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A CurtainUp Review
Good People
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"How's the wine?? How the fuck should I know?" —
Margie
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 Julie Czarnecki and Danielle Herbert
(Photo by Mark Garvin)
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I know for a fact it's not the cast. These are wonderful actors. Actually I wanted to see this play at the Walnut Street Theatre because I didn't want to miss seeing some of them in their latest venture.
In Good People, while we discover that some characters are deep down good people, most of the talk is about "nice" rather than "good," and not all these people are very nice. Margie (Julie Czarnecki) has had a tough and, she believes, unfair life as the single mom of a severely challenged adult daughter. She can be very nice. She can also be mean-spirited to others, although she takes offense when she gets it back from them. Shot through with resentment, Margie goes on the attack when the opportunity presents itself.
The first act has the look of literal kitchen sink naturalism. Margie's long conversations with her nice boss (Jered McLenigan), self-serving landlady (Sharon Alexander), and mouthy friend (Denise Whelan), are rife with local color and hokey humor, revealing life in Southie (tough South Boston). However, the gloss of realism quickly recedes in a sustained barrage of stagey one-liners from two characters who are designed to operate only at comic level.
The pace picks up somewhat in the second act at the yup-scale home of Mike (Dan Olmstead)— a rather repressed doctor who got some breaks and made it out of the 'hood. He and his upper middle class black wife, Kate, have personal issues to resolve.
With all the stereotypes, a cultured black woman provides a nice twist on the typical social class thing. Danielle Herbert's bright Kate is a needed breath of air. Margie shows up at their house, a malicious bull in their upmarket china shop. As things fall apart it's cruel and funny, and people in the theater laugh.
BTW, it's curious, isn't it, that onstage the f-word always draws the biggest laughs? Fuck this or that. Ha ha. Never heard that word before.
My theater companion who hails from Boston commented that the actors' approximations of Southie accents, while uneven, aren't bad.
Visually the Walnut's Good People is great. As in the Broadway production, scene changes are neatly accomplished with an efficient rotating set. In addition, Robert Klingelhoefer's well-planned scenic design incorporates clever, versatile drops and flats that frame the scenes.
The social comparison theme dominates. A not-so-secret secret is somewhat guardedly revealed, along with discoveries of who is or is not good people.
The Walnut, or WST, defines what constitutes theater for a large swath of Philadelphia's theater-going public. Known for catering to its large subscriber audience, WST generally selects shows with a proven track record for its mainstage. The theater's third and fifth floor stages take more chances.
Award winning Good People comes across more sitcom than humorously gritty and real. But as Abe Lincoln (probably erroneously) is credited with saying: People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.
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Good People by David Lindsay-Abaire
Directed by Bernard Havard Cast: Julie Czarnecki, Jered McLenigan, Sharon Alexander, Denise Whelan, Dan Olmstead, Danielle Herbert Scenic Design: Robert Klingelhoefer Lighting Design: Shon Causer Costume Design: Colleen Grady Sound Design: Jacob Mishler Walnut Street Theatre, produced in association with Fulton Theatre of Lancaster PA March 12- April 28, 2013 110 minutes with one 20 minute intermissions Reviewed by Kathryn Osenlund based on 03/28 performance. |
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