Photo Preview: Lakewood Theatre Company's THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER

Sheridan Whiteside, a New York critic, lecturer, wit, and radio orator, slips on the icy doorstep of the prominent Stanley family during a publicity stop. For the next six weeks the convalescing curmudgeon interferes with everyone and everything while confined to the Stanley's living room. The outrageous antics of this irascible invalid will have you laughing in the aisles. Recommended for general audiences.

Directed by Joe Theissen, The Man Who Came to Dinner opens Friday, November 6th at Lakewood Theatre Company and continues until December 13th with the following schedule: Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 PM, Sundays at 7:00 PM (November 8, 15, 22), Sunday matinees at 2:00 PM (November 15, 29 & December 6, 13), and one Wednesday performance at 7:30 PM on December 2nd. Please note: there is no performance on Thanksgiving November 26th. The theatre is located at Lakewood Center for the Arts, 368 S. State Street in Lake Oswego. Ticket prices are $26 for adults and $24 for students and seniors and are available through the Lakewood Theatre Box Office at (503) 635-3901 or online at www.lakewood-center.org The title sponsor for The Man Who Came to Dinner is The Lakewood Center Associates.

The Story:
Written in 1939, this light-hearted comedy has relevance for today's audience as it takes a look at the private lives of celebrities when they're not on the stage.

Sheridan Whiteside (Tobias Andersen) comes to dinner at the home of the Ohio social couple Mr. and Mrs. Stanley (Scott Malcolm and Jane Fellows) during the Christmas season. Unfortunately for the Stanleys, Sheridan slips and falls on the ice of the homestead steps fracturing his hip. The local doctor (Tim Park), who is also a frustrated playwright, plops him in a wheelchair and the long term patient becomes the house guest from hell. The playwrights have patterned this personality after Alexander Woollcott, a celebrated critic and radio personality known for his wit and worldly manner.

What happens to the Stanleys shouldn't happen to a dog. Whiteside, who gives new meaning to the word curmudgeon, takes over the living room and all sorts of celebrities show up to wish the famous man a joyful holiday. Hart and Kaufman have patterned these folks after famous entertainment figures of the day. Professor Metz (Brian Allard), a look alike of Albert Einstein, brings a glass-enclosed miniature city of 10,000 cockroaches; Beverly Carlton (Sammuel Hawkins) comes tap dancing in as a Noel Coward figure; stage star Lorraine Sheldon (Margie Boulé), comes slinking in like Gertrude Lawrence and Banjo (Garland Lyons), a zany comedian resembling Harpo Marx, appears to visit Whiteside to celebrate the holidays. Maggie Cutler (Jill Westerby), Whiteside's personal assistant, manages all the appointments but even she gets frustrated when some ex-convicts get invited to dinner and four penguins unexpectedly show up from Admiral Byrd. All of this happens - plus an outlandish telephone bill of $784 (a lot of money those days) of overseas calls - to the put upon Stanleys who have to use the servant entrance to their own house.

Others in the cast include Ellen Bloodworth, Matt Brown, Daniel Bunten, MaryAnne Glazebrook, Jeff Gorham, Anne Hargreaves, Andy Lee-Hillstrom, Megan Misslin, Christopher Mullens, Cheryl Nelson, Bob Rindt, Alyssa Roehrenbeck, Shea Mackinnon and Todd Tschida.

Stage direction for The Man Who Came to Dinner is by Joe Theissen. Set design is by Robert Vaughn, lighting design is by Kurt Herman, costume design is by Allison Dawe, properties are by Sammuel Hawkins, the stage manager is Jessica Downs and the producer is Kay Vega.

LAKEWOOD THEATRE COMPANY
Headlee Mainstage: A 220-seat stage at Lakewood Center for the Arts. This new hall provides excellent sightlines with no one further than 30 feet from the front of the stage.
Location: 368 S. State Street, Lake Oswego, OR 97034
Runs: Nov. 6, 2009 - Dec. 13, 2009
Thurs. Fri. & Sat. at 7:30 PM, three Sundays at 7:00 PM (November 8, 15 and 22), and four 2:00 PM Sunday matinees (November 15, 29 & December 6 and 13.) There is one Wednesday performance at 7:30 PM on December 2. (There is no performance on Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 26).
Ticket Reservations:
503-635-3901 or on line at www.lakewood-center.org

Photos by Lake Oswego Photographers.