Like the old joke poses: What’s the secret to comedy?
Timing.
Timing, as it turns out, is the very reason I am suggesting you visit Flying Anvil Theatre for their latest production, The Sunshine Boys, directed by Jayne Morgan. After all, Neil Simon’s hilarious comedy is rife with comedic gag lines that ebb and flow like waves on the sand from the two old cranky vaudevillians, Willie Clark and Al Lewis, played here by David Dwyer and Stephen Dupree. The gist, of course, is that the pair, together as headliners for 43 years, now hate each other, but are being asked to reprise their comedy routine for inclusion in a television special. Was that Neil Simon feast of comic timing perfect when I caught the opening last week? No, but it didn’t really matter—watching the pair of veteran actors joust with the comedic banter, while landing and rolling with dramatic punches, was a joy to experience.
A counterpoint to the irascible and contrary Willie was his exasperated nephew, Ben Silverman, played here with a briskly entertaining agita by Nick Sterling. Nephew Ben, as the theatrical agent setting up the television deal, has tried to be a middleman between the two feuding vaudevillians. His capacity for suffering insults and inconveniences from his uncle, while keeping his goal of a reunion in mind, defines the character, making it fun to watch Sterling explore the different twists and turns he must make.
Immensely enjoyable, too, was Yolanda Treece as Willie’s Act II home-care nurse. Treece gives the role a springy Jamaican dialect that bubbled with retorts and rebuttals, as she foils Willie’s attempts to gain the upper hand in their amusing domestic situation.
In many ways, The Sunshine Boys is an interesting history lesson. Admittedly, neither Neil Simon’s 60s and 70s humor, nor the naughty, bawdy humor of old vaudeville, have much resonance in a tech-driven modern Broadway. Nevertheless, the one-on-one comedy that Simon presents in The Sunshine Boys is an essential part of theatre history that we ignore to our cultural peril.
Beware of your timing, though. The show runs Wednesday, September 22, then Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 PM, Sundays at 2:00 PM, thru October 10.
