Found a Fourth!

A not-so-random Google search this afternoon turned up evidence that a fourth reviewer graced our production recently, and it's a shame that none of us had read this review because this guy or gal actually seemed to enjoy it, rolling nicely along with its editorial changes. Once again, to spare my blog the hits of other not-so-random interested Googlers, I'll post only the part that pertains to me unedited here. All other real names have been removed.

Jack Worthing and Algie Moncrief on this side of the pond? In the ’50s? Well, why not? Satire, deception, the importance of appearance and a well-chosen word are commodities not limited to 19th century London.

[The director sets] Oscar Wilde’s classic... in 1952 New York City and the Hamptons, changing characters’ names and spellings along the way. Cecily Cardew is now a wide-eyed American bobby-soxer, Miss Prism a Latina, butler McLean a plaid-wearing Scot, and the plot plays out to the musical stylings of Dean Martin and Frankie Laine.

The satire of the monied class remains, as do cucumber sandwiches and the essential silliness of the plot. Lady Bracknell has been democratized to Mrs. Bracknell (Kelly Lapczynski), but she remains a snobbish battleaxe interviewing prospective suitors for her daughter’s hand. Family is important and she is not about to allow Jack Worthing, who was an infant left in a handbag in Grand Central Station, to marry Gwendolyn. “To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune,” she says. “To lose both looks like carelessness.”

...[The production] proves that Earnest is a winner, regardless of its setting and time period. Among the actors, my favorites are Lapczynski’s wonderfully annoying Mrs. Bracknell and Bob Christiansen’s dual roles as McLean and Rev. Chausible. Other favorites are dewy-eyed Cecily and [actor’s] proper-but-aching-to-escape-mom’s-clutches Gwendolyn.

... If you’re looking for a few hours of fun, take in this updated production of Wilde’s classic.

Noting that one of my lines was quoted, Orrick said that there'll be no living with me now. ;)