Despite its dour-sounding title, The Government Inspector opened the Milwaukee Repertory Theater's fall season with a dose of nonstop laughter. This adaptation by Minneapolis playwright Jeffrey Hatcher is anything but dour. Hatcher takes more than a few liberties with the original play, written by Russian playwright Nikolai Gogol and first performed in 1836. The play's setting, its basic plot points and characters remain the same; what's changed is the contemporary update. It entertains and then some, with enough physical humor to fill a Marx Brothers movie.
The first hint of what's ahead comes during a bit of stage business before the play even begins. A handful of actors, dressed as Russian peasants, are seated in a rural tableau on the Russian steppes. When the typical pre-show audio announcement is played, asking patrons to silence their cell phones, every actor onstage pulls out a cell phone from his or her rags. After punching a few buttons, the actors silently replace the phone inside his or her costume. It's one of the best gags in the whole show, and it deservedly triggers a huge appreciative roar of laughter from the audience. There are dozens of laughs to follow.
Here's the story: in a rural Russian village, news comes that a government inspector is about to arrive incognito. His mission is to evaluate how well the local government runs the town. This comes as very bad news to the mayor and his trusted aides. As they assess their efficiency, the mayor is reminded about the contractor for the new hospital, who coincidentally happens to be one of the mayor's relatives. The contractor has made the rooms too small for the beds to fit through the doorway. Also, when the mayor wants to fire an obnoxious teacher, the principal replies, "Fire him? Have you seen a teachers' contract lately?" So the mayor decides that all the teachers are to be hustled out of town for a "field trip."
This leaves the matter of handling the children. The mayor has a perfect solution: paint red spots on their faces and put them in the hospital. Veteran playwright Jeffrey Hatcher brilliantly concocts all sorts of ruses to impress the soon-to-arrive inspector. And the talented cast takes all of the show's sillier moments to the limit.
Things get even more interesting when a pair of townspeople stop by the mayor's office to announce that the inspector already has arrived. Dressed as Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum, these adorable characters provide a sweetly innocent touch to an otherwise corrupt environment. The audience knows from the beginning that the supposed "inspector" is, in reality, a civil servant on holiday. With his money running low, he is amazed at all the attention soon thrust upon him. He cannot get over his good fortune. The mayor even invites him to stay at his own home. Once there, the civil servant meets the mayor's wife and marriageable daughter.
Standouts in this large, impressive cast are Peter Silbert as the stuttering, blundering blowhard of a mayor, and Gerard Neugent as the civil servant. Neugent is so funny that even a raised eyebrow causes the audience to explode in laughter. No deadpan comic, Neugent gets progressively more animated as the mayor encourages him to have a drink, followed by another, and another, etc. The "drunken" Neugent performs one of the best scenes audiences will probably see all season. Also, Steve Pickering and Drew Brhel are precious as the perfectly matched, look-alike pair.
Torrey Hanson brings a gleeful twist as Neugent's beleaguered (and far more intelligent) servant. Deborah Staples, as the mayor's wife, is a pink-gowned hussy. Her vibrancy is countered by the forlorn appearance of their teenage daughter (played by Kathleen Romond). Her sassy tone and black "goth" outfit could make any parent of a teenager cringe. Silent and glaring in her pale makeup and stark, kohl-rimmed eyes, Romond is nothing less than riveting.
Joe Hanreddy, the theater's artistic director, keeps everything flowing almost to the conclusion. It would be nice to report that the show ends on a satisfying note. Sadly, it doesn't. Instead, it runs out of speed in the last five minutes, which are unfunny and contrived. Too bad Hatcher didn't stop while he was ahead.
