has many doors and people are coming and going throughout the play unexpectedly with hilarious results. This production won’t strain your brain or raise your blood pressure, so just sit back and enjoy. Keep it a secret, but there is a happy ending.
Director Carcaba has done an outstanding job of casting. I don’t recall many plays with such perfection. OPCT President Stan Mesnick and Linda French are the stereotypical Jewish mother and father. He is always nagging his sons and is hard as a rock with his ideas about living. She worries about what her boys eat and the dust in the apartment. Together Stan and Linda are truly a delightful team.
Making their OPCT debuts are Megan Leonard, Anna Zirbel and MaryEllen French. Ms. Leonard plays the sexy bimbo who lives in the penthouse. This is one of the best interpretations I have seen of a dumb blond character, mostly because she does not over play the part and is believable.
Ms Zirbel plays Connie, Alan’s true love who he respects and therefore does not sleep with (this is the 1960s, a more innocent time). She is a good actress, has a great smile and, by golly, she’s the kind of girl you want to take home to Mom and Dad.
TJ Howath is an amazing young actor as brother Buddy. Only in high school, he has the stage presence of someone with twenty years of experience. TJ was in The Fantasticks as the Indian and in A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum at OPCT. Remember his name; you will see a lot of him in the future.
The Orange Park theatre is always introducing new talent each and every season. Not only new talent, but GOOD new talent. Dmitry Tokarsky, who plays Alan Baker, the lead role, is a good example. I don’t think you could have cast this role any better. Mr. Tokarsky has it all with excellent delivery and wonderful facial and physical gestures. Bravo, Mr. Playboy.
Mary Ellen French plays a mystery visitor. This is my kind of role, with only two lines, but those lines get lots of laughs. Sabrina Haingartner may be playing the role of Peggy, the bimbo blond, but she is also the costumer for this production.
The performers are all impressive as are all aspects of this production. The audience loved it and I am sure they laughed as long and as hard as the original audiences did back in l961. Simon knew how to write timeless humor that still amuses and entertains. Thanks to the Tom Nehl Fund for its financial assistance in putting on this production.
Come Blow Your Horn will be on stage until January 27th at 2900 Moody road in Orange Park. Call 276-2599 for reservations.
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