LETTICE & LOVAGE REVIEW
By NEGarvey, www.buffalorising.com
Lettice & Lovage has opened at the Kavinoky Theatre. The comedy, written by Peter Shaffer who is better known as the author of Amadeus and Equus, enjoyed hearty runs in London in the late 1980s andlater in New York, where it won1990's Best Actress Tony award for Maggie Smith, who starred in the play on both sides of the Atlantic.
The play, another Shaffer ode to eccentricity, revolves around Lettice Douffet, an erstwhile actress and lover of all things historic. Lettice is an employee of England's Historic Preservation Trust, which maintains the nation's stock of castles and old country houses. As a middle-aged docent with a theatrical background, Lettice should be the perfect employee, but she is assigned to the deadly dull Fustian House whose boring history Lettice cannot tolerate. Under Lettice's gradual aggrandizement however, the estate's mundane story eventually becomes a dramatic tale of The Virgin Queen's rescue from a death defying fall down the manor's grand staircase.
Formerly catatonic tourists respond enthusiastically to the new history, but soon one of the Trust's administrators, Lotte Schoen, a one-time architecture student turned dour non-profit bureaucrat, gets wind of the embellishments. Lotte visits Fustian House, confirms the transgression and summons Lettice to the London headquarters where, with Teutonic efficiency, she fires the hapless and otherwise unemployable Lettice.
Thus, as director Kathleen Gaffney puts it, the stage is set for the next layer
of "tension and confrontation between the characters, the tediously rational versus the sparklingly creative." But for all the ensuing--and generally very funny--exploration of various topics (ranging from the economic alienation of older workers to the oppressive nature of modern urban architecture), the play remains, essentially, a star vehicle.
Indeed, Shaffer wrote the play withthe wonderful MissSmith in mind. Such actress-inspiredliterary efforts are not unusual.G.B. Shaw supposedly wrote Saint Joanspecifically forBuffalo's own, thedivine Katherine Cornell. The problem with such diva-driven plays is thatone's memory of the siren will oftensurpass the memory the song.
Saint Joan, while an excellentplay is arguably not on the samelevelas the great Heartbreak House, norMan and Superman. So too, Lettice pales before Amadeus and Equus.Well, they can't all be Hamlet (which is a good thing).
I saw the original New York production of Lettice, and I have to say that my memory of the plot is virtually non-existent. Of course, people will tell you that I also forget my cat's name and my home phone number, so take my dodgy recollection for what it's worth.
However, I do remember the New York audience laughing riotously and I certainly remember Dame Maggie in that production. She was all swooping capes and flailing arms; she could hypnotize with those huge eyes and batting eyelashes, which were visible from the top row of the balcony. Like some super-charged Olive Oyl on steroids, one could never forget Maggie Smith was the star of that show, even if one can't quite recall the details of the play. I remember the co-star as well, actress Margaret Tyzack, whose portrayal of Lotte scooped up a supporting role Tony.
I suppose most revivals of this play depend upon the appeal of the leading ladies, butmy own faulty memory aside, the play itself has been criticized (by none other than Frank Rich of the New York Times) because it depends so heavily upon finding an actress who can fill those Maggie Smith-sized slippers.
Fortunately for The Kavinoky's audience, Anne Gayley and Roz Cramer can't be beat in that department. They are marvelous to behold.
As Lettice, Ms. Gayley's opening act, with the gradual embellishment of Queen Elizabeth's near fall and the subsequent rise of the House of Fustian, is a classic. The originally mousy tale eventually roars as Lettice builds a simple tug of the elbow into grand leap up the grand staircase. The tourists, well played by a clever ensemble who transform in plain sight into a succession of tours, go from distracted and inattentive dullards to wildly enthusiastic observers as Lettice "improves" the history. Lettice soon has the tourists in the palm of her hand, just as Ms. Gayley has the audience in hers.
Enter, Roz Cramer as the perfect foil, Lotte Schoen. She is the quintessential British functionary, with a Germanic twist. She sympathizes with Lettice, to a degree, but after all, rules have been broken, and, unfortunate as the dismissal may be, Lotte is just following orders. o one delivers a snide aside better than Roz Cramer. Yet Lettice's dreamy, romantic notions of history and her fierce rejection of modern trends unlock the no-nonsense Lotte's own idealistic past. Eventually, after the abundant "quaffing" of a potent Lettice-created herbal liqueur ( the Lovage connection), Lotte succumbs to the ethereal Lettice world outlook.
Mayhem, of course, ensues. However, all ends well, as befits a comedy.
