A CLEAN BRUSH

After having given a number of Norm Foster comedies their American or West Coast Premieres, Theatre 40 now gets first dibs on Foster’s latest. Unfortunately, A Fresh Brush proves one of the prolific comic master’s lesser efforts, but that doesn’t mean that its cast of Canadian oddballs don’t earn their fair share of chuckles.

James Lemire stars as house painter Dick Stern, who has no idea his last name is Jewish until his partner Mello (Michael Kerr) tells him so. (It turns out nobody in his family ever bothered to bring that up, not even Uncle Shlomo.)

On the men’s agenda this week is repainting the basement of book editor Zoe Caldwell (Mandy Fason), a comely blonde whose husband has recently died of a massive heart attack. (“He was dead before his head hit the fireplace poker pretty hard … several times,” she tells the boys.)

And if this sounds more than a tad suspicious, just wait till Zoe’s divorced sister Lois Cunningham (Susan Priver) shows up from her house next door to plant further seeds of doubt in the painters’ minds as to whether Zoe’s husband’s death might possibly have been something other than natural.

A Clean Brush’s overly padded first act spends spend much of its fifty minutes on assorted topics that are, shall we say, not particularly plot-propelling.

Dick recalls how his late mentor Darwin Dingle’s ashes were mixed with a can of paint which was then used to paint a desk in the family home in shades of Mediterranean Blue, only to have his widow Betsy sell the house the following year and move to Arizona to be with her Spanish lover Carlos Diego (of the Scottsdale Diegos).

Additional minutes are spent talking about Mello’s pet dog Earl’s groomer Augustine, leading to a discussion of why one ought not to draw conclusions about a person’s sexual orientation based on their name and occupation. (“It’s the age of inclusion,” explains Mello. “Everyone’s welcome.”)

And even more time is taken up on Mello’s new habit of saying “Goldarn it.” after watching an old western in which a grizzled prospector played by Gabby Hayes kept saying “Goldarn it” whenever someone burned the coffee or got trampled in a stampede. (“Apparently ‘Goldarn it’ covers every calamity”)

Indeed, it’s not until A Clean Brush’s significantly shorter second act that things begin to get going, plotwise, as the likelihood of Zoe’s husband’s death having been a case of premeditated murder perpetrated by either Zoe or her sister gets complicated by Mello’s realization that he may have fallen head over heels for the merry widow.

Playwright Foster’s skill at writing clever, quirky one-liners remains intact, and I particularly relished the running gag of Dick’s cluelessness to his Jewish heritage despite his son’s name (Itzhak), a much-loved childhood toy (a dreidel), and a favorite family soup (matzo ball).

 Still, it takes more than one-liners to create a full-length play, which is why the chief pleasures to be had at Theatre 40 are in the droll performances delivered by Lemire’s deliciously clueless Dick, Kerr’s engaging, endearing Mello, Fason’s girl-next-door sunshiny Zoe, and the always fabulous Priver’s va-va-vampish Lois.

Director Howard Storm does his best to keep things moving along, though at least one two-character scene gets played too far upstage in a production that would be better served by a playing area about half the size of Theatre 40’s. (Foster’s script specifies an almost entirely empty basement, which makes for a whole lot of unused space.)

Design-wise, the production is in the quite capable hands of Jeff G. Rack (set), Michèle Young (costumes), Derrick McDaniel (lighting), and Nick Foran (sound).

A Clean Brush is produced by David Hunt Stafford. Craig Hissong is stage manager.

Norm Foster’s best plays—Screwball Comedy, Opening Night, and The Long Weekend—have been among my favorite Theatre 40 productions ever, and though Reservations For Six’s first act could have used a trim, that one too was a winner.

Not so much A Clean Brush, but if you happen to put it on your calendar, a terrific cast will do their best to make sure you find yourself laughing more than once along the way.

Theatre 40, 241 S. Moreno Dr., Beverly Hills.
www.Theatre40.org

–Steven Stanley
October 9, 2022
Photos: Eric Keitel

 

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