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Review: 2nd Story's Bus Stop

By: May. 28, 2007
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As I write, my words cannot capture the enormity of the task of keeping the audience engaged in Bus Stop on the particular night I attended.  The cast and crew had to deal with record-breaking heat, which hadn't broken by the time the production began.  Open windows on a hot night in Warren, RI along with a theater on the busiest corner of town, mean that lots of ambient noise can distract an audience during the performance.  In his introduction, Artistic Director Ed Shea gave the audience guidance on how to deal with it.  It reminded me of yoga instructions:  It will happen.  Acknowledge it and then let it go.

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The original Broadway production of Bus Stop opened on March 2, 1955.  Elaine Stritch, Phyllis Love and Kim Stanley played the three female leads.  It is hard to imagine those three women in one play.  The original production is part of Broadway lore and spawned the film version which starred Marilyn Monroe in the role of Cherie.  With this impressive pedigree, the bar for 2nd Story Theatre's production is high.  

The play takes place about 30 miles from Kansas City, MO, just over the Kansas state line.  It is a cold night in March about 1 a.m. and there is a snow storm raging outside the door of Grace's diner.  The midnight bus pulls in, late, and with it, the narrative of Bus Stop.

Grace (Joanne Fayan) and her high school aged, part-time waitress Elma (Maryellen Brito) and the local sheriff, Will (Joe Henderson) welcome Cherie (Laura Sorenson), a self-proclaimed chanteuse who works in a third-rate night club, Dr. Lyman (F. William Oakes), a drunken professor with a penchant for inappropriately young women, Bo (Kyle Maddock) a cowboy who is making, what seems to be, his first trip off the ranch, Virgil (Vince Petronio) who is Bo's level-headed mentor and Carl (Walter Cotter), the bus driver. The next few hours will change at least a few of their lives.

2nd Story's set is as realistic as any diner set, it leaves almost nothing to be imagined.  The mid-century props, the bus lights through the window, the horns sounding distant are all noticed and noted.  It is another tremendous effort, effectively designed by Ed Shea and executed by the lighting, sound and design crew.

Fayan's Grace is less bitter and hardened than I expected.  She, of all of the characters in Bus Stop, would translate to present day with the most ease.  Grace has a line near the the end of the second act, I think, where she offers Cherie a piece of pie "on the house".   It is an aside, no one responds to it but I think Fayan's reading of the line is terrific.

I think the character of Elma is more complex than played in this production.   Elma is unfazed and remarkably mature when it comes to Grace's dalliance with Carl, the bus driver; yet she oblivious to the sloppy seduction of Dr. Lyman. There seems to be room to explore the how and why she responds to the lecherous, inebriated Dr. Lyman.  Oakes plays Dr. Lyman as written.  The "yuck" factor translates.

Maddock is physically perfect as Bo. Maddock's hormone-fueled, thick-headed, naive Bo is incredibly, and appropriately, annoying. Petronio gives, yet another, strong performance as Virgil.  Petronio is as understated in Bus Stop as he was over-the-top in Flea in Her Ear.  I found the relationship between Virgil and Bo as intriguing as the relationship between Bo and Cherie.  

Sorenson is well cast, and costumed as Cherie.  During the talent show scene Sorenson sings a cappella.  She has  lovely, clear-toned, voice which gives me hope that there is a musical somewhere in 2nd Story's near future.

Henderson gives a fine performance small-town sheriff, Will.  The character is, perhaps, a bit too sophisticated as played by Henderson. But that is a minor note in the context of Henderson's performance.

Cotter has the smallest role in the ensemble cast as Carl, the bus driver.  However, He and Fayan have good chemistry and effectively translate the excitement of new love (between middle-aged folks, no less).

As a whole, the production is solid. Bus Stop supplanted The Madwoman of Chaillot in this segment of 2nd Story's season.  Bus Stop has been extended through June 16th.  Tickets are available at the 2nd Story Theatre Box office at 401-247-4200.



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