An interesting aside here, Anne Gayley, who has graced the Kavinoky stage in umpteen productions, and Roz Cramer, venerable co-founder of Buffalo's beloved Theatre of Youth, are reprising the same roles they played at the Kavinoky some 19 years ago! One might think such a substantial time warp might have dulled the senses a bit, diminished the response time or elongated the tooth, but not so--emphatically not so. These two bat the ball back and forth like Navratilova and Evert in their heyday. Good stuff.
Veteran character actor John Buscaglia gives a nice turn as the acerbic solicitor, Mr. Bardolph, hired to untangle the aforementioned mayhem and save Lettice from potential jail time. Actress Debbie Pappas provides Lotte's much bullied assistant, Miss Framer, with a killer nervous laugh and a nice little window into the repressed work-a-day world Lotte has created at the National Trust.
Sets (David King), lights (Brian Cavanagh), costumes (Ashley Arnone) and sound (Tom Makar) were generally up to the Kav's high standards.
A comment about the set, and stage sets generally: among all the local professional theatres, The Kav seems to have taken up the defunct Studio Arena's mantel for the "big set", if on a more modest scale. In truth, the Kav, a classic proscenium stage, has always lent itself to more elaborate set designs, and usually to good effect, which is not universally the case.
It seemed as though Studio often relied upon expensive, very large, expensive,mechanically complex, and expensive sets which sometimes overshadowed the rest of the production. Did I mention that the sets were expensive? Some might say wastefully so. But the sets themselves had a following, of sorts. I recall overhearing the conversation ofan older Studiocouple, who were excitedly speculating upon what the set might be for an upcoming TennesseeWilliams play.The set turned out to be large, and expensive, and generally much better than the play was.
Here, David King's set is necessarily big, in part because the play calls for three distinct venues, one with a grand wooden staircase, no less. Such a physical demand might have deterred a less ambitious theatre these days. At first blush, this set looked as though it might require a boy scout troupe to make the scene changes. Such an eternity can be a real play killer, but it worked well here and served the play, not the other way around, a proper allocation of resources.
At two and a half hours with two intermissions Lettice & Lovage makes for a full evening, but it is well worth the investment of time. Good show.
LETTICE & LOVAGE REVIEW
By Doug Smith, The Rocket Newspapers
Let’s hear it for “Lettice & Lovage,” two masters of their craft performingcosmetic surgery on history at the Kavinoky Theater.
Anne Gayley plays the flamboyant Lettice and Ros Cramer the bookish Lotte (“Lovage” is a beverage), with significant support by Debbie Pappas and John Buscaglia, all coming to grips with what may well be the worst-behaved house since “The Shining.” Lettice, descendant of a theatrical family (she once played Falstaff, a prop poster screams), earns a pittance as a tour guide in what she determines to be the most boring historical building in all England.
Drawing on her own rich fount of trivia, she ratchets up her routine, inflating the rank and the misadventures of the late owners, twisting herself into grotesque postures as tourists gasp and her tip-jar overflows. “I’m improving history,” she insists. These “gross departures” do not sit well with the management as represented by the dour Lotte, who has the truth on her side but not much else. In a flash, Lettice is out on the street – or, more accurately, her basement apartment, niftily wrought by set designer David King.
Playwright Peter Shaffer and director Kathleen Gaffney give their protagonists equal time. Act One belongs to Lettice, Act Two to Lotte and in Act Three they sort of duke it out to a resolution. Lotte, we learn, harbors a bit of the revolutionary herself, a disdain for “modern architecture” (an oxymoron?). Once, she marshaled a militia called the Eyesore Negation Detatchment, and their E.N.D is not in sight.
At times, particularly in Act Two, “L&L” lurches toward the mundane, appealing principally to critics of today’s architecture. But it never quite reaches the brink of boredom, thanks to Shaffer’s vivid script (describing one group of buildings “Victorian Varicose”) and Cramer’s fervent, frustrated delivery. Gayley is great as the mortal enemy of the “merely,” enhanced by Ashley Arnone’s dazzling costuming, with the definitive line “all good actors are instructors.”
Pappas’ plain-Jane secretary erupts into sporadic hysteria, coating the throng with the ashes of laughter. The veteran Buscaglia fine-tunes his considerable persona – superior, inferior, detached and involved all at once. Buscaglaniacs know this character well and will cherish every harrumph. The cast also includes a live kitten named Layla and a few “silent partners,” one a reluctant tourist who enters muttering “Will this thing never end?” Fortunately, “Lettice & Lovage” still has a lot to say, through May 30. NINE ROCKETS (out of 10).
LETTICE & LOVAGE REVIEW
By Augustine Warner, www.onlinebuffalo.com
There’s nothing in the theater like watching a couple of old pros operate on stage and that’s what’s on the Kavinoky Theatre state with Anne Gayley and Rosalind Cramer with LETTICE & LOVAGE.
