Review: FRONT ROW THEATRE PRESENTS MY MAN GODFREY

In the catalogue of American cinematic gems, MY MAN GODFREY has been defined as "a fantasy of social unity" and "a promotion of class reconciliation." Adapted from Eric Hatch's novel, 1101 Park Avenue, the 1936 movie (a "shantytown fable") was one of a series of features (e.g., Man's Castle and Sullivan's Travels) that poked classism in the eye and aimed to put the plight of the poor in perspective. (Films like Trading Places and Coming to America have followed in that tradition.)

The play adaptation (now enjoying a revival at the Don Bluth Front Row Theatre), like the film and its 1957 remake, focuses on Godfrey Parke (Van Rockwell), a junkyard denizen of stoic disposition, who is salvaged from his self-imposed exile in a homeless encampment by the East River and afforded employment as a butler on Manhattan's Upper East Side. The benefactress of this generosity is Irene Bullock (Tessa Geelhood), a spoiled and impressionable socialite, whose discovery and recovery of Godfrey is ironically the consummation of a "scavenger hunt" for "a forgotten man."

Once stationed in the Bullock household, Godfrey is as much anthropologist as servant as he observes, with a seeming air of detachment, the affected and fractious manners of a family living the privileged life while, save for daddy, unaware they're on the brink of insolvency. As the whirligig of affections, jealousies and anxieties crescendos, the time arrives for an intervention. Godfrey ~ aided and abetted by an old friend (Ted Frumkin) who nearly spills the beans on his true identity ~ seizes upon a scheme that will be redemptive for all and will attest to his moral conviction that "the difference between a man and a bum is a job."

MY MAN GODFREY is played to the hilt ~ almost to the point of chewing the scenery ~ by the rambunctious members of the Bullock family ~ Cornelia (Lauren Scoville), Irene's self-indulgent and conniving sister; Angelica (Janis Webb), the stately and ditsy matron of the brood; Alexander (Frank Aaron), the brooding dad who frets over the impending financial catastrophe; Carlo (Mac Hawbaker), Angelica's "protégé" who sashays to and from and sparks the parlor spirits with grand imitations of an ape; George (Eric Bond), Cornelia's faithful-to-a-fault boyfriend; and Molly (Amie Bjorklund), the brusque maid with an unrequited crush on Godfrey.

MY MAN GODFREY is a screwball comedy with a message that can easily be overshadowed by the antics of its characters. Beyond the well-deserved chortles is a commentary on class and manners that is as relevant today as it was in the Great Depression. No man should be forgotten; every man ought to have a shot at the good life; and a bit of empathy can go a long way.

MY MAN GODFREY continues its run at the Don Bluth Front Row Theatre through June 24th.

Photo credit to Don Bluth Front Row Theatre

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