The Man Who Came to Dinner, the popular comedy by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, opens a
five-performance run tonight (Thursday, Sept. 22) at the Hoogland Center
for the Arts. Back in 1939, when it premiered at the Music Box Theatre on
Broadway, audiences knew that the lead character, Sheridan Whiteside, was
based on critic and radio personality Alexander Woollcott, a member of the
famed Algonquin Round Table. Because the play includes so many topical
references from the period, Springfield Theatre Centre’s program will
include a glossary, a sort of road map for contemporary audiences. The Whiteside character wasn’t the only one
drawn from real life. Glamorous actress Lorraine Sheldon (played here by
Cynda Wrightsman) is loosely based on Gertrude Lawrence, who starred in Private Lives, Lady in the Dark, and The King and I. Beverly
Carlton, a songwriter/performer friend of Whiteside’s (played here by
Gus Gordon), was based on Noel Coward. The role of Hollywood actor Banjo
(played by Rick Dunham) was based on Harpo Marx, a friend of
Woollcott’s. The plot is pure old-fashioned comedy: Famous
lecturer Whiteside (Ron Seney) is on a tour in Ohio when he accepts a
dinner invitation at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley (Karl Bockemeier and
Martha Plog) during the Christmas holidays. Before he even enters their
residence, he slips on a piece of ice, fractures a hip, and is forced to
recuperate in their home. He takes over the household, and soon everything
is topsy-turvy. There is the usual boy-meets-girl plot involving
Whiteside’s secretary (Mary Young) and a local newspaper editor (Mac
Warren), as well as a few other twists and turns. There are visits from
Whiteside’s celebrity friends throughout the three-act play, and lots
of laughs. Performances of The Man
Who Came to Dinner, directed by yours truly,
are at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Sept. 22 and 23; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday,
Sept. 24; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 25. The show is a fundraiser for STC.
For tickets, which cost $15, call 217-523-ARTS. Also in area theater: • Sangamon Auditorium brings in a tour of the
hit musical Chicago for two performances next week, Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 27
and 28, featuring Tom Wopat in the role of Billy Flynn. Chicago has become a huge hit
since it was revived on Broadway in 1997 and is still playing at the
Shubert Theatre with Brooke Shields. Wopat, who starred in television’s The Dukes of Hazzard for seven
years, has been enjoying a career on the Broadway stage for the past
several years. He was featured in last season’s Tony Award-winning
revival of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen
Ross and was nominated for a Tony for his
starring turn opposite Bernadette Peters in Annie
Get Your Gun. Listen to his 2000 CD The Still of the Night and hear
what a great crooner he is, especially his renditions of songs such as
Stephen Sondheim’s “Anyone Can Whistle” and Jimmy
Webb’s “If These Walls Could Speak” and “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.” Wopat is also featured on a
new studio recording of Sherry! (a musical version of The Man
Who Came to Dinner), along with Nathan Lane,
Bernadette Peters, and Carol Burnett. • Randi Collins Hard directs the area premiere
of The Exonerated,
one of the most powerful plays of recent years, at Parkland College.
Playwrights Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen culled material from interviews,
letters, transcripts, and case files to create a play that tells the true
stories of six wrongfully convicted people on death row, performed in
monologues. A postshow discussion with Delbert Tibbs, one of the
exonerated, will be held after the Sept. 30 performance. The Exonerated runs Sept. 28, Sept.
30, Oct. 1, and Oct. 6-9. Call 217-351-2528 for tickets and information.
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2005.
