Photo Credit: Liz Lauren
American Players Theatre (APT) is never better than when a talented cast thoroughly enjoys the show in which they’re performing. That joy has rarely been as evident as in APT’s new production of Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer, which opened June 22 in the Hill Theatre on the company’s Spring Green campus.
The Restoration comedy, written in 1773, a year before the author’s death, features the usual gaggle of star-crossed lovers, mistaken identities, class distinctions, goofy supporting characters, conniving mothers and stern but loving fathers. There are few surprises in this roundup.
But director Laura Gordon has done something quite remarkable with what could have been a stumbling, convoluted narrative, encouraging a physicality in her cast that augments and often overrides the cumbersome period prose. The play’s humor—which is almost nonstop—comes less from what is said and more from the antics that accompany it. And Gordon whips it all along at a nonstop gallop, making the performance’s three hours pass in the blink of an eye.
The play’s premise is supposedly based on one of Goldsmith’s own experiences when, as a young man, he mistook a country manor for a country inn, treating the unsuspecting family as the rudest of guests. Add to that the connivances and contrivances of the lovers, class distinctions and mixed intentions, and you have the perfect comic setting.
The play makes good use of APT’s main stage, dressed in fine detail as the Hardcastle manor house by scenic designer Regina García, and the wings, which serve as the Three Pigeons Tavern and outside garden. The cast is uniformly excellent, especially James Ridge and the always remarkable Sarah Day as the lord and lady of the manor, APT newcomer Jamal James as star-crossed lover Marlowe, Laura Rook as his would-be paramour, and a host of others.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
However, the show’s true scene-stealer is the hilarious Josh Krause as Tony Lumpkin, a wealthy layabout who figures into many of the plays’ intrigues when he’s not drinking at the tavern or performing with the tavern band any of the numerous songs written by composer Joe Cerqua. It’s a clever secondary use of the manor’s domestic staff.
After the curtain call, the band members run up the aisles to the Hill Theatre’s open-air lobby, where they raucously serenade exiting patrons with a short post-show concert. It’s one more brilliant move in a play filled with them.
Through Sept. 20 at American Players Theatre, 5950 Golf Course Road, Spring Green. For tickets, visit americanplayers.org.
