THEATER REVIEW
“Same Time Next Year”
Grade: B-
8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays. 2:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays. Also 11 a.m. July 16 and July 23 and 7 p.m. July 27. (Note: There are no performances at 8 p.m. July 25 and at 2:30 p.m. July 26.) Through Aug. 3. $20-$75. True Colors Theatre, Southwest Arts Center, 915 New Hope Road, Atlanta. 1-877-725-8849, truecolorstheatre.org.
Bottom line: Leon excels in lightweight comedy.
He’s the biggest name in Atlanta theater. She’s one of his great leading ladies.
He directed her Tony Award-winning performance in the 2004 Broadway revival of “A Raisin in the Sun,” then came back to pick up his own Tony this year for his second take on the Lorraine Hansberry classic.
So when these two artists decide to share the stage for the first time, it’s a headline-making occasion. Add the fact that the director is an Atlanta homeboy who co-founded one of the city’s most admired ensembles before moving west to run the biggest theater in Portland, Ore., and the expectations grow ever grander.
To be certain, there’s a significant swath of audience members who will show up to watch Kenny Leon and Phylicia Rashad do just about anything. I’m a member of that club myself. But I must say I’m a bit disappointed that they couldn’t find a richer vehicle than “Same Time Next Year.” In Bernard Slade’s 1975 play, Doris (Rashad) and George (Leon) have a one-night stand, then meet once a year at a California cabin to share a bed and compare notes on their offstage marriages, their children, their careers.
This goes on for 24 years.
As directed for Leon’s True Colors Theatre by Chris Coleman (whom local audiences remember affectionately for his 1988-2000 run at Actor’s Express), the romantic comedy lives charmingly enough in its dated little world. The role of neurotic, guilt-ridden George is a perfect match for Leon, who finds delicious comedy in the peril and risk-taking that is the story’s central premise.
Rashad, who can convey warmth, beauty, love, anger and disappointment with little more than the arch of an eyebrow, doesn’t fare quite as well, however.
On opening night, when George and Doris sheepishly awake to find themselves in bed together, I had a little trouble hearing Rashad, though she did warm up quickly. For an actress who has played Medea at the Alliance Theatre, and Hansberry’s Lena Younger and August Wilson’s 285-year-old Aunt Ester on Broadway, the part of Doris is slight to say the least; Rashad plays it safely and softly. In the course of the comings and goings and ridiculous plot twists, Doris undergoes a kind of personal and political awakening. But it feels like the author’s attempt to attach a bit of social relevance to the play, which enjoyed a successful Broadway run and was made into a 1978 film starring Ellen Burstyn and Alan Alda.
Rashad, known for playing Clair Huxtable in TV’s long-running “The Cosby Show,” seems back in sitcom mode here. Except for its explicit sexual references, this piece would have played nicely on TV. (Perhaps it should be noted that Slade was a writer for “Bewitched” and is credited with developing “The Flying Nun” and “The Partridge Family.”) It even begins with snippets of incidental music that feel appropriate to a ’50s teleplay; as the years spin by, we get a sampling of period music, fashions and wigs. (Costumes are by Jamie Bullins, set by Isabel and Moriah Curley-Clay.)
I have a sneaking suspicion that “Same Time Next Year” will find a happy and receptive audience among lovers of lightweight comedy in the vein of Neil Simon. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, and Leon’s hilarious performance redeemed my misgivings about the choice of material. Leon is the only person I know who can pick up a Tony Award one minute, then return home to star at True Colors the next. That he finds truth in whatever he does is remarkable, and humbling.
