"Gene & Gilda," playwright Cary Gitter's 75-minute charmer of a play now getting its world premiere at the equally charming Penguin Rep playhouse in Stony Point, has an awful lot going for it.
Or, to misquote Roseanne Roseannadanna, who loved to say "if it's not one thing, it's another," it's got one thing, and another, and another, and another.
It has likable subjects -- Gene Wilder and Gilder Radner -- and Gitter weaves together the story of their opposites-attract love affair (Gilda calls their relationship "a match made in mishegas") in a whipsmart script rendered in two fine performances.
It has Gilda's hard-driving, force-of-nature tsunami of a personality and Gene's nervous worrying, right down to the comfort handkerchief he clutches, a manic cousin to Leo Bloom's blue blankie in "The Producers."
These are people we know, or think we know. They've been on our living-room TVs, and on the screen at our local movie houses. But Gitter pulls back the curtain to show them in a new light.
Wilder, of course, teamed with Mel Brooks to give us "The Producers," "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein." He also played the title role in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and struck comedy gold with Richard Pryor on three films.
Radner was the first performer Lorne Michaels hired for what would become the Not Ready For Prime Time Players on "Saturday Night Live." Her characters included Emily Litella, Lisa Loopner and Roseanne Roseannadanna, each of whom parlayed confusion into comedy.
There's no confusing the seamless work Gitter does in placing their love story into a tidy frame: Wilder is being interviewed for a TV program and Radner's ghost arrives to push her way into the story and drive it forward. ("You tell it, and I'll interrupt," she says at one point.) Pure Gilda.
Set designer Christian Fleming places TV monitors around the stage and uses tiny cameras to put these familiar faces in the medium where we know them, telling a story we largely don't.
Director Joe Brancato, Penguin's artistic director, is. a playwright whisperer with an uncanny knack for finding projects he knows his audiences will enjoy. He guides the production with pace and heart and two red-hot aces up his sleeve in Jordan Kai Burnett as Gilda and Jonathan Randell Silver as Gene. The resemblances are uncanny, as is their talent for mimicry.
Burnett, in particular, captures the flat-A of Radner's Detroit accent and there are times -- when Jamie Roderick's lights catch her just right, in Gregory Gale's costume and Bobbie Zlotnik's wig -- when the likeness is spot-on.
Silver captures Wilder's nervous energy, his gentle spirit, his light touch.
The play works best when we see them dance, letting themselves go with happy-feet joy and enjoying their too-brief time together.
Gitter is playwright in residence at Penguin, where his plays "The Sabbath Girl" and "The Virtuous Life of Joseph Andrews" were previously staged. His latest work follows Wilder and Radner from their first meeting, on the set of the 1982 film flop "Hanky Panky," through their courtship and marriage until her untimely death in 1989 from uterine cancer. (Wilder died in 2016.)
Because Gitter confines his story to their courtship and marriage it lacks the sort of best-of material we long to see, alluding only to Emily Litella and Roseanne Roseannadanna and giving a nod to Wilder's "I'm in pain and I'm wet" speech from "The Producers."
"Gene & Gilda" leaves us wanting more, and might inspire folks to stream "The Woman in Red" or "The Producers" or to check out hilarious Radner videos on YouTube. If you're someone who quotes "Young Frankenstein" (Abby-normal!) or who says "Never Mind" like Emily Litella, it's the show for you.
But "Gene & Gilda" will be gone before we know it, just a few more weekends in the air-conditioned barn theater on Crickettown Road. Book those seats now.
"Gene & Gilda" runs through Aug. 27 at Penguin Rep. Thursdays at 7 (Aug. 10, 17, 24); Fridays at 2 (Aug. 11, 18); Fridays at 7 (Aug. 25); Saturdays at 3 and 7 (Aug. 12, 19, 26); Sundays at 2 (Aug. 13, 20, 27). $46. Discounts for groups of 10 or more and those 30 and younger. Tickets at www.penguinrep.org or 845-786-2873.
Photos by Dorice Arden Madronero
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