Wilma Theater Presents SCHMUCKS, A Fictitious Metting Between Marx and Bruce

The Wilma Theater continues its 30th Anniversary Season with the U.S. Premiere of Schmucks, directed by the Wilma's co-Artistic Director Jiri Zizka.  A comic fantasy by Roy Smiles –who returns to the Wilma for a second consecutive season – Schmucks is a tale of a fictitious meeting between two comic icons, Groucho Marx and Lenny Bruce.  Hailed by The Evening Standard as "an evening of total comic virtuosity… another success for the prolific and aptly named Roy Smiles," Schmucks begins previews on December 3, 2008, opens on December 10, and closes on January 4, 2009. Tickets are $39 - $55 and are available by calling the Wilma Box Office at (215) 546-7824 or online at www.wilmatheater.org.

It's 1965, and the great Northeast Blackout thrusts New York City into a state of panic and disorder. Isolated in a small diner, a young stand-up comic, Joe Klein, with an upcoming gig on The Ed Sullivan Show encounters comedy legends Groucho Marx and Lenny Bruce and implores them for comedic guidance, unleashing their unpredictably edgy and comic personas. As the two comedians clash over whose act is funnier and more relevant, the intensity quickly increases in a whirlwind of witty one-liners, zany antics, and uncensored punch lines.

This imaginative comedy exposes the secret motives that drove these two famed comedians to make people laugh as the characters spar over the purpose of comedy in society.  Today, a current generation of comedians like Jon Stewart, Chris Rock, Bill Maher and Sarah Silverman have followed in the footsteps of Marx and Bruce and put their mark on the cultural landscape with their spin on topics like politics, race, and religion.

A former standup comedian himself, London-based playwright Roy Smiles admits to searching for his own comedy style, crediting his aunt, who was "an American comedy obsessive," for introducing him to the Marx brothers.

"One night she let us stay up to watch A Night in Casablanca very, very late," he says.  "I must have been eight or nine years old.  After that I was hooked and watched all the Marx Brothers movies I could throughout the 70s."Of Lenny Bruce, Smile says, "I used to come home from doing bad gigs, and to cheer myself up I used to listen to my Lenny Bruce albums – particularly the 'Father Flotski,' 'The Palladium,' and 'White Collar Drunks' bits – and comfort myself with the knowledge that Lenny had it tough finding his audience also; he was a revolutionary ahead of his time."

Smiles eventually found his calling as a playwright, and he began with Schmucks, first produced in 1992.  He has continued to examine what makes comedians tick with plays such as Stand Up, concerning Smiles' days as a standup comic, and Ying Tong – A Walk With the Goons, a play produced by the Wilma last year, directed by Jiri Zizka, that captured the magic of the influential BBC Radio comedy series, The Goon Show.  Ying Tong has begun its second tour of Australia, and Smiles has sold the film rights to the script.  Up next is his play about the Monty Python team, Pythonesque, to premiere in South Africa in January.

"It is a privilege to be working with Roy again," says Zizka.  "In Ying Tong, Roy examined the genius of Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers with his own distinctly comic style, unrelenting wit and theatrical panache. During our collaboration I learned he had written a play about two giants of American comedy.  His treatment of the two comic legends was humorous as expected but, most of all, compassionate.  It brought Buster Keaton's words to mind:  'The comedian is a delicate flower.  Be gentle with him.'"

The cast of Schmucks features Ian Alda as the struggling young comic Joe Klein, Ron Crawford as an aged Groucho Marx at 75, Erik Jensen as Lenny Bruce at age 39, Caitlin Clouthier as the waitress Mary Lenahan, and Gary Littman as A Friend who makes an unexpected visit.

The design team includes lighting designer Jerold R. Forsyth and costume designer Janus Stefanowicz, who both worked on Ying Tong last season and have designed for dozens of Wilma productions.  Working with the Wilma for the first time are set designer Bill Clarke and sound designer Nick Rye.

About Groucho Marx

Julius Henry (Groucho) Marx was perhaps the most famous member of the most celebrated brother act in comedy history. As his New York Times obituary noted, Groucho "developed the insult into an art form." In a career spanning nearly 70 years, he starred in several Broadway hits, appeared in 26 films (15 with his brothers Harpo and Chico), co-wrote several books, and hosted one of the most famous game shows ever, "You Bet Your Life." The Marx Brothers created a comic world that the Times called "wildly chaotic, grounded in slapstick farce, lowbrow vaudeville corn, free-spirited anarchy and zany assaults on the myths and virtues of middle-class America."  In the 1960s, the Marx Brothers, and particularly Groucho, again became cultural icons for their disdain of all authority and status. "I would never become a member of any club that would have me" is among the most famous of Groucho's many skillful witticisms and ad libs. Groucho's verbal skill became a model for a new breed of comedians including Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, and Dick Cavett.  Groucho died on August 19, 1977 in California, at age 86.

About Lenny Bruce

Born Leonard AlFred Schneider in Mineola, New York on October 13, 1925, Lenny Bruce served in the Navy through World War II. Following the war, he decided to try his hand at standup comedy. Gradually, he developed a following that would come to all of his shows, attracting the attention of notables including Steve Allen, Phil Spector, and Hugh Hefner. On October 4, 1961 Bruce was arrested for obscenity at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco for using a ten-letter word describing oral sex.  His later club performances often included rants about his court battles over obscenity charges, tirades against fascism and complaints of his denial to the right to free speech.  Years of legal troubles culminated in a New York trial in which Bruce was found guilty of obscenity on November 4, 1964. Free on bail during the appeals process, he died before the appeal was decided.  Bruce was a tremendous influence on dozens of comedians, including George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, Margaret Cho, Eric Bogosian, and many others.  On December 23, 2003, Bruce was granted a posthumous pardon for his obscenity conviction by New York Governor George Pataki.

Additional Events

Roy Smiles at White Dog Café

Monday, December 8
Optional dinner at 6:00 p.m., conversation at 7:30 p.m.

Join playwright Roy Smiles for an intimate discussion at the White Dog Café, located at 3420 Sansom Street.  For reservations and information, call (215) 386-9224.

Film Screenings

Monday, December 15 @ 7:30 p.m.

The Wilma Theater's 2008/09 Symposium Series continues with an exclusive film screening of Duck Soup.  A play on politics and war, Duck Soup showcases the Marx Brothers in one of their most hilarious films.  Plus The Best of Lenny Bruce: excerpts from his roller-coaster career in comedy.  Free for all Subscribers and Schmucks ticket-holders.  Seating is limited.  For tickets, call the Box Office at (215) 546-7824 or email tickets @wilmatheater.org.

The Wilma will continue its 30th Anniversary celebration with the Philadelphia Premiere of Scorched by Wajdi Mouawad, translated by Linda Gaboriau, directed by Blanka Zizka (February 25 – March 29, 2009), and the Philadelphia Premiere of Hysteria by Terry Johnson, directed by Jiri Zizka (May 13 – June 14, 2009).

The Wilma Theater's 30th Anniversary Sponsor is Rohm and Haas.  Sporting Club at the Bellevue is a Season Sponsor, and The Jewish Exponent is the Wilma's Media Sponsor.  Artistic Lead Sponsors are McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant and the Park Hyatt Philadelphia at the Bellevue.

The Wilma Theater's Symposium Series is supported by The Wallace Foundation Excellence Award grant. The Wallace Foundation Excellence Awards were created to support exemplary arts organizations to pioneer effective practices to engage more people in high-value arts activities.

To post a comment, you must register and login.