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I Ought to be in Pictures |
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A review of Stellar Productions I OUGHT TO BE IN PICTURES by Miriam King of the West Gwillimbury Times from their December 24 '09 edition: For full article CLICK HERE
Stellar Productions was back at the Howard
Johnson's Queen Elizabeth Dinner Theatre on December 19, with a
heart-warming production of Neil Simon's I Ought to Be in Pictures. No-one does bittersweet like Simon – combining wry humour and
biting one-liners in scenarios that somehow manage to express the Human
Comedy with an upbeat twist, without being saccharine. I Ought to Be in Pictures is no exception. Set in California,
the protagonists are displaced Brooklynite Herb Tucker (Chuck
Therrien), an aging screenwriter whose best ideas may be in the past;
his long-suffering girlfriend Steffy Blondell (Elaine Jarvis), whose
patience, after two years of a relationship, is wearing thin. and
Libby, the teenage daughter he abandoned 16 years earlier (played by
Victoria Murdoch). Murdoch is wonderful as the daughter, who arrives on Herb's
doorstep with the announcement that she wants to be "in pictures" - but
in reality, only hopes to connect with the father she has never known.
Therrien is suitably crusty as the dad who finally faces his own fear
of attachment and fear of failure, and Jarvis creates sparks as Steffy,
the studio make-up artist who wonders where their relationship is
going. The show is funny, sweet, hopeful – vintage Simon, and well worth the trip to Aurora.
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