Sunset Playhouse Dazzles with Funny, Heartfelt ‘Now and Then’

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Photo courtesy of Sunset Playhouse

'Now and Then' - After Sunset Studio Series

After Sunset Studio Series performance of 'Now and Then' at Sunset Playhouse

Sunset Playhouse, long known for its upbeat musicals and laugh-out-loud comedies, enters the new year with a play that gently causes audiences to examine their own life choices. Sean Gennan’s romantic comedy, Now and Then, is far more powerful than its casual title suggests. The play continues as part of the After Sunset Studio Series through January 17.

Grennan, the playwright, is a Chicago native who now lives in Pennsylvania. However, he has more than a few ties to Wisconsin. Four of his plays—including Now and Then—had their world premieres at Peninsula Players theater in Door County. Grennan, a former actor, has even appeared in some Peninsula Players productions. (He played Dr. Armstrong in And Then There Were None). Grennan has become a noted playwright who has had his work produced internationally, including Off-Broadway.

After Now and Then’s world premiere in 2018, the play has been produced across the country, including shows in Indiana, Florida, Maryland and Glenview, IL. It also had a production in Ottawa, Canada.

The play’s setting is an Irish bar in Chicago, circa 1981. Jamie, a young bartender and aspiring musician, is about to close up for the night. In walks an older man who requests a quick drink. Jamie waffles, but the man offers him $2,000 to share the last drink of the night. Meanwhile, Jamie’s girlfriend, Abby, walks in. She has just finished her evening waitress shift at the 24-hour International House of Pancakes. Once she sees the money, Abby agrees to join them for a drink.

It is clear that Jamie (Jack Anderson) and Abby (Amanda Springob) are very much in love. At the older man’s urging, they talk about their dreams. Jamie would love to quit his bartending job and study music full time. Abby hopes to complete her college degree and become an English teacher. The older man nods, as if he has heard this all before.

The older man (Jim Mallmann) frequently gazes around the bar, as if recalling a l0ong-lost memory. He looks to be in his early 60s. He says that he used to work in the same bar, about 35 years ago. Eventually, he moved on to a teaching career, from which he recently retired.

A Strange Trio of Drinking Buddies

It seems as though the older man can’t take his eyes off the young couple. It’s almost as if he’s hiding something that he wants desperately to share. Throughout their conversation, it’s clear that he feels the generation gap between himself and the 30-ish couple. “These days,” he laments, “I buy sympathy cards in bulk.”

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Photo courtesy of Sunset Playhouse

'Now and Then' - After Sunset Studio Series

After Sunset Studio Series performance of 'Now and Then' at Sunset Playhouse

Just before the end of the first act, a woman (Nichole Kivela) bursts through the bar’s door. She points at the older man and hurls an epitaph at him. Then the curtain comes down.

Grennan’s well-crafted play has more than its share of humor, but it also contains poignant moments as well. As the play unfolds (no spoilers here), it focuses on the choices we make in life, and how they can (or can’t) be undone. It covers topics such as love, loss and having enough faith in oneself to make it through the tough times that life inevitably throws at us.

As an actor, Mallmann gives an impressive performance as someone who looks back on his own life with regrets. Mallmann’s (real-life) thinning hair and expanding waistline are both topics in the script. Mallmann carries a world weariness throughout—until the play’s final moments.

It turns out that the woman who appears suddenly at the end of Act I is Mallmann’s wife. She, too, has been in this bar before. It was many years ago, during a time when she felt very optimistic about the future. In many ways, Kivela’s character is the best written one in the play. She scoffs at her husband’s complaints and has no patience when he plays the victim. Mallmann and Kivela shine during these moments. Their banter, honed over a 35-year marriage, caused some knowing chuckles among audience members on opening night. 

As the younger pair, Anderson and Springob are completely convincing as the young couple in love. Their characters attempt to absorb the strange information shared by the older couple without getting knocked off their own axis. Springob, as Abby, is particularly adept at assessing the situation posed by the older pair. Both Jamie and Abby display a full spectrum of emotions, under the adept direction of Phil Sepanski. He creates a world in which the audience is quickly caught up in the events surrounding these four characters.

An Emotional Experience for the Characters – and the Audience

Based on the audience’s response on opening night, theatergoers at Now and Then shouldn’t be surprised to be laughing one moment and sniffling the next. The play runs almost two hours, with one intermission. Appropriately for a play set in an Irish bar, Guinness beer can be ordered along with other drinks at the theater’s concession stand.

Another notable detail is that the show’s tickets are only $16, about the same price as going to a movie theater. The production has some mature aspects that are best appreciated by adult theatergoers.

The show is being staged in the intimate Marla Eichmann Studio Theater, which allows audiences to feel as though they are almost eavesdropping on a conversation. On opening night, most of the 100 padded seats were filled. Although tickets may be purchased in advance, the seating is general admission (first come, first served). The second play in this series, David Aubrun’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Proof, opens on April 10.

Now and Then runs through January 17 at Sunset Playhouse, 700 Wall St., Elm Grove. For tickets, visit sunsetplayhouse.com, or call the box office at 262-782-4430.