Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday
The Wall Street Journal
Terry Teachout
March 22, 2013
TACT/The Actors Company Theatre, which mounted flawless Off-Broadway revivals of Brian Friel's "Lovers" and Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers" last year, has done it again with "Happy Birthday," a smart little comedy by Anita Loos, the once-celebrated author of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." "Happy Birthday," in which a prim spinster (Mary Bacon) takes refuge from a storm in the Jersey Mecca Cocktail Bar, downs a few drinks and suddenly metamorphoses into a party girl, was a huge hit on Broadway in 1946 - it ran for 563 performances - but has since been forgotten, mainly because it calls for a budget-busting cast of 17. (Two of the roles have been doubled, but you won't notice.) Scott Alan Evans has staged this revival with exceptional skill, getting all of the laughs without obscuring the melancholy that is never far from the shiny surface of Ms. Loos's script.
Ms. Bacon plays Addie, the increasingly tipsy lady librarian, with a winning charm that is impossible to resist. Karen Ziemba, lately and famously of "Contact," has been cast as Gail, the tough-talking owner of the Jersey Mecca, and does it so well that you'll wonder why it's been so long since you last saw her on a New York stage. Bless her for signing on to this lovely production, which is, like all of TACT's shows, a winner.