Theater Review—

‘Lucky Stiff’ At The Theater Barn: Good Luck Indeed!

By Julie Stern

RIDGEFIELD — As always, the company at Ridgefield Theater Barn is demonstrating its impeccably high professional standards in its current production, the Lynn Ahrens-Stephen Flaherty screwball musical comedy Lucky Stiff.

The bizarre plot is pure Marx Brothers, minus Harpo, Chico and Groucho. Harry Witherspoon, a handsome but shy and repressed English shoe sales clerk, is informed by lawyers that he has inherited $6 million from his newly deceased Uncle Tony, the owner of a casino in Atlantic City.

There is only one stipulation: Uncle Tony’s will demands that his nephew take his corpse on a long planned, one-week vacation to Monte Carlo. (A friendly taxidermist stuffed him and placed him in a wheelchair, so that the body can be passed off as a sleeping invalid.)

The details of the trip — what food to order, what nightclubs to visit, sky diving and scuba lessons etc. — are all stipulated in Tony’s own voice on a tape. Should Harry refuse this request, the $6 million will revert to Tony’s favorite charity, a home for stray dogs in Brooklyn (and Harry hates dogs).

Unbeknownst to  Harry, as he reluctantly wheels his uncle to the fleshpots, he is being trailed by two separate parties. Miss Annabel Glick, the sweetly prim representative of the Universal Dog Home, is anxious to catch him in some violation of the will, in order to save the money for the dogs.

Meanwhile, his uncle’s hardboiled widow, Rita — who happens to be the person who shot him in the first place (because she has bad eyesight and an itchy trigger finger) — is stalking Harry, with her reluctant optometrist-brother in tow, in order to find a cache of diamonds that are somehow stashed with the corpse.

Add the usual denizens of a movie-set Monte Carlo: a mysterious Arab in flowing robes and dark glasses, a cigarette smoking nun, an insinuatingly friendly guide, a voluptuous dominatrix, a suave cabaret emcee, and some omnipresent tourists, and, well, you get the picture…

All of this succeeds beautifully on the Theater Barn’s tiny stage, because of the masterful direction by Aurora Marin (who doubles as the musical director, playing piano in the three-piece orchestra at the back of the hall) and the inspired set design by Myles Gansfried, who has constructed three “kiosks” that revolve to become a trio of lovingly detailed interiors, from a boardinghouse kitchen, an optometrist’s office and the “Bleu Train” to a luxury hotel room, an airport, a night club, and the streets of Monte Carlo over the course of the 17 scenes that make up the play.

Joe Efferen and Rachel Corn are sweetly appealing as the uptight romantic leads. Jody Bayer is definitely a force to be reckoned with as Rita, and in my opinion, Matt Austin steals the show as her brother and unwilling companion Vinnie.

Jose Helu is amazingly unflappable as the late Uncle Tony (a/k/a the body in the wheelchair), and Paulette Layton is impressive as Domonique. Daniel Bayer, Cheryl Boyd, Janice Rudolph and Steve Yudelson round out the ensemble.

Like a Marx Brothers movie, this show has no redeeming social value, and the strings of the plot are very loosely tied indeed but who cares! It’s a great piece of entertainment.

(The entertainment continues weekends until December 15. Call 203-431-9850 for ticket and performance details.)