It takes a lot to remake a classic. A good refashioning will find a new angle, while still showing the proper respect to the original and it needs a good cast – a really good cast. With those parameters, Dallas Theater Center’s production of “Arsenic & Old Lace,” could be considered a good remake.
Thanks to the powerhouse actresses, Betty Buckley and Tovah Feldshuh, the Brewster sisters are reinvented in such a way that brings the entire production to life.
This timeless play by Joseph Kesserling, (adapted to film in 1944 by Frank Capra) tells the story of two sisters, who live together in their family home in Brooklyn. They have taken up the hobby of helping lonely old men to their grave, perhaps a little bit ahead of time, but they see it as their charity to those who are all alone in the world.
Their beloved nephew Mortimer Brewster (Lee Trull) has just proposed to his girlfriend Elaine Harper (Abbey Siegworth), who happens to be the daughter of the minister who lives next door. When Mortimer discovers what his adorable aunts are up to, he becomes frantic, unsure whether or not to call the cops or blame it on his brother Teddy (J. Brent Alford) – who happens to believe that he is President Theodore Roosevelt.
Just when you think this story couldn’t get any more loony, the third Brewster brother Jonathan (Jason Douglas) shows up. And after a good dose of plastic surgery thanks to Dr. Einstein (Nehal Joshi), Jonathan looks like Boris Karlov when he played Frankenstein’s monster.
This play is as eccentric as it sounds. Feldshuh and Buckley have managed to create Aunts who are as adorable as they are mad, and they bring some much needed clarity that makes you wonder what skeletons you might find in your sweet, little aunts closet (or the cellar).
It is obvious that these women make this show happen, as they both take advantage of every moment that could produce laughter.
Trull hits the mark with his portrayal of the theater critic (a career the play delightfully attacks), as he slowly works himself into a state of hysteria. The duo of Douglas and Joshi as the creepy out-of-towners is a delight to watch.
The SMU students and professor who appear in this show, offer solid performances. Sean O’ Conner and Chris McCreary add yet another comic element to the play as the beat cops and James Crawford is quite amusing as the night cop, Officer O’Hara.
Along with the humor, the design of the show is superb. A majestic, antique Brooklyn home has been built on the Kalita’s revolving stage, giving Teddy stairs to charge up and a cellar in which to dig the Panama Canal and giving Trull plenty of furniture to jump over.
The show itself plays with the conventions of theater, from the dummies used for the dead bodies to the revolving stage that gives Dr. Einstein trouble, to the entire scene that takes place ‘in the dark.’ It is obvious that Scott Schwartz had fun directing this show.
Whether you’ve seen the film or not, this stage production has found the recipe for comedy: two stars, a good script, and a little drop of poison.
“Arsenic & Old Lace” runs through March 13 at the historic Kalita Humphreys Theater. For more information visit,
