` Beau Jest” was made to be a hit, from its 1989 debut at the Victory Gardens Theater to its transfer run at the Halsted Theatre Centre, to its off-Broadway franchise, currently in its third smash year. Now back where it began, the “Jest” resumes: This worthy revival at Candlelight’s Forum Theatre reunites director Dennis Zacek and three of the original cast members.
Playwright James Sherman’s recipe is ripe for interest: Let your audience in on a secret by setting up a lie so big we know it must explode; the only question is when and how. Fortunately, exposing the happy hoax reveals enough hidden truths to make up for the deception.
The family comedy focuses on Sarah Goldman, a too-compliant Jewish daughter. Sarah is so desperate to conceal her non-Jewish boyfriend from her domineering, marriage-mad family that she hires Bob, an actor-escort, to impersonate a boyfriend, a Jewish doctor named David Steinberg.
Suddenly assigned a secret identity, Bob hurls himself into the imposture with the zest of an actor stretching for a part. Naturally, the real boyfriend resents this squeeze play, especially when Bob, no longer acting, takes his part seriously enough to fall for Sarah.
Inevitably Sarah must stand up to her family and take charge of her happiness-which means one boyfriend has got to go.
The sure-fire plot neatly fuses fish-out-of-water humor (Bob, struggling hard to avoid exposure, improvises his way through a Seder) and feel-good reconciliations (the over-protective parents learn to let their daughter live her life).
A big share of the humor comes from Sherman’s artful use of the imposter phenomenon; we root for Bob to get away with the masquerade, not just because he’s good for Sarah, but because we all harbor a secret fear of being found out and a not-so-secret delight in watching others dare to be fake.
Except for some facile psychologizing in the last act, Sherman moves the action crisply, piling on the complications without sacrificing character credibility.
Providing as much realism as the contrivances allow, Zacek’s staging never slows down to get predictable. Good-hearted and easygoing, it softens any hard feelings as fast as they appear.
Linnea Todd, repeating her original role, has crafted Sarah into a portrait of touching confusion, decency in duress and, in the last act, exasperating indecision. Also reprising their 1989 roles are Fredric Stone, supplying needed tension as Sarah’s suspicious, finally sympathetic, therapist brother, and Peter Curren, as dignified as possible as the boyfriend who loses out when art imitates life.
As Bob, an actor who really lives his part, Alan Kopischke does justice to the part, warmly moving from pride in his make-believe to unforced devotion to Sarah.
Playing Sarah’s overwhelming parents, Etel Billig and Neil Kobin rightly emphasize the Goldmans’ devotion over their nagging; they mean so well they’ve earned the right to be wrong.
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“Beau Jest” runs through May 1 at Candlelight’s Forum Theatre, 5620 S. Harlem Ave., Summit; 708-496-3000.
