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The castaways that won't die >> Gilligan's Island: The Play by AMY BARRATT
It's also brilliant. Ernie Butler of the Comedy Nest and Jeremy Hechtman of Goliath Productions have discovered that it's impossible to overestimate the public's appetite for kitsch. Goliath, which previously brought us Star Trek: The Play, is becoming our favourite local purveyor of lowbrow culture. As actor Steve Beauregard pointed out when I spoke to him last week, with Star Trek they were poking fun at something that was originally played straight, whereas with Gilligan they're spoofing a spoof. So what's the appeal? Well, plain old nostalgia for one: watching Gilligan's Island: The Play made me feel I was right back in the basement of my childhood home, munching Cap'n Crunch from the box. The evening consists of two episodes of the TV show presented back-to-back. The first has Gilligan's favourite band, the Mosquitoes--whose lyrics consist mainly of "ya, ya, ya"--landing on the island looking for some peace and quiet. The band's presence inspires Mary-Ann, Ginger and Mrs. Howell to form their own group, The Honeybees. The second episode is a classic called The Producer, in which the castaways put together a musical version of Hamlet set to tunes from Carmen. Both give the cast ample opportunity to sing, dance and generally camp it up. Obviously, much of the pleasure in watching a play based on a TV show is in the accuracy of the mimicry. Goliath's production gets it right about 50 per cent of the time. Some of the performers--I'd single out Lisa Lenihan as Mrs. Howell--have the voices to a tee. Others get the physical mannerisms near perfect: I should be very surprised to ever again see a pair of forearms used to such stunning effect as Gary Adams' in his role as the Skipper. Alexandra Valassis is a very un-Ginger-like Ginger but, as one of my table companions pointed out, "there is only one Tina Louise." In contrast, Valassis' brief turn as a sassy peasant girl out of an Italian film is a show-stopper. Gilligan's Island and Old Wicked Songs are both non-musicals incorporating music. There the similarities end. Old Wicked Songs, presented by the Yiddish Theatre of the Saidye Bronfman Centre, is the story of an American child prodigy, all grown up and possibly washed up to boot, who goes to Vienna to study and recapture his joy of music. The arrogant young man is appalled to learn that before he is even allowed to study accompaniment (already a degradation in his eyes), he must first study voice "to find out how the singer feels." His teacher will be Professor Mashkan, a typical pastry-popping old anti-Semite... or is he? The play, originally written in English by New Yorker Jon Marans, and translated into Yiddish by Miriam Hoffman, is skilfully structured around Robert Schumann's song cycle the Dichterliebe. As always, Yiddish Theatre provides headsets with simultaneous translation into English or French for those of us who need them. No great effort is made to synchronize the translation with the action onstage, making the experience akin to watching a dubbed Japanese movie. Old Wicked Songs isn't an easy play to stage. First of all, your actors also have to be pianists and singers. Secondly, it's a "talky" play that takes place in one setting. It also suffers from a slow, meandering first act (and I say this as someone who has studied singing and should be the ideal audience), followed by a second act that attempts to cram in twice the histrionics as if to make up for the first. Yiddish Theatre veteran Stan Unger is a delight as the by-turns gruff and playful Mashkan. Elan Kunin--also the Musical Director--is a touch too uptight as the tense American, but still solid. And the music alone would be worth the price of admission. At the Saidye Bronfman Centre until Nov. 23. Gilligan's Island: The Play, at the Comedy Nest to Nov. 9, with a possible extension
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The idea of resurrecting two Gilligan's Island episodes from the mid-'60s and performing them as a play is innately ridiculous.