THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 13, 1994 TAG: 9410110095
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 17 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater review
SOURCE: MONTAGUE GAMMON III
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
A slickly written, slickly produced bittersweet comedy seasoned with tear-jerking elements is always going to be a popular success. Such a play is ``The Cemetery Club,'' which is being loudly applauded at The Little Theatre of Virginia Beach.
This story of three upper middle-class widows well past middle age, lifelong friends who make monthly joint visits to the cemetery where their husbands are buried, promises to be the most hardy of theatrical perennials. Virginia Beach is the second local theater to stage it in 13 months, and one can bank on it being done by other groups in the easily foreseeable future.
Under the direction of Kay Burcher, this production most successfully goes after the humor with which Ivan Menchell larded his script. If something of subtlety is lost to the emphasis on wisecracks, it is understood that sensitive characterization doesn't fill as many seats as sentimental comedy.
Karen Buchheim, Phyllis Guinazzo and Joan Gay are experienced actresses, and play the three women with the polish and ease one expects.
Buchheim is Ida, widowed for some two years and just about ready to look for affection, or even love, again. Phyllis Guinazzo has the role of Lucille, who lost her philandering husband about a year before we meet her. She is already gleefully ``playing the field'' of the seniors' single set with abandon.
Doris, played by Joan Gay, is something of the odd woman out. Her devotion to the memory of her husband, now four years dead, borders on obsession.
Gay carries a lioness' share of the humor, and shows that she has become a comedienne worth watching. With her well-timed double takes and sad puppy expression, she gives the audience plenty of enjoyment as she pilfers more than one scene from under the very noses of her fellow actresses.
Guinazzo sketches out an unforgettable character, though her talents are not challenged. She brings to the flamboyant Lucille all the boldness and brass the script demands, and shows that she, too, has a real knack for broad comedy.
It is Ida's character who is written with the most depth. Buchheim makes this lonely but strong woman a thoroughly likable individual, and never stoops to suggesting that Ida is the least bit pitiable.
Freda Wolf is entirely believable in her brief appearance as a fourth widow, Mildred.
George Mentz gets acting honors for his performance as Sam Katz. In just a few scenes he constructs a richly shaded, detailed portrait of an earnest, sincere man. Sam is feeling his way through the emotional thicket of being a widower, with all that implies about balancing an interest in present happiness with loyalty to the love of the past.
The various ways such a balance may be struck is the subject of ``The Cemetery Club.'' There is nothing new or profoundly startling here, just tender and funny entertainment that plucks the heartstrings and tickles the funny bone at the same time.
No discussion of this production could fairly omit mention of what a good looking show it is. Not only is the set attractive, but the lighting by Sherry Forbes, and the costumes by Burcher and others, all work especially well together. by CNB