Three Men on a Horse
Three Men on a Horse
Show Business
Andrea M. Meek
March 23, 2001
In a brilliantly devised opening to TACT's revival of Three Men on a Horse, audience members are given a chance to bet on an exhilarating stick-figure horse race across the stage just before the show begins. (Winners get a "prize" at intermission.) This fun pre-show warm-up sets the mood for the delightful and charming production that follows.
In this Depression-era comedy, milquetoast greeting-card writer Erwin Trowbridge (an appropriately mousy and likeable Geoffrey Molloy) leads a subservient existence in Ozone Heights, kowtowing to his whiny but loving wife Audrey (Becky Baumwoll) and domineering brother-in-law Clarence (Scott Schafer). When they discover his hobby of successfully predicting horse races (on which he never bets -- because, hey, that would take the fun out of it), Erwin is cornered by his wife and her brother.
In an uncharacteristic act of rebellion, Erwin skips work for a drink at the Lavillere Hotel bar in New York City, where he meets three penniless gamblers who discover his uncanny talent for picking winners. Ringleader Patsy (Gregory Salata) and his two stooges, Frankie (Don Burroughs) and Charlie (Jeffrey C. Hawkins), ply Erwin with drink and hole him up in their hotel room where they attempt to amicably coax their miraculous find into revealing the next winning picks. Patsy's moll, the ditzy but kind-hearted Mabel (Julianna Zinkel), and barman Harry (Ron McClary) are also in on the game. However, much to the gang's frustration, Erwin is more concerned with composing the fifty Mother's Day verses that are overdue to his boss Mr. Carver (James Murtaugh).
Written by John Cecil Holm and George Abbott, Three Men on a Horse premiered on Broadway in 1935. A film of the same name followed a year later. The play has been revived on Broadway four times since then, the last time in 1993. In this latest off-Broadway revival, director Scott Alan Evans keeps the two-plus-hour comedy zipping along and audiences eagerly anticipating what will happen next. Nicely done scenic design by Brett J. Banakis fluidly and effectively changes the scene from home to barroom to hotel and back again. As a whole, the cast has successfully mastered the style and comedy of the period and genre. Well-known track announcer Dave Johnson voices the show's races.
TACT delivers an all-around well-done production. None but the most cynical of theatergoers will leave this funny, feel-good comedy without smiles on their faces.