A NOT-SO-ODD COUPLE, AT 2 RVR
Meg Chambers Steedle and John Wernke are young newlyweds at large in the MAD MEN-era big city, as Neil Simon’s BAREFOOT IN THE PARK begins its Red Bank revival run this week. (Photo by Danny Sanchez)
By TOM CHESEK
To coin a phrase, they’re what you might call an Odd Couple.
On the one hand, Neil “Doc” Simon — the most successful, most commercial writer of popular comedies in Broadway history; the prolific creator of The Sunshine Boys and The Goodbye Girl and Plaza Suite and California Suite and dozens of other heavy-rotation favorites upon which the dinner-theater sun never sets.
And in this corner, Dr. Robert M. Rechnitz — professor of literature, writer of scholarly essays, and founding father of Red Bank’s own Two River Theater Company. As a director and executive producer at TRTC, the retired educator has made it a mission to bring quality revivals of works by such titans of the stage as Arthur Miller, Anton Chekhov and Henrik Ibsen to Monmouth County audiences who were starved for something a little meatier than, say, Neil Simon.
His last time in the director’s chair at Two River, Rechnitz chatted with us about his acclaimed 2008 production of The Glass Menagerie; as excited about staging this seminal work by Tennessee Williams as he was over the prospect of bringing Shakespeare to the brand new Bridge Avenue auditorium named for himself and his wife Joan. As we wrote in a profile that ran on our mothership site redbankgreen, “Rechnitz in person comes across not as an egomaniacal living monument but an avuncular chap who speaks in the patient, measured tones of the college professor that he was for much of his career. He’s someone who seeks not so much to ’sell’ his projects with a showman’s zazz, but to foster an understanding and appreciation of the plays he’s chosen to direct.”
As we near Valentine’s Day and its extended season of candy kisses, cardboard Cupids and clinking cocktail glasses, we find Two River Theater preparing to open a major new professional production of Barefoot in the Park, Simon’s 1964 study of comical conflict among a pair of young newlyweds living in a fifth-floor Manhattan walkup (a play that starred a hot new talent named Robert Redford) — with none other than Bob Rechnitz manning the megaphone for the comedy that begins previews tomorrow night, and continues through the cold but cuddly month of February.
So what happened? Has TRTC done an about-face and become the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre? Or does the Rechnitz stamp suggest that Doc Simon should now be considered in the same egghead rank as O’Neill, Beckett, Moliere?
“I’ve been Simonized!” is how the director sums up his falling in love with this early and energetic work by Simon; a fun frolic (with an undercurrent of the sea-changes in gender roles and sexual attitudes that crashed ashore in the 1960s) starring John Wernke and Meg Chambers Steedle (previously seen in TRTC’s Frog & Toad) as conservative young lawyer Paul Bratter and his “free spirited” spouse Corie. Also featured are Dori Legg as meddlesome mom Ethel, Christopher Coucill as eccentric neighbor Victor, Demetrios Bonaros as the Telephone Man, with Paul Nixon and Gary Powell platooning in the part of the Delivery Man.
Red Bank oRBit spoke to the good Doctor about his personal history with this show, about the lasting legacy of gagmeister Simon, and about the Valentine’s voodoo via which a good romantic comedy brings out the youthful blush in all concerned. Read on.
Two River Theater Company exec producer Robert Rechnitz, with the original 1964 cast of BAREFOOT IN THE PARK — clockwise from lower right; Robert Redford, Elizabeth Ashley, Kurt Kasznar, Mildred Natwick.
RED BANK ORBIT: Last time we did a formal interview, Doctor, the subject was Tennessee Williams — and now here we are talking Neil Simon of all things. I’m curious as to how you came to attach yourself to a show that most people think of as dinner-theater fare.
ROBERT RECHNITZ: Way back in the earliest days of Two River Theater Company, Jonathan Fox and I stated an unwritten policy, in that the one playwright whose work we would never do would be Neil Simon! We would much rather be doing Chekhov and Ibsen — and for a long time, that is precisely where we’ve been.
Now, when Aaron and I were discussing this season, we looked at the spot on our schedule between the family show (You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown) and the production of Orestes that he’ll be directing, and our thinking was, let’s do a nice light comedy, but at the same time something with a more adult point of view.
I revisited Barefoot in the Park, which is a play that I saw in the first year of its run, with the original Broadway cast — Redford, and an amazing actress who acquired the reputation of being very difficult to work with — Elizabeth Ashley. In those days, the major Broadway producers would pick one of the hit shows from each season and send them out on tour — I was living in Pueblo, Colorado, and having been recently married myself, I saw it with my wife in Central City, Colorado. I recall having laughed very hard all throughout the show!
