In Sunset Playhouse’s production of Ken Ludwig’s light comedy Moon Over Buffalo, Glenn Villa and Beth Perry play George and Charlotte Hay—an old married couple who find themselves performing repertory theater in small town New York. Villa and Perry are fun as a couple who have been together forever and deliver a fair amount of familiarity to the stage. The sophisticated personalities of two people who have led lives in pursuit of dramatic arts are given impressive nuance and detail in Ludwig’s lightly comic script. Villa and Perry bring some of the larger dynamics to the stage quite well in a brisk style that moves with poise and levity without getting too distracted with detail.
There are also satisfying performances around the edges. Samantha Taylor lends some pleasant friction as a dramatic young actress who George may have gotten pregnant. Stephanie Pluta is respectably galvanizing as Rosalind, the visiting adult daughter of George and Charlotte who helps to anchor the chaos of the farce. Zach Zembrowski executes a comically awkward arc as Rosalind’s TV meteorologist fiancée. Playing him as kind of a nebbishy figure seems a bit weak, but Zembrowski does a great job with it.
Michael Pocaro’s direction brings disparate elements together in a rhythm that keeps the action moving from plot twist to door slam to plot twist in a gentle cascade toward the final curtain.
Through Sep. 25 at the Furlan Auditorium, 800 Elm Grove Road, Elm Grove. For tickets, call 262-782-4430 or visit sunsetplayhouse.com.
