Review: THEATRE PEOPLE at Westport Country Playhouse

Westport Country Playhouse’s Season of Laughter closes with Paul Slade Smith’s farce Theatre People. His play is also sometimes called The Angel Next Door, but we think Theatre People is the perfect title because the play celebrates everyone who writes for theater, acts in theater, is an unsung hero backstage in the theater, or just comes to see theater. And in this play, even the grumpy maid, Olga (played by Erin Noel Grennan), who dislikes theater people, comes to realize that theater is life changing.

Smith’s play is a new adaptation of Ferenc Molnar’s 1924 three-act farce, Play at the Castle (Játék a kastélyban), which has been adapted by P.G. Wodehouse in The Play’s the Thing in 1926 and by Tom Stoppard  in Rough Crossing in 1984. Smith’s two-act play is just perfect with the script, characters, plot, witty and sidesplitting banter, and use of multiple doors, all without being over the top. The writing is masterful. If you heard a podcast reading of the play, you would still be tickled pink.

The play is set in 1948 in a Newport mansion where married playwrights Charlotte Sanders (Isabel Keating) and Arthur Sanders (Michael McCormick) bring nervous first-time novelist Oliver Adams (Rodolfo Soto). Adams just received a contract from Simon & Shuster for his debut novel. The novel is the basis of their play, which must be successful to pull them out of lean times. Oliver did not sign the contract because he wanted Margot Bell (Mia Pinero), a performer he met once and has since corresponded with, to read the manuscript first. It’s a continuing love letter to her, but here comes trouble. The walls of the manor house are paper thin, and Oliver, Charlotte, and Arthur hear Margot and Victor Pratt (Michael McCorry Rose) making passionate love next door. Oliver feels like a fool and has a near nervous breakdown while Arthur and Charlotte try to prevent him from destroying the script and bringing the play to Broadway.

Mark Shanahan’s direction is nimble and impeccable. James J. Fenton’s gorgeous set, complemented perfectly by Alyssandra Docherty’s lighting design. It looks exactly what we would expect if we were so fortunate as to be invited to a mansion. Anya Kutner’s props were accurate for the time period. Kudos also to assistant director Anissa Felix and stage manager Rebecca C. Monroe, assistant stage manager Christine Lemme, production assistant Zach De Brino, and Jill BC Du Boff’s sound design. Annie J. Le’s costumes were lovely, and J. Jared Janas’s wig, hair, and makeup designs captured the stylish late ‘40s look.

Theatre People is a great showcase for any actor, and all six players shine throughout the play. Isabel Keating plays Charlotte with verve and cleverness. Michael McCormick is terrific as Arthur, who is always trying to pull back on Charlotte when she’s like a kite in the wind. Rodolfo Soto is brilliant as the bashful starstruck novelist who worships Margot. Mia Pinero is a combination of passionate but sensitive singer torn between a man whose letters she loves and her egotistical lover. Michael McCorry Rose is winning as Victor Pratt, the dimwit hunk (“Broadway’s Favorite Baritone”). And what a singing voice and stage presence! Erin Noel Grennan steals the show as Olga, the surly Eastern European maid who has the most biting lines which she delivers deadpan. If there was an award for best maid in a play, Grennan would win it.

Theatre People runs through April 12 at the Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court in Westport. Performances are Tuesdays at 7:00, Wednesday at 2:00 and 7:00, Thursday at 7:00, Saturday at 3:00 and 8:00, and Sundays at 3:00. 

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