In playwright Moss Hart's loving tribute to the insanity of his profession, Producer Sidney Black (Tony Hoty) says he wants his latest investment to be a roman candle that will light up the sky like the Fourth of July. Although the fictitious allegory he's backing may not survive tryouts, this revival of Light Up the Sky,directed by John Going, a master of farce, is a hit for the Olney Theater Center.
Black's secretary Miss Lowell (Paula Gruskiewicz) is as much a newcomer to the theater as young playwright Peter Sloan (Ben Hulan), a former truck driver, seeing his first play produced at pre-Broadway tryouts in Boston. He is counseled by established playwright Owen Turner (Jonathan Bolt, in real life the author of numerous plays, such as Threads, which ran at New York's Circle Rep and book author of Eleanor, recently at Fords' Theater, and Glimmerglass, opening at the Goodspeed Opera House in November). Hart based the character of Sidney and his beautiful wife Frances (Holly Rudkin at her blondest and daffiest) on the famed producer Billy Rose and his wife Eleanor Holm. Of course. there is the sensitive director Carleton Fitzgerald (Bill Kux, as the Guthrie McLintic figure), who keeps a handkerchief tucked into his pajamas in case he feels a weep coming on. Kudos to Designer James Berton Harris for the outlandish costumes, such as the over-the-top green plush velvet night dress, accented with leopard skin, worn by diva Irene Livingston (Carole Healey).
Modeled on actress Gertrude Lawrence, Livingston's histrionic excesses are balanced by the pragmatism of her mother, Stella (Halo Wines at her most droll). Although striving for a poker face as she plays gin rummy with Frances, Wines can barely contain herself while listening to Carleton describe her as "shapeless and dirty," when, disguised as a cleaning lady with mop and bucket, she hid in the balcony to watch the rehearsal. Her triumphant, shrieked "Gin!" concludes a first act hard to follow. The casting is impeccable, even to Sven (tall, dark and handsome Terry Gibson), as Irene's massage therapist, and Tyler (John Little), her long-suffering, Wall Street broker husband, a mild-manner misfit. Penned in 1948, Hart's script withstands the test of time, with a minimum of creakiness. ("Take me away and give me children," Irene shrieks to Tyler, when she thinks the play has flopped, ending her career.)
The third act, in which hope replaces despair when the 3 AM notices turn out to be raves, evoked abundant laughs on press night. "That dear man," croons Irene of a laudatory critic. Such theatrical grandeur cannot be played on a less than sumptuous set, and designer Daniel Conway obliges with the Livingston's elegantly-furnished suite at the Boston Ritz-Carlton. Outside the large windows, courtesy of lighting designer Dan Covey, flashes the theater's brash marquee.