The Kav did this show with the same leads two decades ago and it popped up when customers were asked about bringing back old favorites, something planned again in the upcoming season.
It’s not only a strong show from veteran playwright Peter Shaffer but there are the two great parts of Lettice Douffet (Gayley) and Lotte Schoen (Cramer). Director Kathleen Gaffney never lets them break loose in the parts the way Kavinoky Impresario David Lamb has been known to.
Lettice is a self-promoter, not troubled much by accuracy who was raised by a mother who ran a French-language Shakespeare company in France. Lotte is an executive of a trust which runs historic homes around England who is the daughter of a German refugee book publisher whose company fell apart, dropping the family down the economic structure. They collide when Lotte gets complains about the tours Lettice is leading in a historic home which have long since lost touch with truth and reality and fact in what the tour guide says is the “dullest home.” Shaffer conveys this by an opening series of tours culminating in a room with a historically important staircase, as she gets ever further from fact in each tour. It’s fascinating to watch the un-credited cast members change costumes and attitudes and body languages for each tour.
Finally, Lotte shows up and stops Lettice in mid-flight, pending a hearing. At the hearing, they get to know each other a little as Lotte fires Lettice but helps her get a new job where exaggeration helps.
They start meeting in Lettice’s basement flat in Earls Court and start theatrical role-playing. These are two women who are increasingly out-of-touch with reality. Lettice tells her solicitor Mr. Bardolph (John Buscaglia) what happened in that basement which brought the police around and he starts to realize he has a wacko for a client and then Lotte shows up and makes it clear that’s really what happened. It’s a great sequence.
This really is a must-see show, enjoyable from beginning to end, watching the pros making it all work, with strong direction from Gaffney. Oh, there is some good work from Buscaglia and from Debbie Pappas as Lotte’s secretary Miss Framer and the uncredited cast members but the real action is Cramer and Gayley.
That’s why if you are a theater enthusiast, slide by the Kavinoky for LETTICE & LOVAGE.
GAYLEY, CRAMER SAVE THE DAY IN WORDY WORK
By Ted Hadley, The Buffalo News
Doyennes Anne Gayley and Rosalind Cramer, in reprise. What could be better? British playwright Peter Shaffer’s “Lettice and Lovage,” one of his rare comedies — but one filled with his customary themes of denial, fantasy and aspiration—has returned to the Kavinoky Theatre after a nearly 20-year hiatus, bringing with it acting icons Gayley and Cramer, the long-ago stars of the first production: the impeccable Gayley as sweetly eccentric Lettice Douffet and the relentlessly precise Cramer as grumpy Lotte Schoen.
Lettice is a docent at a musty British historical house, a place where she says dwell “The Ghosts of Nothing Happened.” The tours are deadly, and Lettice, trying to follow her Shakespearian actress mother’s advice to “Enlarge! Enliven! Enlighten!,” is bored. One gray day she adds zest to her spiel, inventing yarns of scandal in the resident families, glorious and legendary galas and heartbreaking tales of strange accidents and incidents.
Soon, the old tomb is filled with eager visitors. But word gets to preservationist chief Lotte that Lettice is filling her tours with “grotesque narration.” Lettice gets the ax.
Lotte begins to feel guilty and visits Lettice’s apartment, an actor’s museum, posters and props of Shakespearian blood and gore and one of a distaff Falstaff. Lettice gets back on the payroll. And here, “Lettice and Lovage” begins a story of an unlikely friendship.
It’s a long story, not without considerable late-play yawns and audience seat-shifting.
But this is an acting clinic conducted by Gayley and Cramer, every entrance a classic, every aside calculated, shrugs and tics pertinent, stares and takes meaningful and nuanced. Gayley, in her many fancies and endless bits of trivia about Mary, Queen of Scots and particularly in her opening series of ever-expanding tour speeches, is extraordinary, as expected. But, maybe more so. The workmanlike Cramer gradually brings to life the more secretive Lotte, with the help of Lettice’s home brew — the “lovage” of the play’s title — and her passion to destroy London’s modern buildings. The minutes of quaffing and disclosing the past are interminable but wonderfully done.
Playwright Shaffer’s Act III will never be remembered here as his best work: tedium, repetition, inanity. “Lettice and Lovage” loses its hard-earned steam.
Happy ending though. Anne Gayley and Rosalind Cramer are estimable and priceless. Kathleen Gaffney directs — she admits loving plays of “resilience and reinvention” — and she does her best with Shaffer’s wordiness. Good work.
Fine in important but silly roles are Debbie Pappas and John Buscaglia.