Theater Review - Multiple diva disorder

Light Up the Sky a self-indulgent portrait of Thespians

Any time a play or piece of fiction features a character who’s a writer, look for signs of self-portraiture. Light Up the Sky, Moss Hart’s rollicking 1948 comedy currently produced by the Alliance Theatre, features not one playwright on the stage, but two.
Dubbed a “play a clef” for its thinly disguised portrayals of famous theater people of the era, Light Up the Sky makes eager sport of actors, directors and investors alike. Hart goes easier on the roles that share his profession, seasoned veteran playwright Owen Turner (Larry Larson) and idealistic young Peter Sloan (Quint Von Canon). The Turner character has been likened to Stanley Kaufman, with whom Hart wrote such hit comedies as the Pulitzer-winning You Can’t Take It With You.
I suspect that Turner and Sloan represent two sides of the play’s author, with Hart using his years of experience to give advice to his younger self at the cusp of success. That leaves a lot of room to explore themes about the dichotomy of personality, but Light Up the Sky doesn’t have that much on its mind, with Peggy Shannon’s production offering a broad treatment of a trifling entertainment.
The setting is a lushly appointed Ritz Carlton suite in Boston, where Sloan’s first play is about to debut in a matter of hours. Against the writer’s expectations, it promises to be a major theatrical event, featuring acting legend Irene Livingston (Elisabeth Nunziato), crusty but passionate producer Sidney Black (Charles Dean) and histrionic director Carleton Fitzgerald (Mark Brey) — who’s as famous for his crying jags as for his plays.
Those are just a few of Light Up’s larger-than-life personalities, and thus the play inspires some extremely “big” acting. The first act essentially lets the characters come in, define themselves with flamboyant speeches and quirky behaviors then step aside for the next ones. Hart bemusedly reveals stage superstitions and some of the hidden expenses in trying to produce a hit show.
Elisabeth Meadows Rouse and Marilyn Sokol provide the most exaggerated, laugh-hungry characterizations. Rouse plays Sidney’s wife Frances, a plus-sized ice skater turned brassy shopaholic, combining Jennifer Tilly’s voice with Jayne Mansfield’s va-va-voom. As Irene’s wisecracking mother Stella, Sokol suggests touches from the entire Hollywood Walk of Fame, from Thelma Ritter and Joan Crawford to Edward G. Robinson.
Neither being serious “artistes,” Frances and Stella make natural allies, sharing both pleasant moments and some of the play’s funniest bits. Rouse proves especially amusing when squeezed into Mariann Verheyen’s lavishly garish costumes. But the actresses also work overtime for attention, clutching their bosoms for laughs, with Sokol seeming particularly reluctant to share the spotlight.
In Light Up’s first act, the characters are all mutual admiration and excitement as they await the play’s public debut; “How do you shake hands with Tchaikovsky’s 5th?” Sidney asks of the boy genius playwright. But when the opening doesn’t go as hoped, the characters sing a different tune, prompting a welter of finger pointing, back biting and door slamming. Frances wails, “My husband just produced an allegory!”
The actors seize their roles with no shortage of gusto, with Nunziato giving the stage queen both the ideal aristocratic elegance and bouts of flighty peevishness: Faced with the prospect of a flop, she immediately begins feigning laryngitis. Brey may overdo Carleton’s effeminacy, but offers winning touches like a rictus-sized grin when happy and a hilariously quivering lip when on the verge of tears. Charles Dean effectively shows Sidney’s starry-eyed ideals and his cold calculation.
Hart shows theater professionals at their most expansive highs and petty lows, but ultimately shows a great deal of affection for them. Maybe too much: There’s a faint whiff of self-congratulation by the end, ultimately affirming how fabulous everyone is and what a noble pursuit they share. Hart doesn’t paint the playwright characters with as broad a brush as the others, with Turner proving the play’s voice of reason and Sloan its embodiment of principle. Larson and Von Canon play them as noticeably more realistic than the rest.
Mostly the play’s verbal humor hits home, although it uses a squawking parrot for surprisingly cheap chuckles. Some of the smaller roles are consistently present but have little payoff, like Courtney Patterson’s ghost writer and Tyler Rayburn’s financier. The grand, occasionally flailing portrayals of the main comic roles suggest that the Alliance production is trying to conceal the script’s thinness. Light Up the Sky does demonstrate that having a show with too many divas, both male and female, can be a blessing and a curse.
Light Up the Sky plays through March 18 at the Alliance Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St., with performances at 8 p.m. Tues.-Fri., 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays. $16-$45. 404-733-5000.