by Joel Elkins~

Stage Door was written by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman during the depths of the Depression and was later made into a movie starring, among others, Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Lucille Ball, Ann Miller and Eve Arden. It takes place in the fictitious “Footlights Club,” a boarding house in Manhattan for aspiring actresses. For $12.50 a week, these girls get a roof over their heads, a bed to sleep in, a decent meal, and, when necessary, an encouraging word or a shoulder to cry on.

With the country currently experiencing its worst financial crisis since World War II, the banks struggling to stay afloat, and the stock market trying to recover from massive losses, The Open Fist Theatre Company apparently figured that this play would have added relevance to audiences today. (What ever happened to art as diversion?)

But just in case audiences do not pick up on the analogy, in the theater foyer they’ve place a large display pointing out some of the similarities between those hard times and ours, including the precipitating deregulation of the banking industry, the precipitous drop in the stock market, the precipitant recession and unemployment, and even the lack of precipitation, comparing the dust-bowl to today’s global warming.

While that display involves climactic change, a nearby display discusses the dramatic changes taking place at the same time. According to this second display, theater at the time of Stage Door was undergoing a sea change, with fewer grandiose melodramas about royalty and aristocrats and more plays about the plight of the common man. Simultaneously and not coincidentally, acting itself was transitioning from the broad, sweeping “gamut of emotion” style, complete with over-the-top dramatics and excessive arm gestures, to a more realistic manner of performance.

But as a certain Dane once said, “Ay, there’s the rub.” If the “new theater” of the 1930’s could displace its antiquated cousin virtually overnight, isn’t it possible that this new theater itself might become dated 75 years later? I wonder whether the Company considered this when they decided to stage it in this day and age. From watching it, I couldn’t tell how it is meant to be taken. Is it meant to convey some enduring message as relevant today as it was then (i.e., “The more things change, the more they stay the same”)? Or is it meant as a parody on those olden days (i.e. “Isn’t it quaint what they found important back then”)? Or was it meant to rouse us from our gloom (i.e., “You think we’ve got it bad? They had it worse and look how they coped!”). Perhaps all of the above.

That being said, the Company did an estimable job reviving this somewhat dated piece. Director Barbara Schofield manages to keep 26 balls in the air, through all the entrances and exits, the comings and goings of the female residents of the “Footlights Club” as well as those of their myriad “gentlemen callers.” Adding to the air of hubbub and activity, the area in front of the stage served as busy 53^rd Street, so audiences have full view of not only the characters currently in the club’s community room that made up the stage, but also those that are just leaving and those that are about to enter.

The acting on the whole is very good, from Judith Scarpone as Mrs. Orcutt, the flamboyant proprietor of the boarding house for stage girls and a former stage actress in her own right, to Matt Roe as Keith Burgess, the idealistic playwright gone Hollywood, to Kim Swennen as Jean Maitland (the role played by Ginger Rogers in the movie), the blond starlet swept up by fame and fortune, to Michelle Lema and Laetitia Leon as comic relief Big and Little Mary. However, Amanda Weier in the starring role seems plucked out of those times. From her manner of speech to her crooked, innocent smile, she reminded this writer of a young Judy Garland (who was one of the few actresses of those times who was not in the movie but probably would have been had she been a few years older and not under contract with MGM).

(By the way, the movie bears little resemblance to the stage play, as the screen writers took great liberties with the script, rewriting most of the dialogue, and nearly the entire plot. Virtually the only remnants from the play are the name “Footlights Club” and some of the characters’ names.)

The set of Alvin Ceballos is impressive, transforming the small stage into a realistic New York depression-era boarding house. Shon LeBlanc does an incredible job costuming 26 cast members in period-appropriate outfits through numerous wardrobe changes each. Perhaps if the girls had spent less money on clothes, they’d have more money for food and agents. . . . Ah well, some themes are indeed timeless.

Stage Door is performed Fridays & Saturdays at 8 pm, and Sundays at 2 pm through March 13, 2010

The Open Fist Theatre is located at 6209 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood, just east of Vine

Ticket prices: Tickets Adults $25 (Students & Seniors $20, pay-what-you-can dates available)

Reservations online at www.openfist.org or by phone at (323) 882-6912