BWW Reviews: The Gamm's Sublime THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES Surprises in Many Ways

There are some plays that are easily categorized. They fit a very specific label, nice and neat and tidy. Hamlet is a tragedy. Noises Off is a comedy. There's little room for doubt or debate. On the other hand, some plays defy definition. They challenge you to put them into a category or give them a label. When that happens, you can sometimes get a muddled, confused mess that never really works. Or, as in the case of The House of Blue Leaves, currently playing at the Gamm Theatre, you get an exciting and entertaining piece of theater that surprises in part because of just how well it works.

This wonderful theatrical mashup was written by John Guare in the mid-1960s. On the surface, it deals with a more-than-slightly dysfunctional family and their experiences on the day the Pope is visiting New York City. In their ramshackle apartment, we meet a man who writes songs and is obsessed with becoming famous, his depressed and schizophrenic wife, a woman with whom he wants to run away and start a new life, his AWOL from the Army son, a few nuns and a Hollywood actress, among others.

Guare creates all of these larger-than-life characters but also manages to make each one of them believably human. While there are comic moments that range from silly to hilarious, there are also quiet moments of real emotion, running the gamut from love to hate, joy to utter sadness. Those emotional moments, just like the comic ones, never feel forced or fake. For all that Guare throws into the blender, everything is there for a reason. Every jump from one genre to the next, every emotional leap a character takes, serves the story and the bigger picture.

Juggling all of these elements is no small feat but Guare accomplishes it impressively. The play is, at times, a domestic drama, a door-slamming farce, a Shakespearean tragedy, a slapstick comedy, an anti-war protest and a moving love story. Still, Guare manages to make it all work in a way that never feels haphazard. It never feels thrown-together. There's too much intention in the way he puts together all of the pieces. The transitions make too much sense for it to ever feel unnatural or gimmicky.

One thing that comes as no surprise is the brilliant directorial turn by Fred Sullivan, Jr. His time spent directing and acting in so many shows over the years has clearly given him the tools to bring out the best in a production and its cast. In this case, he started by putting together a cast that is flawless. Every actor or actress fits his or her role perfectly.

They don't just fit the role perfectly, these actors also make each role their own and fill it with their own personality, charisma and talent. As with any good director, Sullivan played a role in that, drawing those individual personalities and talents out of his actors and shaping them to fit the play and its needs. He clearly has a talent for doing so, an ability to shape and mold an actor's performance, combining what's in the text with what the actor brings to the role, then making it bigger and better until just the right level is reached.

Sullivan also seems to have paid attention to every detail of every moment and every performance. All of the actors shine with equal brilliance, none of them seem to have been left out or given less time to fine tune their performance. Similarly, every moment seems to have been handled with the same attention and focus. Sullivan has crafted numerous beautiful stage pictures, skillfully using his actors' movement and placement on stage. But it never feels forced or fake, it's much more organic than that, motivated by a true moment or emotion.

Getting back to Sullivan's fantastic cast, the biggest surprise, for this reviewer, anyway, is Rachel Dulude as Bunny Flingus. And it's a surprise in the best possible way. If audiences have previously seen her only in small, minor roles, they will be blown away by her performance here. As Bunny, she is ballsy, brassy and absolutely hysterical. While Dulude's comic ability is a force to be reckoned with, she also perfectly handles the quieter moments, never losing touch with the truthful, believable human being she creates on stage. Hopefully there will be more leading roles for Dulude in the near future.

With many leading roles under his belt, Tom Gleadow knocks this one out of the park. Truthfully, it was still a bit of a surprise, having seen Gleadow mostly shine in roles which were primarily comedic. Here, though, he absolutely becomes Artie Shaughnessy, a man who wants nothing more than to be famous, to "be somebody." He's a man who is done with his past life and ready to move on and create a new one, something many can relate to, and Gleadow creates a universally relatable and believable character.

Something that is no surprise is the brilliant performance of Jeanine Kane as Bananas Shaughnessy. This kind of play seems to be right in Kane's wheelhouse but this play isn't typical and neither is her role. It's also a role which could become very shallow or hollow, if played as just "the crazy lady" and nothing more. Kane doesn't go that route, instead creating an amazingly nuanced, completely real and very profound performance.

As mentioned above, it's one of the wonderful surprises of this production just how uniformly great every member of the ensemble is, no matter how much or little stage time they get. Karen Carpenter is fabulous as Corrinna Sroller, the Hollywood actress who shows up in the middle of all the chaos and creates more of it. Carpenter plays it straight and gets numerous enormous laughs. Marc Dante Mancini brings a lot of charisma to Ronnie Shaughnessy, a character we'd like to get to know more about but never have the chance. Steven Liebhauser is wonderful as Billy Einhorn, even if the character is a bit of a deus ex machina and doesn't even really need to show up. The three nuns who arrive on the scene are played with perfect hilarity by Joan Batting, Milly Massey and Julia Bartoletti, who has become a young star to watch on our local stages.

Surprises, good and bad, continue on the technical side of things. Slightly disappointing is the fact that the set designed by Patrick Lynch looks an awful lot like the same exact set from another recent Gamm production. I'm sure that wasn't the intention, to recycle and old set, but it just looks too familiar and gives a bad impression. On the other hand, Amanda Downing Carney's costumes are spectacularly perfect, which really shouldn't be a surprise considering Carney's past successes. Her designs, though, have at times been really hit-or-miss and this set of costumes is an absolute hit from start to finish.

That can be said of this entire production, it is a hit. Which is a real testament to those involved, since this a play which could easily be done poorly or could come across in a hundred different bad ways. But, Sullivan and his cast prevent that from happening and instead craft a House that audiences absolutely should visit.

The House of Blue Leaves runs through April 5 at the Sandra Feinstein Gamm Theatre, at 172 Exchange Street in Pawtucket. Tickets are $41 and $49 and can be purchased by calling 401-723-4266 or by visiting the Gamm's website at www.gammtheatre.org. Performance times are Tuesday through Thursday at 7pm, Friday and Saturday at 8pm, and Sunday at 2pm and 7pm.

Pictured (L to R): Jeanine Kane and Rachel Dulude. Photo by Peter Goldberg.

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