Today we are going back to the last century, before irony became such a popular ingredient of comedy. It was the era of Betamaxes and leisure suits.
Jokes were straight forward and rapid fire. Like everything else, they were simpler.
We have two examples of the style on Milwaukee stages at the moment. In Tandem Theatre Company has opened a superbly acted production of the 1979 bedroom comedy "Murder at the Howard Johnson's," and comedian Steve Solomon has brought his one-man original theater piece "My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish & I'm in Therapy" to Vogel Hall at the Marcus Center for a two week run.
Both pieces are comic setups. Neither are hip, deep or complex. But they are entertaining because they're executed so well.
It's surprising to see "Murder at the Howard Johnson's" in the In Tandem season. Despite the fact that Ron Clark and Sam Bobrick wrote the play for Broadway, it is typical dinner theater fare.
A married woman and her lover, the family dentist, lure her husband to a room at a Howard Johnson's hotel for the purpose of killing him. The hubby, a dull used car salesman, loves her too much to give her a divorce.
The conspirators lack homicidal gumption, and the absence of resolve sets in motion a round robin of clumsy mayhem that at different times marks each person in the triangle for extinction. These folks are bumbling idiots.
We all know the plot is preposterous. The considerable fun is in the quick quipping stupidity of it all, and for that to work, the cast must completely sell out to the nonsense. It does in this production, which is directed by Jane Flieller.
Nano-second timing is also essential, and each actor possesses that with crunchy crispness. Credit Cat Yates, Darrel Cherney and Dylan Bolin with making this fluff fly.
"My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish & I'm in Therapy" is really a 90-minute stand-up routine that comedian Solomon has divided into two segments, given a 20-minute intermission and placed on a stage set. His ability to do a United Nations of dialects opens the monologue up to a plethora of characters who make very brief appearances in the show.
Solomon is a former Long Island high school physics teacher and school administrator who gave up academia to crack jokes. His Italian-Jewish Brooklyn heritage frames the act, but the subjects of his humor range widely from New York cabbies to airport security checkers. Bathroom humor abounds.
The show's conceit is that Solomon is waiting for his tardy psychotherapist in the shrink's office. The set contains two easy chairs, a lamp, some potted plants and a desk and chair. The comedian's crazy family, filled with ethnic stereotypes, caused the need to seek mental health help.
At the top of the show Solomon briefly talks by phone with the therapist, who tells him, in an East Indian accent, "perhaps life is not for everyone." The comic also plays a beat-up piano.
Solomon possesses an easy going, affable presence that quickly wins an audience. He has mastered the old school art of the one-liner, and although a few of his jokes are familiar, his material is funny. Henny Youngman lives!
Christine Ebersole Coming to Ten Chimneys
Cabaret shows are meant to be seen in intimate surroundings, and none of those are more special than Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne's drawing room at Ten Chimneys, their Genesee Depot estate that is open to the public for tours and events. The room seats 40 and includes the piano on which Noel Coward played when he visited the legendary stage couple in Waukesha County.
Broadway star Christine Ebersole, the owner of two Tony Awards, is bringing her cabaret act, "Love, Noel: The Letters and Songs of Noel Coward," to Ten Chimneys April 29 and 30. She is joined in the show by New York stage and television actor Edward Hibbert, who played Gil Chesterton on "Frasier" for 11 seasons.
Tickets, which are $100, go on sale Monday and can be purchased by calling (262) 968-4110.
Damien has been around so long, he was at Summerfest the night George Carlin was arrested for speaking the seven dirty words you can't say on TV. He was also at the Uptown Theatre the night Bruce Springsteen's first Milwaukee concert was interrupted for three hours by a bomb scare. Damien was reviewing the concert for the Milwaukee Journal. He wrote for the Journal and Journal Sentinel for 37 years, the last 29 as theater critic.
During those years, Damien served two terms on the board of the American Theatre Critics Association, a term on the board of the association's foundation, and he studied the Latinization of American culture in a University of Southern California fellowship program. Damien also hosted his own arts radio program, "Milwaukee Presents with Damien Jaques," on WHAD for eight years.
Travel, books and, not surprisingly, theater top the list of Damien's interests. A news junkie, he is particularly plugged into politics and international affairs, but he also closely follows the Brewers, Packers and Marquette baskeball. Damien lives downtown, within easy walking distance of most of the theaters he attends.
