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Talkin'
Broadway
"Hellzapoppin"
by
Susan Berlin
Hellzapoppin
is one of those legendary titles that theater buffs know,
but almost no one today has seen. The zany 1938 revue by
Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson ran for three years on Broadway
despite critical scorn, and served as both a spiritual and
literal ancestor for much of late 20th-century comedy,
including the works of Mel Brooks,
Airplane!
and its successors, and
Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.
Director Jack Marshall and the American
Century Theatre in Arlington, VA, have decided to reinvent
Hellzapoppin
for a contemporary audience; the result may not be classy,
but it's undeniably funny, and fast moving. If one comic
bit doesn't land properly, the next one probably will, and
some of them become funnier with repetition, such as the
stoned delivery boy with the potted plant or the frantic
woman searching for "Oscar." One warning: even
intermission doesn't allow a break from the shenanigans.
Marshall explains in his notes that the
original
Hellzapoppin
had little use for a set script, and that some of the
existing original material is too dated to be usable
today, but some moments (for example, the sight gag
involving ice) are close to the original. He and his
collaborators have also brought the show up to date with
topical humor (such as the sing-along led by "Federal
Prisoner H59743") and digs at other Washington theaters –
at one point, the Phantom of the Opera (currently at the
Kennedy Center) appears in the light booth.
Bill Karukas and Doug Krenzlin do a
creditable job standing in for Olsen and Johnson,
respectively, and also serve much of the time as masters
of ceremonies for the rest of a large cast. Standouts
include Esther Covington who delights as she massacres the
lyrics of the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" and, joined by a
tap-dancing violinist, sings a heartfelt ballad titled "He
Broke My Heart in Three Places"; would-be diva and good
sport Lucia Frennetti Calzone (Mary Millben); John Tweel
as the Great Howdiddi, master of escape; and Ron Sarro as
several small, creepy men, one of them smeared with blue
paint. "Producer" Brian Crane also takes a lot of humorous
punishment from several sides.
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Potomac
Stages
"Hellzapoppin"
Reviewed by Brad Hathaway
This in an
interesting and valuable class in The American Century
Theater's course in outmoded, often unreasonably forgotten
20th century American theater genres. When the company
first announced that they would attempt to recreate the
wild, wacky, irrepressible and unpredictable show that was
an inexplicable hit as the country began the transition
from the depression to a war footing prior to Pearl
Harbor, it was completely foreseeable that the result
would be of tremendous interest to those who are
fascinated by the history of live theater. That, after
all, is the specialty of this company. What was not
predictable was just how much fun the resulting show would
be. Rarely has a history lesson been such a kick. It is
particularly surprising because the original creators of
the show tried their own transplant - in media from live
show to celluloid rather than in time from 1930s to 2000s.
But the movie they made of their own creation is, in the
perfectly honest words of American Century's Artistic
Director Jack Marshall, "practically
unwatchable." Not so, his own recreation. His version
is a lot of fun.
Storlyine: Are
you kidding? The one thing Hellzapoppin never, ever
thought of doing was tell a story!
In 1938 the team of Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson hit it big
on Broadway with a crazy collection of sketch comedies and
show music which ran for over three years and became
the longest running musical in the history of Broadway
(until then) if you could call it a musical and if you
could call the three years of eight shows a week a
"run" since the show was different practically
every night. Acts were added, songs dropped, gags
inserted, performers replaced, topical humor updated,
hackneyed tired old material given a new twist one night
and then returned to its original form the next. Sometimes
Olsen and Johnson would arrive on stage from the wings in
a car. At others they would make their entrance from the
audience as if they were coming in late. They were old
time vaudeville comedians and had developed their shtick
not as a highly polished performance that was the same
each night but as a rambling stream-of-consciousness
assemblage of gags and concepts that changed as they
"worked the house." Whatever worked on any given
night would be carried along until the audience seemed to
them to be just short of loosing interest - then the team
would switch to something else either already scripted or
improvised on the spot.
A
recreation of this wild, wacky, irrepressible and
unpredictable package involved both significant research
(there is only one remaining original script and no one
knows if the show was actually performed on any given
night the way it says in that script) and sharp artistic
judgment. As fascinated as Jack Marshall is with the
history of theatrical genres, he somehow managed to
maintain his concentration on the cardinal function of the
show - entertain the audience. He wisely jettisoned the
original music (now there are numbers you will remember,
such as "Try to Remember," and some brighter,
better material such as a number by Milton Schafer which
was heard on Broadway all of 19 times.
