David Zippel goes into the Wilde for Coyote Stageworks
“The Importance of Being Earnest” is one of the greatest revival stories since Lazarus.
Oscar Wilde’s lampoon of Victorian manners debuted in 1895 and was aborted amid controversy over Wilde’s personal life. The Dublin wit was sentenced to two years of hard labor for having an affair with the son of a British lord. Two years after his death in 1900, “Earnest” was revived.
Since then, it has been adapted into all-male and all-black productions, a play based in the disco era in New York and three films. Now Palm Springs-based Broadway writer-director David Zippel has set it in 21st century New York and Coyote Stageworks has launched it with a staged reading at the Annenberg Theater. Appropriate for 2015, some of the all-star actors played characters given a change of gender.
“Earnest in New York” is still about two men, Jack and Algernon, pretending to be people they are not. Almost all of the dialogue is still Wilde’s, including classic lines like, “To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.” But Zippel has added context and substituted contemporary names to inject new humor without disrupting the cadence of Wilde’s high comedy.
For example, Algernon’s fear of being seated next to an unknown woman who always flirts with her husband becomes a fear that he’ll be placed next to “Hoda Kotb, who always flirts with her husband.”
Lady Bracknell’s line about one Lady Harbury morphs remarkably into, “I was obliged to call on dear Barbara Sinatra. I hadn't been there since her poor husband's death. I never saw a woman so altered; she looks quite 20 years younger.”
The suggestion of a woman getting a makeover becomes a wicked jab at a movie star: “I remember recommending one to young Hillary Swank,” says Mrs. Bracknell, “and after three months her own husband did not know her.”
“And after six months,” adds Jack, “nobody knew her.”
The biggest cast change is turning the Rev. Canon Chasuble into the Rev. Diane Chasuble, played stoically by stage and TV star Lucie Arnaz (who unfortunately didn’t have the lines to really explore same sex possibilities). Algernon’s man-servant, Lane, has become the Hispanic maid, Immaculada, played by L.A. actress-director, Blanca Araceli. Merriman, Jack’s butler in the Hamptons, is now the maid, Bridget, which is basically a cameo for two-time Tony nominee Millicent Martin.
The players bringing this adaptation to amazing heights are Wendie Malick, the twice Emmy-nominated actress from “Just Shoot Me” and “Hot In Cleveland,” who plays Lady, er, Mrs. Birnbaum-Bracknell, and Roger Bart, who plays producer Buddy Ross in “Trumbo,” as Algernon. Joseph Fuqua, as Jack/Ernest is as good as one could hope for from an actor reading his lines. But Malick and Bart are so technically skilled and know their characters so well, even without being off book, that they inhabit their characters and mine all of the humor from the brilliant lines.
Zippel is in talks to bring his adaptation to regional theaters, where it deserves a long life. He directed this reading as a benefit for Coyote Stageworks and it’s indicative of the quality this local company strives for in every production.
Their next works will be the Tony Award-winning “Art” on March 25 and “Agnes of God” on April 20. For tickets or subscriptions, call (760) 325-4490 or follow them on Facebook.
Kaye Ballard at 90
Stage and TV star Kaye Ballard is one of the Coachella Valley’s best-loved celebrities, as indicated by the hundreds of Facebook birthday wishes she received last weekend even though she doesn’t belong to Facebook!
A remarkable assemblage of old Hollywood turned out for her 90th birthday party Friday at her favorite bakery, Frankie's Old World Italian Bakery, hidden in the bowels of Perez Road in Cathedral City. Her long-time friend, Clark Bason, threw the intimate party with celebrity guests including Carol Channing, Gavin MacLeod, Lucie Arnaz and her husband, Larry Luckinbill, Peter Marshall, Mimi Hines, Donna McKechnie, and dozens of friends and family, including her cousin Paul Bellardo, Myvanwy Jenn, Harold Matzner, Jerry and Barbara Keller, and Hal Wingo, founding editor of People Magazine, with his delightful wife, Paula.
Michael Orland, who was Kaye’s music director before he became the pianist for “American Idol,” accompanied all of the celebs except MacLeod (who had to leave early to star in his Coachella Valley Repertory show, “Happy Hour”) on tribute numbers to Kaye.
Arnaz went to the great length of literally blowing the dust off the sheet music of what she said was the theme song of Kaye’s ’60s sit-com, “The Mothers-In-Law,” which was executive produced and directed by her father, Desi Arnaz. Then she sang the little-known lyrics to the theme song, which obviously were written specifically for Kaye’s birthday. Really funny.
Channing provided another highlight by performing her classic sketch about Cecilia Sisson, the silent film star who couldn’t make the transition to talkies because every time she makes the “s” sound, she whistles. It was brilliant when she performed it on the old “Andy Williams Show” and it was hilarious when she did it Friday at age 94.
Kaye got laughs with her own bit and said afterwards, “It was the happiest I’ve ever been because I felt like everybody was wonderful.”