Slapstick style at playhouse

Tom Titus

About the only thing missing in “The Second Time Around” at the

Huntington Beach Playhouse is the Tonight Show’s Smitty offering a

rim shot after every third line of dialogue.

This comic oldie about a couple in their 60s who want to live

together -- bypassing the marriage ceremony, thereby retaining their

Social Security benefits -- is basically a series of one-liners mixed

in with enough slapstick styling to evoke memories of Milton Berle in

his prime. While the old folks sit back and provide sage comic

wisdom, their kids devour the scenery.

Director Margaret VandenBerghe wisely leaves the 1970s setting

intact, since attitudes have changed drastically since Henry Denker

wrote this rib-tickling tribute to late-life romance. Oldsters today

consider 60 the new 40, and receiving a monthly Social Security check

doesn’t mean you’re one step away from a rest home.

“The Second Time Around” focuses on a mature couple (Gordon

Marhoefer and Sam Dawson), both widowed, who meet in their doctor’s

office and find themselves acting like teenagers. Their behavior,

however, is exemplary when compared to the reactions of the children

-- his daughter (Stephanie Graney) and her son (Shaun M. McNamara),

respectively.

And, if you think these two are going over the deep end, wait

‘till you meet the son’s wife (Andrea Borden) and the daughter’s

husband (Scott Narver), who turn the caricature knobs up to “high”

and overflowing. Only the third generation -- grandson Bruce (Josh

Muhlenkamp) and his teen-age girlfriend (Sophia Augeri) -- show any

tendency toward maturity.

Marhoefer is relaxed and bemused as the elder Romeo, and Dawson

interacts with him as though they’d been together for years. Both are

bright and witty, clearly enjoying the stress created by their

offspring.

McNamara’s character, a bundle of frayed nerve endings and stomach

ailments, is the product of years of analysis, which somehow hasn’t

seemed to take, and he explodes all over the stage in ever-increasing

detonations. Graney’s Cynthia not only has been through therapy,

she’s married her analyst, which hasn’t helped her steely disposition

and probably fueled it.

The wife of McNamara’s nervous wreck must have been the model for

Bree on “Desperate Housewives” (or, for this production, vice versa),

right down to the hair coloring -- Borden is a steely ice princess

with a control fetish. Narver’s psychiatrist is another control freak

who comes completely unglued when that control dissolves.

Completing the cast, Muhlenkamp’s teen grandson and his main

squeeze Augeri are as normal in their own way as the older folks are

in theirs, offering some hope for the younger generation.

Opening nights generally are a bit anxious, and it doesn’t help

matters when a chair you’re sitting on collapses as a leg comes off.

Fortunately, McNamara handled the situation -- and Graney’s elusive

earrings -- with aplomb, earning additional applause.

“The Second Time Around” is one of those clever generation-gap

comedies, so popular in the early ‘70s that director VandenBerghe has

transformed into a frenetic farce. You’ll be too busy laughing to

realize how tame this material really is.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.