GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER


Impeccably acted, directed, and designed on a “CinemaScope” stage, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner is one of Theatre 40’s finest productions ever.

Diana Angelina and Larry Eisenberg undertake roles made famous by Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in Stanley Kramer’s Oscar-winning 1967 screen classic as Matt and Christina Drayton, a well-off San Francisco couple whose lifelong liberalism is tested when their twenty-three-year-old daughter Joanna (Abigail Stewart) announces plans to marry Dr. John Prentice (Marc Antonio Pritchett), a world-renowned physician who, to her parents’ scarcely concealed dismay, turns out to be a person of color.

Since it was then still illegal in sixteen states for men and women of different races to wed, it’s perhaps no wonder that Matt and Christina have real concerns about the likelihood of a happily ever after for a fresh-out-of-college Joanna and Dr. John Prentice, no matter how educated, esteemed, and undeniably likable the African-American MD may be.

Not only that, but since John is about to leave for Geneva the following morning for three months of medical research, and since Joanna has absolutely no intention of being left behind when he goes, that doesn’t give the smitten couple much time to secure her parents’ blessing, and John is insistent he won’t marry Joanna without Matt and Christina’s consent.

Adding to the complications are gallery owner Christina’s snooty coworker Hillary (Jenn Robbins), Matt’s frequent golf buddy Monsignor Ryan (David Hunt Stafford), and the Drayton’s longtime domestic Tilly (Crystal Yvonne Jackson), a black woman born and raised in the Jim Crow South, who just might be the most disapproving of them all.

If times had changed more than they have in the past fifty-five years, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner would be nothing more than a quaint period piece of bygone days when racism still reigned supreme.

That such is unfortunately not the case is just one reason Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner still resonates with modern audiences at Theatre 40, where director Cate Caplin has elicited one pitch-perfect performance after another from eight stage vets and one incandescent newcomer.

Though it would be sacrilegious to even consider remaking Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner on film, a stage play lends itself to multiple interpretations, and in the case of Todd Kreidler’s adept adaptation of William Rose’s screenplay, to two absolutely splendid productions just five months and five miles apart.

In virtually every case, director Caplin’s casting choices are markedly different from Lita Gaithers Owens’ at Santa Monica’s Ruskin Group Theatre this past June, but they are every bit as valid and effective.

Eisenberg’s intelligent, deeply-felt Matt shares with Spencer Tracy the same leonine power the film legend brought to the role, and the delicacy and refinement Angelina gives Christina makes the character’s steel-like mettle all the more striking when it emerges.

Pritchett’s confident, understated performance as John is another winner, making it no wonder that Stewart’s poised and passionate Joanna proves a force to be reckoned with where her love for him is concerned.

Actors Co-op treasure Jackson gives Tillie equal parts grit and wit, and without ever once going for a laugh, scores them in droves; Stafford bestows Monsignor Ryan with oodles of Irish charm; a terrific Robbins reveals how a sophisticated, polished exterior can hide the ugliest of prejudices; and Frederick Dawson and Patricia A. Lewis play John’s parents John Sr. and Mary with equal parts nuance and power.

Caplin’s Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner benefits enormously from Theatre 40’s “widescreen” stage, one that allows scenic designer Jeff G. Rack to replicate the Drayton’s elegant San Francisco home in warm saturated hues with no need to scale things down.

Add to this John M. McElveney’s impeccably chosen properties (including some stunning canvases), Michael A. Mullen’s stylish, color-coordinated late-1960s costumes, Derrick McDaniel’s lustrous lighting, Judi Lewin’s spot-on hair, makeup, and wig designs, and sound designer Nick Foran’s era-and-mood-perfect musical underscoring and you have Theatre 40’s most impressive production design in years.

 Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner is produced by Stafford. Rachael Maye-Aronoff is stage manager.

Times and attitudes may have changed since the late 1960s, but with overt racial prejudice on the rise, there’s nothing at all dated about Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner. With Cate Caplin confidently at the helm, the latest from Theatre 40 is a production no L.A. theater lover will want to miss.

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

–Steven Stanley
November 27, 2022
Photos: Damien Tejeda-Benitez

 

 

Tags: , , ,

Comments are closed.