THREE MEN ON A HORSE
Three Men on a Horse
William Wolf Entertainment
William Wolf
March 24, 2011
The original 1935 Broadway comedy "Three Men on a Horse" was so successful that it spawned film adaptations, musical adaptations, foreign versions, including French and German ones, and television spin-offs. According to Wikipedia, it attracted in its various incarnations such performers as Sam Levine, Garson Kanin, Shirley Booth (all in the original), Horace McMahon, Jack Gilford, Dorothy Loudon, Butterfly McQueen, Paul Ford, Hal Linden, Rosemary Prinz, Tony Randall, Jack Klugman, Jerry Stiller, Ellen Greene, Julie Hagerty, Frank McHugh, Joan Blondell, Johnny Carson, Jack Carson, Carol Channing, Larry Blyden, Eddie Cantor, Virginia Mayo, Lionel Stander and George Gobel, among others.
Why the comedy, written by George Abbott and John Cecil Holm, was so successful can be seen in the hilarious new revival by The Actors Company Theatre (TACT). Set during the Great Depression, the piece still plays like a well-oiled laugh machine. The roles are impeccably cast, and director Scott Alan Evans sets the right zany tone and nails the period accurately in keeping with TACT's reputation for reviving works skillfully.
Geoffrey Molloy is the perfect ineffectual innocent as Erwin Trowbridge, who earns his modest living writing sentimental greeting card verse, but as a hobby dopes horse races. He always picks the winner, but he doesn't bet. That would spoil the fun. The comedy results when three sharpies learn of his talent and get him to pick the horses for them to bet on, starting a chain of winnings. He is so needed that they keep him away from home and locked in a hotel despite his protestations and his urgent desire to get to work. Such easy money and a man who doesn't want to succumb to greed and ruin his fun by trying to make a killing certainly had a special resonance in depression days.
As funny as the situation is, the characters are the gems. Trowbridge's wife Audrey is played delightfully by Becky Baumwoll as a mousy creature who loves Erwin and worries about him despite his suspected infidelity, but has to contend with her overbearing brother Clarence (Scott Schafer), who hates Erwin and persistently dumps scorn on him.
Heading the gambling trio is Gregory Salata in the manipulative role of Patsy, carrying on in the tradition of Sam Levine, the original Broadway Patsy. Jeffrey C. Hawkins and Don Burroughs are amusingly none too bright as his cohorts. Ron McClary is funny as Harry, the bartender who gets into the betting act. Patsy's girlfriend Mabel is embodied (and nicely) by Julianna Zinkel, who avoids the cliches that can result from playing the role as merely a dumb blonde. Zinkel can be ditzy, but she also has street smarts and a sympathetic streak. James Murtaugh is a scene-stealer as the frenetic, perpetually infuriated but dithering Mr. Carver, Erwin's boss.
The play assumes farcical proportions, but Evans avoids any mistake of punching it up excessively, thus allowing the comedy to flow from the characters and the snappy dialogue.
A pre-curtain bit of nonsensical fun has been dreamed up. The audience is invited to participate in a horse race. Forms are distributed and audience members can choose a horse to bet on, with their pick then circled. Toy horses are then off in a race above the curtain, and if you pick the right one, you can collect your winnings during intermission. But don't get your hopes up too high. You'll be paid in play money.