BWW Reviews: A.R. Gurney In THE GRAND MANNER at the Good Theater

The Good Theater's (Portland, ME) New England premiere of A.R. Gurney's latest play, The Grand Manner, is a wistful, droll, and stylish production of this charming, nostalgic paean to theatre on the Great White Way in 1948. The play, which originally opened at New York's Lincoln Center Theatre in 2010, deals with an autobiographical episode, augmented into legend.

Young Pete Gurney from Buffalo and a New Hampshire boarding school pays a visit to Broadway to see his idol, Katharine Cornell in Antony and Cleopatra and to meet her backstage. The warm, witty, and wise encounter in which young Pete gets to spend a magical and mystifying visit with Cornell, her husband and partner, director Guthrie McClintic, and Cornell's lover and personal assistant, Gert Macy transforms the young man's life and affirms his nascent vocation as a playwright.

Gurney's play explores the "lavender marriage" of McClintic and Cornell with humor and empathy, giving the audience a glimpse into the vulnerability and foibles of these larger-than-life theatre icons. In sharp and adroit dialogue, Gurney recreates the theatre milieu of 1948 when the American stage stood at a crossroads, the grand manner of Cornell, the Lunts, and Helen Hayes nearing its swan song while the vibrant avant garde of Tennessee Williams, Stanislavski, Elia Kazan, and Marlon Brando - not to mention the world of television - loomed on the horizon. Young Pete finds himself there to witness this elegiac moment, while his character also points the way to a future theatrical art - one which pays homage to the lessons of the pastThe Grand Manner does just that - a lovely character driven play, romantic and heartwarming as well as wicked and sly. Peppered as it is with insider jokes and gossipy name-dropping, it is a play to be relished by all those who love the rich tapestry of theatre history.

The one-set, four-character format makes The Grand Manner an ideal choice for a small company like the Good Theater, but while the scale of the drama is restrained, the roles are not. They require deft actors with a gift for period style and a careful sensibility not to descend into caricature. As Katharine Cornell, Denise Poirier is - as her onstage persona likes to be described -"luminous." She radiates charisma, dignity, maternal warmth, together with tough-mindedness and piercing self-honesty. She is gracious and grand in every sense.

Tony Reilly plays her husband Guthrie with an outrageously funny, energetic flair that is at once satiric and poignant. His brash, overbearing entrance spewing curses jolts the play into a new gear, and the chemistry he and Poirier create in counterpoint to his maladroit attempted seduction of Pete gives the drama an infusion of tension. Maureen Butler is a long-suffering Gert, loyal, discreet, and prudent, the voice of quiet reason in this ménage à trois. As the young Pete Gurney, Tristan Rolfe is spot-on - wide-eyed, yet savvy, star struck, yet self possessed enough to articulate the meaning of the experience.

Brian P. Allen directs with loving attention to nuance, character, and period style, and, as always, a firm sense of dramatic architecture. The set by Cheryl Dolan, which depicts the Green Room of the Martin Beck Theatre, is visually lush and beautifully appointed. Her work is complemented by Iain Odlin's warm lighting, which makes use of some of the very same theatre tricks of which Cornell speaks: warm pink tones and bumped up wattage when the star takes center stage. Justin Cote's costumes capture the glamour of the late 40s with his three gowns for Katharine Cornell artful evocations of the grande dame.

The Grand Manner is a delightful gem: a voyage to the magical realm of memory and a touching tribute to way in which the present is inextricably linked to the past. Moreover, Gurney's comedy is a salute to the voices of our playwrights and artists who spin that thread of continuity.

In the Grand Manner runs November 6-24, 2013 at the Good Theater, 76 Congress Street, Portland, ME, Brian P. Allen, Executive & Artistic Director www.goodtheater.com 207-885-5883

Photos: Courtesy Good Theater, Craig Robinson, photographer

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