Review: Don Bluth Front Row Theatre Presents HARVEY Lee Cooley Glows As Elwood P. Dowd

The Chase is on at Don Bluth Front Row Theatre. That is, Mary Chase's comedy, HARVEY, that (beyond her other plays and children's stories) made her famous (a Pulitzer Prize) and gave James Stewart one of his truly classic roles.

Elwood P. Dowd (Lee Cooley), as pleasant and eccentric a soul as one might find in such social enclaves as Charlie's Tavern at 12th and Main, has become, by virtue of his very public interactions with a visible-only-to-him 6'3½" pooka (i.e., a rabbit), an intolerable source of consternation and embarrassment to his status-conscious sister Veta (Petey Swartz) and eager-to-be-hitched niece Myrtle Mae (Emily Bowlby). Chaos ensues when steps are taken to commit Elwood and change him into "a perfectly normal human being." Psychiatrists (Jeff Jones and Don Crosby) and a nurse (Hillary Lowe) confuse a very flustered Veta as the one requiring institutionalization while Elwood escapes the net and distributes his calling card to everyone he encounters, inviting them for a tipple at the nearby pub.

Meanwhile, an array of quirky characters dash to and fro as they contend with the fantasy of the rabbit man: Mrs. Chauvenet (Joy Bingham Strimple) wraps herself in a stole and an air of aristocracy as a friend of the Dowd's who is befuddled by Elwood's conversation with an invisible rabbit. An orderly (Frank Aaron) is in hot pursuit of Elwood and maybe Myrtle Mae too.

The family's lawyer (Hal Bliss) arrives to introduce logic and balance. KatiBelle Collins brings a refreshing aura of sanity to the melee as the wife of one of the shrinks. Ultimately, it takes a cabbie (Malcolm Hooper) to trigger a critical moment of enlightenment that turns Veta's mind.

The play's numerous revivals and film adaptations attest to its staying power as a light-hearted and heartwarming testament to Elwood P. Dowd's irrevocable challenge to the definition of "normalcy." ("Well," he says to a psychiatrist, "I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it.")

While all the ingredients are scripted for a rollicking affair, it requires clarity of direction to pull all the elements of this frantic chase into a seamless whole. That's not the case in this production, directed by Katie Murillo, where the intentions and flirtations of subplots are underdeveloped and unconvincing and the action drags.

The saving grace to the show is the performance of Lee Cooley, whose impeccable sense of character and comic timing endows Elwood P. Dowd with an irresistible likability. He captures the mannerisms, even the tongue in cheek, of a gentleman drinker who knows more than he may let on and plays his counterparts to the hilt.

Credit must be given to a clever bit of delightful amusement ~ specifically, having the cast conduct set changes while doing the bunny hop.

HARVEY continues its run at Don Bluth Front Row Theatre in Scottsdale through February 24th.

Photo credit to Don Bluth Front Row Theatre

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