Review: Vickie Bailey Directs CFTA's SUITE SURRENDER

One thing in theater seems certain: Give an accomplished and veteran director the reins to a show and you can be guaranteed they will approach the work decisively and imaginatively - no matter how weak or how strong a particular play's script may be...it doesn't always work out that way, but when it does audiences can thank their lucky stars that a lesser director wasn't given the job!

That's certainly the case with Suite Surrender, onstage through this Sunday at Murfreesboro's Center for the Arts, directed by Vickie Bailey (who, it must be said, is one of my best pals and confidantes) with her customary flair and her appreciation for broad comedic strokes delivered by a talented cast of actors who were largely unknown to me before opening weekend.

Bailey and her cast do a fine job recreating the play's time period and setting: the action takes place in a sumptuous luxury hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, where the Marines have landed and two of Tinseltown's (that would be Hollywood for you neophytes) biggest stars both have settled into the Presidential Suite to wreak havoc, hilarity and hijinks.

The script, by Michael McKeever (who Wikipedia tells us is one of South Florida's most prolific playwrights), will never be mistaken for classic farce or winning melodrama, to be sure, but suffice it to say that it provides an outline (characters lack dimension, for the most part) that ensures theater companies from Anchorage to Zenith can put together a production of the show that's entertaining and diverting, even if not particularly edifying, illuminating or life-changing. It's just good, clean fun that may indeed be just what the doctor ordered for whatever ails you (which, after all, could be interpreted as life-changing).

Sandra Duncan Thurman's tastefully appointed set provides a terrific backdrop for the zaniness that ensues when two divas converge upon one hotel room to render absolute mayhem (a description I stole directly from the production's CFTA playbill) upon the staff.

Cyndie Verbeten pulls out all the leading lady histrionics and bad behavior that heaven allows as Claudia McFadden, setting the perfect tone for the two hours of the performance, dripping disdain and haughtiness like so many diamonds strewn across a black velvet tablecloth. She plays opposite CathyJean D. Spencer as equally star-powered Athena Sinclair - and the two women's onstage demeanor may suggest the outsized egos of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, if not for the fact that Claudia and Athena are musical stars.

As they belittled, put-upon personal assistants, Sean Richardson is delightful as Claudia's Mr. Pippet, who wrangles her dog and handles her demands with grace; and Mandy Ray-Jones captures the very essence of the character she portrays ("Murphy," a tough-talking gal if ever there was one) with just the right amount of 1940s-era frivolity and bravado.

Among Bailey's other hard-working cast members are Robert McAdams as the easily flustered hotel manager; Margo Ford as a local socialite (who may be the Palm Beach equivalent of Florence Foster Jenkins, Meryl Streep notwithstanding); Jess Townsend as gossip columnist Dora Del Rio (who's given little to do but be hit in the head by slamming doors); and Mike Spencer and Michael "Hunter" Jones, as a pair of none-too-bright bellhops.

While McKeever obviously hope for some sort of Lend Me a Tenor lightening in a bottle for Suite Surrender, he falls short. His characters aren't given much to do, the whole set-up begs for a broader swipe of comedic misbehavior and a drawn-out first act leads to a second stanza that unspools too quickly for the payoff to work as it should.

• Suite Surrender. By Michael McKeever. Directed by Vickie Bailey. Presented by Center for the Arts, Murfreesboro. Through September 25. For details, go to www.boroarts.org. Running time: 2 hours (with one 15-minute intermission).

photo by Natasha Baxley Jones

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