Marshall's cast includes people who sit in
the audience heckling or being accosted and troubadours
such as Steve McWilliams. There's Brian Crane who makes a
fine Tevye in a Hitler uniform. There are actors (such as
John Tweel) who can throw themselves into a running gag
with complete abandon, or (Alex Perez) who can mime being
attacked by a weasel (don't ask). In fact, the cast list
numbers over twenty-five, but nearly everyone has multiple
roles to play so it is nearly impossible to keep up with
who is who as the show goes along. Even intermission isn't
a chance to gather your wits about you and consider what
you have just witnessed, for the foolishness continues in
the lobby with Evan Crump wandering about with a potted
plant to deliver, Tanera Hutz tapping people on the
shoulder to find out if they are the "Oscar"
she's been searching for throughout the first act, and
Tweel struggling with his straight jacket. But most
importantly, it includes Bill Karukas and Doug Krenzlin as
Olsen and Johnson. They may not recreate all the humor of
the original team but they come close enough to make the
entire package work.
Concept and book by Ole Olsen and Chic
Johnson, with material by Jack Marshall, Thomas D. Fuller,
Loren Platzman, Rip Claussen, Doug Krenzlin, Ron Sarro,
Andrea Abrams "and the great comic artists of the
20th century." Directed by Jack Marshall. Musical
direction by Thomas D. Fuller. Choreography by Kay
Casstevens. Music arrangements by Lauren Platzman. Design:
Mike Switalski (set) Rip Claussen (costumes) Eleanor
Gomberg (properties) Marc Wright (lights) Matt Otto
(sound) Jeffrey Bell (photography) Rhonda Hill (stage
manager). Cast: Andrea Abrams, Esther Covington, Brian
Crane, Deborah Critzer, Evan Crump, Ellen Dempsey,
Susan Edgar, Bruce Follmer, Alice Fuller, Kathryn Fuller,
Lou George, Tanera Hutz, Bill Karukas, Doug
Krenzlin, Steve Lebens, Steve McWilliams, Jack Marshall,
Sr., Mary Millben, Alex Perez, Dwayne Pierce, Jennifer
Robison Potts, Ron Sarro, Ginny Tarris, John Tweel, Emily
Webbe, Glenn White, Ed Xavier.
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DCist
Putting the
'Broad' in Broadway: ACT's
Hellzapoppin'
By Chris Klimek
The American Century Theatre’s update of
the FDR-era Broadway smash Hellzapoppin’ kicks off
with a terrible joke: An announcer on the P.A. who thinks
he’s there for another show throws a fit when he sees
the copy he’s supposed to read. It’s forced.
It’s painful. It’s not funny.
Then
— Mercy! — a man in a gorilla suit shows up. Man
in gorilla suit = crazy hilarious. But if you don't agree,
then perhaps one of the roughly 4,587 other sight gags,
pratfalls, or ill-advised musical numbers coming at you in
the next two-and-a-half hours may be more to your taste.
Or make you laugh, anyway, since “taste” and
this sort of comedy don’t have much to do with one
another. If you loved the Zucker Bros. movies like
Airplane! and its many descendants — or especially
the original Muppet Show — then you won’t want
to miss this opportunity to see where the
no-laugh-too-easy, no-pun-too-egregious, more-is-more
school of laffs aplenty had its genesis.
Ole
Olsen and Chick Johnson were the vaudeville duo that
starred in the original Broadway version, which ran for
more than 1,400 performances between 1938 and 1941, a
record at the time. Bill Karukas and Doug Krenzlin appear
as Olsen and Johnson here, respectively, acting as emcees
for the evening’s revels. (Krentzlin also had a hand
in updating the script, along with director Jack Marshall
and several of his fellow cast members.) They’re
marvelous company, groaning their way through the show
along with us. It overstays its welcome, to be sure, and
there are a handful of recurring gags that don’t pay
off nearly well enough to justify their protracted setups.
But unless you're a complete stick-in-the-mud, the
production’s eagerness to please and willingness to
offend will eventually win you over all the
same.
The
cast is huge and their ability varies wildly, but everyone
gets points for fearlessness. A few are especially
praiseworthy for their Herculean ability to stick with
sorta-funny bits that go on so long that they eventually
become funnier — or funny again — by virtue of
sheer audacity. Esther Covington is one of them. Hundreds
of musicians have covered “Eleanor Rigby,” but
few if any ever forgotten its lyrics so memorably. Ron
Sarro, meanwhile, who plays the Little Blue Man and a
bunch of other, equally creepy roles, clearly has no
capacity for embarrassment, which in a show like this is a
kind of super-power. And as the Great Howdidi, an escape
artist who seems to have oversold his abilities, John
Tweel will have you praying he never succeeds.
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