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‘The Man Who Came to Dinner'

• On stage: Edmonds Community College Drama presents Kaufman & Hart's comedy, at the Black Box Theatre in Mukilteo Hall, 20000 68th Ave. W., Lynnwood. • Performances: 7:30 p.m. Thurday-Saturday, Nov. 19-21. • Tickets: $9 general, $6 students/seniors available by calling 425-640-1448 or at www.theatreedmonds.org.

CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, News editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

EdCC drama serves up ‘Man'

By Dale Burrows
For The Enterprise

What host doesn't breathe a sigh of relief when the last dinner guest finally leaves? But suppose he stays for days, even months? What then?

EdCC's Drama department does a bang-up job with this Kaufman and Hart classic about a world-renowned intellectual who slips, falls and injures himself on the way out of a dinner party, can't leave on doctor's orders and turns life in his host's household into an unceasing whirlwind of misadventures. I'm talking madcap comedy, underscore madcap.

This is monkey business, fast but not too fast forward. Joanna Goff''s directing paces the outrageous goings on with time enough to keep up if you pay attention; and believe me, it is worth it. I couldn't stop laughing.

Cast wise, veteran actor, Gordon Coffey, plays Sheridan Whiteside, a caricature of Alexander Woolcott, noted theater critic and radio personality of the 1930's. Whiteside is a G.B. Shaw intellect with a Napoleon complex who knows everybody and everything and forces his will on all who come his way. Coffey is positively fiendish and mercilessly mirthful.

And how about this?

Besides acting Whiteside, Coffey also ringmasters a circus of student actors performing caricatures of other notables in the 1930's. Appreciate the showmanship. He centers things in such a way that they shine without dulling his dazzle.

No doubt about it, Coffey is the man in “The Man.”

Put together a duel of wits like a championship match “Raw” would give its eye teeth to promote. See Coffey and Janice Fix outfox each other as Whiteside and his private secretary, Maggie Cutler. Fix holds her own and then some.

Say effeminate behavior among celebrities. Say Lloyd Pena's Beverly Carlton insinuates Noel Coward's manner wasn't like John Wayne's.

The walk? The talk? The top hat perched on blonde curls thick as wool and supercilious double takes? Barrett Rayan's Banjo yanks Harpo Marx forward through time..

She gushes. She blushes. She purrs and pouts and husband-hunts among the English rich. She is Kayla Stapleton's version of the platinum blonde star of screen and stage, Lorraine Sheldon.

Ian Wight's take on a blithering, blathering, scatterbrained professor may be a cliché. But try not to laugh. His Christmas gift to Whiteside is a showstopper you have to see to believe.

What is it about Rebekah Schroeter's Harriet Stanley? Here is a lady so strange, so peculiar and so chilling you can't help but wonder what she is holding back; that is, when you aren't laughing yourself silly.

This is a cast of 30 or so making a timeless comedy relevant. In it, sophisticated comedy puts a happy face on a bygone era everyone hopes won't repeat. “The Man” came out when the country was moving out of the depression and people believed anything was possible. Let's hope EdCC's Drama Department is art imitating life. I do.

Reactions? Comments? E-mail Dale Burrows at entopion@heraldnet.com or grayghost7@comcast.net.