Set in the Eisenhower 1950s and featuring a Goodness Gracious Great Bunch of Top 40 oldies, Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum’s The Merry Wives Of Windsor takes comedic flight as the inspired vision of director Ellen Geer, who’s not afraid to alter the text if it earns laughter to do Lucy and Ricky and Fred and Ethel proud.

A full-cast song-and-dance rendition of “Rock Around The Clock” starts things off with an American Bandstand bang, and signals from the get-go that what we’re about to see won’t be anything close to a traditional Merry Wives.

To begin with, early-17th-century Windsor, England, is now mid-20th-century Windsor, Connecticut, and the play’s titular Merry Wives (Emily Bridges as Mrs. Ford and Willow Geer as Mrs. Page, equally terrific) are now suburban housewives a la Harriet Nelson, June Cleaver, or Donna Stone, married to husbands (Jonathan Blandino as Ford and Bill Haller as Page, both topnotch) who leave their obedient wives at home with the housework as they head off to bring home plenty of bacon.

No wonder then that big-bellied John Falstaff (a hilariously larger than life Jeff Wiesen) has set his lusty sights on these two well-off wives (and on the financial gain he might garner from bedding one or both of them).

What Falstaff hasn’t counted on is having his supposed chums Pistol and Nym (Aleksander Ristic and Joseph Darby) conspiring behind his back to reveal Falstaff’s intentions to their hubbies, though it’s only Ford who gives a hoot, so much so that he disguises himself as a certain “Mr. Brooke” (a droll bonus turn from Blandino) in an attempt to ensure that Falstaff succeeds in his seduction attempts. (Say what?)

Meanwhile elsewhere in Windsor, the Pages’ virginal daughter Anne (Alexandra Kunin) finds herself the object of three young men’s attentions, a dilemma Sandra Dee must certainly have faced in at least one of her ’50s/’60s romcoms.

Mrs. Page favors French physician Dr. Caius (Cavin [CR] Mohrhardt) and her father pushes for town twerp Slender (understudy Christopher Glenn Gilstrap), but Anne will have no one else but Fenton (Charles Lin) even if it means going against both her parents’ wishes.

Also along for the ride are Hostess of the Garter (Earnestine Phillips), who runs the local drinking establishment; Quickly (Melora Marshall), who works for Dr. Caius and has taken it upon herself to assist anyone willing to pay for her help; a few more (Tim Halligan as Shallow, Alistair McKenzie as Parson Hugh Evans, Kenneth Montley as Bardolff, understudy Miller Friedman as Robin, A.M. Sannazzaro as Rugby, and Seth Weaver as Simple) to add to the shenanigans; and Julius Geer-Polin playing his real-life mommy’s son William Page.

If this hasn’t already confused you, I’m not sure that seeing The Merry Wives Of Windsor live on stage at Theatricum Botanicum will make the play’s multiple plot threads any easier to follow, but no matter.

With director Geer unafraid to update Shakespeare’s text to the 1950s more times than I could possibly count (I doubt there was a “Boardwalk” or “Park Place” in Shakespeare’s Windsor) as she elicits one sparkling star turn after another, it matters not whether you can decipher the plot.

An uproarious time is guaranteed to one and all.

And a musical one as well, with Geer inserting such 1950s hits (new lyrics by Peter Alsop) as “Life Could Be A Dream,” “At The Hop,” “Rag Mop,” and “Love Potion Number Nine” into the mix, the last two giving (respectively) the always marvelous Marshall and force-of-nature Phillips the chance to once again steal the show.

With so many fabulous performances on the Theatricum Botanicum stage, it’s impossible to give all their due praise, but I’d be remiss not to single out the dashingly handsome Mohrhardt (who doubles every one of Dr. Caius’s laughs with a “French” accent words fail me to describe) and a nerdishly irresistible Gilstrap’s scene-stealing understudy performance as Slender.

Behind-the-scenes participants excel every bit as much, in particular Tracy Wahl for her fifties-fab costumes, part of a team effort completed to splendid effect by lighting designer Zachary Moore, music director/sound designer Marshall McDaniel, and properties master Alexander Sheldon, all of whom make inventive use of every inch of the Theatricum Stage and the surrounding hills.

Last but not least, assistant director Mohrhardt’s fight choreography is once again a sword-thrusting winner, with Lin and Corrin King taking turns at the piano, Sky Wahl joining in on drums, Montley and King filling in on miscellaneous percussion, and Ashley Maimes and Michaela Molden completing the ensemble.

Kim Cameron is stage manager and Emily Hucal is assistant stage manager. Kellen McDaniel is vocal coach. Beth Eslick is wardrobe supervisor. Elliott Grey Wilson appears at some performances as William Page. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

 Attempts to follow every single one of The Merry Wives Of Windsor’s multiple plot threads may prove futile, but who’s counting? What matters most is the exuberant fun to be had as the 1950s come back to life, Shakespeare-style, at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum, a theatrical venue that once again makes summer magic under Topanga stars.

Will’s Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga.
www.theatricum.com

–Steven Stanley
August 7, 2022
Photos: Ian Flanders

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Theatricum Botanicum