Joneal Joplin and Whit Reichert have been entertaining St. Louis audiences for more years than they care to remember. I first wrote about Joplin when he performed in “Of Mice and Men,” at the Rep in 1972, and about Reichert not too many years later. They both have been consummate professionals in every possible type of role, from William Shakespeare to Neil Simon. And they’re dealing with Simon right now, Joplin as Willie Clark and Reichert as Al Lewis in “The Sunshine Boys.” It opened over the weekend as a St. Louis Actors Studio production at the Gaslight Theatre, and will run through Dec. 19.
They are, of course, splendid in the rat-a-tat-tat comedic style of vintage Simon, and the one-liners are sharper and fly faster than Sitting Bull’s arrows at the Little Big Horn. They play proud men, slightly arrogant men with fat egos and thin skins, and they play off one another like a pair of actors who have spent a lot of time together and have respect for one another’s talent and professionalism.
Lewis and Clark were headline comedians in burlesque and vaudeville, later on television (six times on the Ed Sullivan Show), a team for 40 years. But they broke up after a violent argument and have not spoken for more than a decade. Lewis retired, lives with his daughter in New Jersey (rich territory for jokes by a New York writer); Clark lives alone in a hotel room in Manhattan, saying (and thinking) that he still is working, even though no jobs are forthcoming.
Clark’s only visitor is his nephew, Ben Silverman (a sensitive, warm portrayal by William Roth), who shows up every Wednesday with a copy of Variety and some cans of soup. Given the fact that time passes during the show, it would be nice if Ben brought Willie a different copy of Variety on the later visit, of else if Willie hid the front page better to keep the illusion.
Reichert and Joplin are wonderful in discussions of their old friends from the publication’s obituary pages. The repartee is at mile-a-minute speed, and it’s Simon at his best, delivered by a pair of splendid actors.
They are brought together by Ben, who works as an agent, to appear on a retrospective television show honoring humor in America, and while they are dying to do it, their pride, and the long grudge, keeps them apart.
Julie Venegoni adds a spark in two roles, one as a “nurse’” for their famous “doctor” skit from their burlesque days, with Joplin showing more than a trace of Groucho Marx. Venegoni, in short skirt, low-cut top and stockings with garters, has the burlesque timing and movements down pat. A scene later, after Joplin suffers a heart attack, she’s a by-the-numbers private-duty nurse, highly professional in her demeanor. However, when she said she was 44, I was unsure whether she was referring to her age, which did not appear to be accurate, or her anatomy, where it was closer.
Eric White and James Slover are fine in smaller roles, on Patrick Huber’s workmanlike set in Bonnie Kruger’s costumes, and Robin Weatherall’s choice of music was spot-on. “The Sunshine Boys” is an outstanding production of a delightful comedy. Laughs for the season.
The Sunshine Boys, a production of the St. Louis Actors Studio, will play at the Gaslight Theatre through Dec. 19
—Joe