`Proposals” is only fair-to-middling Neil Simon, but in its engaging local premiere by Theatre at the Center in Munster, Ind., it is presented with such a welcoming, amiable cast that its two acts pass pleasantly enough.
First staged for the 1997-98 Broadway season, the comedy/drama marks two departures in Simon’s 40-year playwriting career, neither one earth-shattering. It is set outdoors, and it features two African-Americans in its cast.
One of these is Clemma, a faithful housekeeper for a Jewish family’s summer home in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Warm-hearted, quick-witted and charmingly embodied by the actress Ira Carol McGill, Clemma is the play’s narrator, literally coming back from the dead to reminisce for the audience about a long-ago summer when weddings, liaisons and reunions were being proposed on the lawn of the rambling old house.
Clemma has a lot to remember. Burt (Roger Mueller), the ailing host for a summer weekend, is anxiously awaiting the arrival of his ex-wife Annie (Carol Kuykendall), with whom he is still in love. Josie (Julie Ganey), his daughter, has just broken off her engagement to the passionate dweeb Kenny (Chris Petschler) and still harbors longings for her ex-boyfriend Ray (Aaron Christensen), an aspiring novelist.
Surprise guests include Sammii (Katrina Link), Ray’s new, ditsy girlfriend, and Vinnie (Matt Orlando), a gregarious young Italian-American whom Josie had met on a trip to Miami.
Clemma herself has problems when her husband Lewis (John Steven Crowley), absent for seven years, shows up hoping for a reconciliation.
None of these relationships is particularly convincing or involving, existing more on sentimental cliches than in reality. But Simon, even in a minor mode and with a lame ending, can still come up with amusing situations and good lines, and the cast here responds to his material with generous good humor. Orlando’s Vinnie, a streetwise stud who’s mangling of the English language is milked for many laughs, is particularly zestful.
Director Louis Contey, working outside his usual home base at the small Shattered Globe Theatre in Chicago, has deftly kept the atmosphere inviting and friendly, and set designer Kevin Hagan has wrapped the Center’s broad stage with a neatly trellised front porch and lawn for the summer home.
“Proposals”
When: Through Oct. 22
Where: Theatre at the Center, 1040 Ridge Rd., Munster, Ind.
Phone: 219-836-3255
