REVIEW: Lyric’s “Moon Over Buffalo” offers actors a chance to ham it up
“Moon Over Buffalo” is one of those plays that actors love to be in, and the cast of Logan’s Old Lyric Repertory Company is no exception. Billed as a farce, “Moon Over Buffalo” – and, yes, it refers to the city, not the animal – has everything the stage actor could ask for: Lots of opportunities to ham it up, funny costumes, some swordplay, broadly-written characters, mistaken identities and a breezy, easy comedic formula.
Oh, and it’s a play about a play. Actors love those.
“In Moon over Buffalo,” the OLRC takes full advantage of each of these elements in its first offering of the summer, especially all the opportunities the script provides to act over the top, as written by playwright Ken Ludwig. The script even throws in a deaf grandmother, leading to easy puns and jokes revolving around misinterpreted commands. There is is plenty of booze available, so the actors can do their best fall-down-drunk pratfalls and to give them even more chances to be a ham.
Leading the charge into each easy laugh is Charlotte Hay (played by Tracy Hill) and her husband George (Lego Louis) who operate a community theatre in upstate New York that is on it’s last legs. The pair hate the community and hate the fact they came “that close” to making it big in the movies. But, boy, they love to act. It’s in their blood and daily shows of “Cyrano de Bergerac” and “Private Lives” are too important to give up. The plot thickens – a bit – when it is expected that noted Hollywood director Frank Capra might be in the audience for the next show, searching for a cast member for a new movie.
Recent USU grad Amy Lewis plays daughter Rosalind, who performed in one too many Hay family productions and turned to a career in advertising to get out. Stone-deaf Granny Ethel (Jackie Fuller) was once an actress, too, but now is the confused costume mistress for this fledgling family theater troupe. Both present their stereotyped characters in a non-typical and fun manner.
Hill, a professor of acting in Mesa, Ariz., and a USU alum, is perfect as the dramatic almost-over-the-hill actress/wife. Her sweeping arm motions and almost-British accent are in perfect character and her voice seems effortless as it carries throughout the theater, both the one in Buffalo and the one in Logan. Only a costume that wouldn’t stay up and another that twice wouldn’t rip on cue kept Hill’s opening night performance from being flawless.
Louis gets the opportunities to spread the most ham. He is inebriated most of the production and gets as much mileage out of the obvious comedy elements as he can. He has some extended monologues, particularly early in the play, and a drunker soliloquy later that show his strength. Louis returns to Logan this summer from television work in Los Angeles, and only an occasional mumbled and hard-to-hear aside kept his performance from matching Hill’s.
Ron King plays family friend and lawyer Richard who comes to take Charlotte away from all this theater madness. Playing the straight man to all the easy punch lines, it turns out that Richard has all the good lines and King is solid in his minor role.
“Moon Over Buffalo” tries to be a “Noises Off” wannabe, with lots of doors banging and people running on and off the stage. But while “Noises Off” and other great farces are usually bang-bang-bang in their pace, “Moon” is more bang-bang-yawn-bang. The OLRC cast milked all they could out of the Ludwig script, but there are some slow moments built in that are easy to spot.
But not enough to turn away fans of a good laugh, however.
Because a hearty laugh from the audience is something actors love, as well.