But given the imprimatur that you bring to your projects, does this mean that we’re overdue for a serious and scholarly reappraisal of Doc Simon and his “oeuvre”?
I’m not going to try and defend the Simon canon — I think that what happened to him was simply part of our commercial way of doing things here in America. I imagine that he must have been besieged by all sorts of people, wanting him to write a show for big money — and the choice that he made was that he would play along; he would make his money.
But consider that this is a man who had four plays running on Broadway at the same time — not a flash in the pan by any means. At his best, Simon is a very insightful writer — and looking at Barefoot in the Park, which is generally considered his first major success, I see a writer who really understood marriage, and the times in which this play was written.
There’s extraordinary craftsmanship on display here. It’s a delightful, compelling play that moves like lightning from scene to scene. I’ve just fallen in love with it. I’ve been Simonized!
I bet you say that to all the interviewers! Or have you been waiting to use that line for years?
No, actually I was just inspired to say it right this moment! I’m speaking to you from a back room, at Danny’s restaurant, where I told them I needed to make an important call, and they showed me to this room full of cleaning supplies. I’m looking at the labels on the various products and the name Simoniz occurred to me!
I did another interview earlier this evening, on camera at Monmouth University with president Gaffney. I dread this kind of thing — but he didn’t ask me any stumpers, and I escaped unscathed!
Now, although it’s kind of more between-the-lines of the script than explicit, this show has some definite points to make about the changing social order in 1960s America — which is a place that many people, including your lead actors, have only experienced through books and movies and recreations like the TV series Mad Men. What are some of the ways in which you’ve worked with your actors to capture the tone of the time this play comes from?
While the script is basically a comedy about the characters, there are rumblings here of the changes going on — everything seemed to be happening at once in America in 1964, and there are hints here of the things that were happening; particularly in the role of the wife in the marriage.
I taught Meg, who plays Corey here, at Monmouth — she had read On the Road, and I gave her my first edition copy, signed by Kerouac, and pointed out the passage about people who ‘burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars’ — that’s who she is here. She’s married to a nice, serious guy who’s going to be an attorney. He’s going to make a living for her, but he’s going to remain a stuffed shirt.
Now, John Wernke has had some difficulty being a stuffed shirt, because this actor here in 2010 is anything but. But I strongly identify with the husband in this show — in 1964 I was over 30 years old, and well on my way to my career as a teacher. I was so serious minded that I missed a great chunk of the 60s! Our first child was born in ‘62, and twin sons came along in ‘65 — now all these years later I’ll ask someone to play some 60s music, because I never managed to hear it when it was new!
Seems that when most people of a certain age say they don’t remember the 60s, it’s for an altogether different reason! So, putting aside the trappings of 1964 America, how do you work with your cast to arrive at the more universal themes that exist in the play?
Neil Simon definitely knows how to write a gag, but for the most part, the gags are integral to the play and to the moment. Basically what I’ve told my actors is that this play is a fine thoroughbred racehorse, and the actors are the jockeys — but if you’re not careful, it can run away from you into sitcom territory. So we’ve talked about the characters’ pasts; about the things that aren’t necessarily in the script, but which keep the characters from becoming just a method of delivering gags.
And there’s this fabulous character of Victor — he’s a beatnik, or a hippie, and he doesn’t know it, because it will be a while before he’s able to forge that identity. We’ve got an absolutely super cast here, including a local gentleman who will be alternating in the part of the delivery man — he’s 92 years old, compared to our leading lady who’s all of 23!
But this gentleman Paul, who showed up to audition for us, is superb — the character doesn’t have any lines; all he does is grunt and groan, but he’s fascinating to watch. He’s an item, this guy; he actually saw Gertrude Lawrence on stage, and he saw Laurette Taylor in Menagerie.
You must feel like a regular spring chicken in comparison! And I’ve learned not to talk retirement or even semi-retirement with you; it’s always a case of Never Say Never Again. With that in mind, what are some other projects that we might see Bob Rechnitz becoming involved with in the near future?
I want to try my hand at writing a play — it would be called The Life of Reason, and it would center around a group of petty professors at a little college.
Surely not based on anyone you know or worked with?
Not necessarily based on anyone specific, but I know that when a writer creates a play, and even when a director takes it on, you pour your own ego into it. I’d say that Barefoot will be one of the enduring plays of Neil Simon — my evaluation is that it tickles and delights me.
Barefoot in the Park begins previews on Tuesday, February 9; opens Saturday, February 13 that performance is sold out); and runs through Sunday, February 28. Tickets are $35 - $61 and are available by calling the TRTC Box Office at (732)345-1400, or visit the TRTC website for ticket prices and availability.
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February 08, 2010
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