Review: 'The Crazy Time' is time well spent

If you go to the River City Player's production of "The Crazy Time," bring a lozenge for Joe Class.

Class plays Miles Gladstone, the lead character in Sam Bobrick's comedy about a guy who left his wife for a trophy bride, only to be deserted himself and watch his daughter's marriage encounter the same type of turbulence.

As Miles Gladstone, Class barely leaves the stage. He's involved in every conversation, every joke, every event, and he pulls it off for the most part.

He's visited by his daughter, Susan, played by newcomer Molly Woeltje. Woeltje hides her freshman status in the theater group well. She delivers her lines with good pace and the inflection of a know-it-all daughter poking fun at her father -- convenient because that's her character.

Woeltje bursts onto the living room set, drops her purse on the floor and plops down on her father's couch like she's done it a thousand times. With Debbie Barnhouse directing, Woeltje probably has done the scene close to that amount.

Barnhouse works her cast and comes through with five rounded characters who put on a generally funny show. Melissa Wade plays Kate Gladstone, who picks herself up and gets a young stud of her own after her husband leaves her. Wade, a regular to the River City Players stage, seems at home with her character and her castmates, including the new boyfriend, Dirk, played by Joe Reed.

Wade gives a female empowerment monologue with symbol clashes from boy toy Dirk in the background. He gives fist pumps and head nods as she talks about her new-found passion. Barnhouse put it best when she said Reed "plays the 28-year-old biker stud muffin so well."

His facial expressions and reactions in the background only enhance the conversation in the foreground.

The cast stumbled through a few forgivable opening-night stutters, but not much more than one would have in a normal conversation. The latter part of Act 2 began to drag, and a scene with Class and Andrea Shovan, who plays Miles' business partner Jerry Conroy, seem to have let a few lines drop. Shovan pulls them through it and the two men are saved by the bell -- and Kate at the door.

Shovan studied theater at Murray State University and ran a small theater company in Illinois. Her portrayal of Jerry Conroy is convincing at least, hilarious at best. She sits like an old man, uses the couch arm to get up like an old man and tut-tuts Miles when he starts complaining.

All the actors play their characters, but Shovan gets the gold star for helping others through scenes and playing the old man like an old man would, not like a young woman would play an old man.

The show continues this week and should be seen. There is a show-only performance at 7 p.m. Thursday. The dinner shows open at 6:30 p.m. with dinner at 7 and show at 8 Friday and Saturday. Dinner show tickets are $30; $12 for show-only. Call 334-0954 for reservations.

charris@semissourian.com

388-3641

Pertinent address:

19 N. Water St.

Cape Girardeau, MO