Opinion: "Old Shadows' Casts a Spell

CTC Live threw a benefit party at Guild Hall Friday night to celebrate the smashing opening performance of its 15th season. The stylish silver and black balloons festooning the gallery were perfect choices for the bittersweet Noel Coward play that preceeded the bash: silver for the glitter of the theater - and those threads among the gold; black for elegance - and mourning.

"Waiting in the Wings," written five years after the death of Mr. Coward's stage-struck mother, takes us into a charitable home for indigent retired actresses in England, called The Wings. Here they wait, with varying degrees of acceptance and denial, for that last great curtain call in the sky.

In John Mercurio's splendidly handsome and functional set, The Wings is a drafty old manor house shrouded in an institutional gloom the residents hope to lift with the addition of a solarium, where they could take the sun protected from the frigid east wind.

This matter is up before a committee that thus far has refused to fund such a sybaritic project. But Perry Lascoe (Sandy Rosen), The Wings's cheery secretary, has promised to have another go at it for the sake of these frail "old shadows" he genuinely loves.

Stirring The Plot

At rise of curtain, the buzz among the residents is the imminent arrival of Lotta Bainbridge (Serena Seacat), a former first lady of the stage and a sworn enemy of May Davenport (Vay David), The Wings's reigning grande dame whose husband Lotta stole.

Thus the plot points are deftly established: Will the solarium be built? Will Lotta and May claw each other's eyes out? Which old trouper will be the first to make her final exit?

Gallant Humor

The expert handling of the little skirmishes and incidents that move the drama forward make this one of CTC Live's most moving and memorable evenings.

Theater at its most affecting. Don't wait in the wings for a minute; see it.

"Waiting in the Wings," briskly directed by Ms. Seacat, is also extremely funny. With British jocularity, the actresses try to minimize the tragic circumstances that bring them together, as if old age and poverty were, somehow, egregious errors in taste.

The large, very talented cast captures this gallant humor perfectly.

Blue-Ribbon Cast

While it's hard to pin a blue ribbon on one, rather than all, the actors, the moving performances of Ms. Seacat, Ms. David, and Mr. Rosen must be mentioned first. All are strongly motivated, funny, and beautifully believable: They're the evening's firm foundation.

With this solid base to play off, the other actors are free to go for the abundant laughs, and tears, Mr. Coward so knowingly provides.

Andrea Gross, doing little else than trudge back and forth with trays of rattling crockery, brings the hapless character of Doreen, the maid, to hilarious life. By the end of the play, the mere sight of her brings howls of delight from the audience.

The always amusing Katie Meckert is also wonderful as the sardonic Cora Clarke, while Gillian Ames, a native of Scotland, makes her CTC debut with a bang as the weepy Estelle Craven.

Virtuosos

Sara Beck gives a virtuoso performance as the quite loony Sarita Myrtle, a Norma Desmond type more ready for her close-up than her life.

David Parker is tenderly, and oh so touchingly, charming as the elderly Osgood Meeker, a gentleman caller who brings violets every Sunday to an off-stage old beauty, for years confined to her room.

Laura Flynn, last seen in Dark Horse Productions' "Twelfth Night" and "Glengarry Glen Ross," here plays a hard-hitting television interviewer with considerable panache.

To Die For

The inimitable Vaughan Allentuck is splendid as a rosary-oriented, Irish Catholic religious fanatic, and Stephanie Brussell makes her CTC debut as a singer once known for her squeaky rendition of "Miss Mouse."

Elizabeth Sarfati is sympathetic playing The Wings's manageress, as is Gerry Gurney as one of its saner inmates. Judith Minetree, John Bazazian, and Bill Cowley are fine in smaller parts, while Deede Windust make a final entrance to die for, just when we thought she would never appear.

One of the most remarkable things about this excellent evening is that when an actress's last-minute illness forced the elimination of her character from the cast, whatever plot points she carried were so seamlessly integrated into the script that we never missed her.

Fantastic Ms. Seacat

Another is that the director, Ms. Seacat, is filling in on a week's notice for one of the leads, who also fell by the wayside. She does a fantastic job in both crucial capacities.

What with Eric Schlobohm's evocative lighting design, Chas. W. Roeder's Broadway-worthy costume design, and the Noel Coward show tunes that drift into the John Drew during scene changes, "Waiting in the Wings" is theater at its most affecting.

Don't wait in the wings for a minute; see this soaring performance.