Rockville Little Theatre has dusted off Herb Gardner's 1962 play, "A Thousand Clowns," a bittersweet, quirky look at nonconformity and the toll it exacts. Director Seth R. Ghitelman and his cast present the story with flair and energy, but this opus needs more than a bit of dusting to keep it from being a dated museum piece.
At three hours, Gardner's script is bloated and redundant. (In 1962, Broadway audiences expected a full evening's entertainment for their $7.50 tickets.) The premise is very much of its time, the cusp of the cultural revolution that later defined the '60s, with nonconformity often considered an end unto itself.
Steven R. Escobar and James McNamara in "A Thousand Clowns."
(Dean Evangelista -- Rockville Little Theatre)
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Four decades later, the main character's attempt to live by his own rules, at least as Gardner sets it out, seems self-indulgent and childishly arrogant rather than daring and inspirational.
Ghitelman indicates that he has great affection for the story of deliberately unemployed New York comedy writer Murray Burns (Steven R. Escobar) and the attempt by social workers to place Nick (James McNamara), the 12-year old nephew he is carelessly raising, in foster care. But the director also seems to understand that if placed in today's world, audiences might see Murray's lackadaisical parenting as dangerously close to neglect. So Murray and his Manhattan apartment, designed with exquisite detail by Mikel Stika, remain firmly in 1962, the filter of time hazily obscuring Murray's flaws.
Seen through 2005 eyes, Murray is more selfish slacker than unconventional free spirit, his lack of responsibility to the child reprehensible, but Escobar skillfully manages to display those shortcomings without totally sacrificing likeability. Escobar doesn't aim for an easy, sentimental portrait. His Murray's charm is a shield deflecting responsibility and emotional involvement. He is an insecure, fearful man and not a cultural pioneer.
Continuously on stage, Escobar remains energetic, even as Murray and others repeatedly revisit issues. There is so much redundancy (several scenes run on long past the point of effectiveness) that 45 minutes could easily be sliced from the play without sacrificing plot or themes. Producers of a 2001 Broadway revival did not make any cuts and the show failed, a victim not just of changing attention spans, but also because the longer one spends with Murray, the less enjoyable he becomes.
Escobar allows us to see Murray's dismay when he realizes young Nick is growing up to be just like him, remote and arrogant. This daring but subtly played moment of self-revelation pays rich emotional dividends, and while it may undercut Gardner's questionable theme that one has to sacrifice individuality to be responsible, it leads the action nicely to the expected conclusion.
Young McNamara does a creditable job as Nick but never fully succeeds with the dynamic of a kid who is really the adult in the relationship. Although the uncle-nephew connection is supposed to be the heart of the play, the scenes between Murray and Sandra Markowitz (Sara Joy Lebowitz), a newly graduated psychologist, are the most enjoyable and illuminating. Lebowitz is refreshingly open as Sandra, who struggles to throw off society's constraints and the expectations of women in 1962.
Joe Lewis, as welfare bureaucrat Albert Amundson, and Ken Kemp, as Murray's "solid citizen" brother, Arnold, also have piquant moments. Guy Palace, who plays Murray's former boss, a star of a children's television show, struggles in several scenes that drag on much too long and can't sustain his character's intentionally ridiculous mannerisms.
Gardner's later plays, including "I'm Not Rappaport" and "Conversations With My Father," have more to say to contemporary audiences. But he did create an indelible moment here when Murray explains why he won't take a job even if it means losing his nephew, fearing the days will blur into each other: "You have to own your days and name them, each one of them, or else the years go right by and none of them belong to you." You needn't be a rebel, with or without a cause, to embrace that.
"A Thousand Clowns," performed by Rockville Little Theatre, is onstage through Jan. 29 at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre, 603 Edmonston Dr., Rockville. Showtime Fridays and Saturdays is 8 p.m., with a matinee Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets, call the theater box office at 240-314-8690 or visit www.ticketleap.com. For information, visit www.rlt-online.org.
