To the untrained eye of a casual observer (like me), there might not seem to be a lot of athletic ability or physical exertion involved in the game of golf.
Guess again. In Ken Ludwig’s farcical “The Fox on the Fairway” – as in the playwright’s better-known show-biz comedies “Lend Me a Tenor” and “Moon Over Buffalo” – it’s what happens behind the scenes that matters. While golfers from rival country clubs compete in an annual tournament unfolding on the greens just offstage (replete with pre-recorded color commentary), all hectic hell breaks loose among a handful of madcap characters circulating around a glorified green-room of sorts (the clubhouse bar).
With Dad’s Garage artistic director Kevin Gillese at the helm, Aurora Theatre’s frantic “Fairway” definitely puts its energetic actors through their paces. The six-member ensemble features the welcome sight of Dan Triandiflou in the lead role of Bingham, who manages the club that’s hosting the event. According to his program bio, of late he’s been a fixture on cruise ships and otherwise set adrift in various Agatha’s dinner-theater shows, but his exceedingly clever performance suggests a talent that deserves to be enjoyed on a more regular, mainstream basis.
For someone who can be so underwhelming in heavy dramatic parts (“The Night of the Iguana,” “Ethan Frome”), Robin Bloodworth’s true calling would seem to be broad comedy, based on his recent work in “The Ladies’ Man” or here, a real hoot as Bingham’s appropriately named nemesis, Dickie, a blustery braggart who speaks in malapropisms: “The sock is on the other shoe,” he proclaims at one point, with as straight a face as possible.
Courtney Patterson, who also excelled in Aurora’s similarly silly “Boeing, Boeing” last season, oozes acerbic sophistication as Dickie’s ex-wife – and Bingham’s former flame and current co-worker – which isn’t to say the chic actress is above selling bits of pure nonsense (in one, maneuvering a slippery oyster out of her dress).
As the hopelessly romantic young lovers of the piece, newcomer Jenny Holden doesn’t provide much freshness to the admittedly clichéd role of a bimbo barmaid, but the ever-appealing Jacob York (“Becky’s New Car”) is delightful as a budding golf superstar. Foregoing the natural charm she brings to her better work, Suehyla El-Attar (“40 Weeks”) is bizarrely miscast as Bingham’s nagging wife, reduced to a sight gag in padding, a frumpy wig and old-fogey costumes.
Otherwise, designer Alan Yeong’s wardrobe is suitably fanciful. Also impressive is Lizz Dorsey’s retractable set, highly convenient for a late-breaking chase sequence involving an actual golf cart on stage.
In farces especially, the timing is everything – and not only in the physical sense of sustaining the show’s breathless pace, as Gillese and company do with relative agility. There’s another kind of timing required to deliver particularly suggestive quips about a player’s golf balls (never mind his golf clubs), and they pull that off fairly well, too.
It’s no hole-in-one, so to speak, but Aurora’s “Fairway” stays the course most amusingly.
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THEATER REVIEW
“The Fox on the Fairway”
Grade: B
Through May 27. 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays; 10 a.m. Wednesday (May 23). $16-$30. Aurora Theatre, 128 Pike St., Lawrenceville. 678-226-6222. auroratheatre.com.
Bottom line: Above par slapstick.
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