Location: Brown County Playhouse, Brown County, IN
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Brown County Playhouse, in Brown County, Indiana - this theatre is a Summer Stock extension of the Indiana University Theatre Department. My overall opinion of the Playhouse is a mixed one after years of seeing shows there. Myself and my friends tend to be the youngest in attendance by at least 35 years (the 30 somethings are definitely not the target audience) and the selections of plays seem to reflect this.There Goes the Bride was published in 1975 by Ray Cooney and John Chapman. Needless to say, the play includes a pending wedding, which is waylaid by the uncontrollable antics of the father of the bride. The IU Theatre Department website goes on to describe:
"The morning of the wedding, harassed advertising executive Timothy Westerby hits his head and happily awakens beside Polly Perkins, a 1920's Flapper girl straight out of his current advertising campaign. Of course, no one else can see or hear her. Imagining himself back in 1926, Timothy falls in love, the current wedding preparations plummets into pandemonium, while desperate friends and family do their utmost to get the father of the bride back to reality in time to walk his daughter down the aisle."
The highlight performances in this production were not by the IU Theatre Department students, but instead, Nancy Lipschultz (Daphne, grandmother of the bride) and her counterpart Ken Farrell (Gerald, grandfather of the bride). The comedic timing of this pair was impeccable, in addition to their individual character strengths. It was easy to spot Lipscultz as a professor of Voice and Speech in the Department of Theatre and Drama at Indiana University, as her British accent was clearly the strongest of this ensemble cast. Farrell, who played the partially deaf grandfather provided a great mixture of the reality and comedy of an aging man and more than once brought tears to my eyes from laughter.
I was somewhat disappointed in the casting of Matthew Buffalo as Timothy (father of the bride). While I have thoroughly enjoyed his past performances and could find very little fault, aside from perhaps the attempt at a British accent, in his performance in this production, he simply did not project the air of man old enough to have a daughter of marrying age. He seemed to be the one ensemble member who stood out in terms of appropriate casting.
The show seemed to get off to a slow start, but quickly picked up. While I often find farce to be a bit tired and outdated, I did find myself letting out a good laugh every so often. The cast had great chemistry and played off one another well, which kept the show moving at an enjoyable pace throughout. What was very impressive was the ability of the cast to maintain the energy of the show after the intermission. Since no time has passed from the moment the lights go down to when they come back up, I had some initial concern about their ability to maintain the momentum.
While I will continually wish that the summer shows were a bit more up to date, or at least time honored classics, There Goes the Bride was great entertainment for a summer Sunday afternoon.
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