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A CurtainUpBerkshire Feature
The Mac-Haydn, Chatham's Theater in the Round that bills itself as "The Happiest Place You Can Be"
By Elyse Sommer
Location! Location! Location! That old real estate mantra certainly worked well for me when I began looking for a weekend and summer retreat. What could be more ideal for a theater and music lover than a home in the Berkshires. Besides the gorgeous mountains and cool lakes there are lots of fine restaurants. Probably the most famous destination for visitors is The Tanglewood Music Festival, the granddaddy of all such summer festivals, but the area also boasts a wealth of theatrical enterprises — so many that it's impossible to see everything. Which brings me to the Mac-Haydn in Chatham, New York. Given the great number of productions closer to home that I cover, this charming country theater is just a bit too far afield for me to visit more than occasionally.
Its wonderfully hokey let's put on a show country theater flavor notwithstanding, the Mac-Haydn is a professional company that has been staging musicals in the round for the past 41 years —without celebrity casts, Broadway-ish bells and whistles, or edgy new takes on the tried and true. And anyone visiting the Berkshires should head for Chatham at least once to see how they do well-known, popular musicals as true to the spirit of their creators as a hankerchief-sized stage allows and with less-than-famous but famously energetic and committed performers.
Each season is chockablock with family friendly crowd pleasers, which is why you often see the audience packed with kids for whom this is an introduction to musical theater and their parents and grandparents for whom it's a happy, forget-your-troubles nostalgia trip. When Sonia Pilcer reviewed South Pacific for Curtainup almost a dozen years ago, it was a great memory trip for her, and a first-time experience for her young son. It wasn't the grand South Pacific with a genuine opera star and a big orchestra that's been a super revival hit for New York's Lincoln Center, but it was a grand experience for both.
My own first experience with the Mac-Haydn was a wonderfully enjoyable production of My Fair Lady. Like other city folks the homespun flavor of the theater with a refreshment counter selling popcorn for $1.25 (it used to be just a buck) I was amazed at the professionalism: A costume and props shop that makes sure that what audience see is as pleasing to the eye as those terrific show tunes are to the ear. Granted the theater-in-the round with the audiencesurrounding a stage so small that the three aisles do heavy lifting to move props and performers on and off stage which results in frequent blackouts that tend to add at least twenty minutes to a show's usual running time. But the various directors and creative teams have not been fazed by the challenge of moving scenery (built to scale at the theater) on and off stage and keeping the performers moving so that the actors are seen by all from every angle noone gets to see only their backs The fluidity with which most productions deal with these challenges has given new meaning to the word resourcefulness.
Perhaps my favorite Mac-Haydn show was Barnum (summer 2004) which somehow gave the impression that this tiny circular stage was build especially for this lively circus which featured what seemed like a small army of clowns, acrobats and young local gymnasts tumbling and stumbling all over the stage and aisles even before the show began. If I were to fill in the survey that allows you to request the show you'd most like to see in 2011, this one would probably be the one I'd pick (it would be a write-in as it's not listed among the shows under consideration).
The inclusion of Mame in this summer's schedule struck me as a good and timely choice for a long overdue visit to Chatham. After all, the London Menier Chocolate Factor's production Jerry Herman's La Cage Aux Folles is wowing Broadway audiences. And Angela Lansbury, for whom playing Mame was a career re-charger, was a major attraction in the same season's revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music. Unfortunately, while Herman's tuners are all there, the Mame now at the MacHayn through August 15th proves that even this scrappy little company doesn't always get things right.
Monica M. Went is a physically hefty Mame but somehow her performance is less hefty and another company favorite, Karla Shook, pretty much steals her thunder as bosom pal Vera. Director John Saunders has managed to create some nice stage pictures for the large ensemble, but the long first act is — well, long, with only the final scene when Mame meets her handsome and rich Southern beau's family showing promise of more sizzle in the better and shorter second act.
Jimm Halliday's costumes are, typical of these productions, lavish and fun. The Scarlett O'Hara replica Mame dons for her arrival at Beau's home is a triumphantly comic visual, especially when worn by this leading lady.
The Mac-Haydn has a long season so Mame will be followed by a September revival of Bye Bye Birdie. If you've never been to Chatham, get there early enough to walk through this charming little town. Oh, and don't forget to click on their website (http://www.machaydntheatre.org/) to see images of their other productions and to vote for your favorite show (they do listen) and the one you'd most like to see next year.
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