Review: I Do! I Do! Opens Apple Hill's 2001 Season
The two-person musical I Do! I Do! opened Apple Hill Playhouse's 2001 season. Besides reviewing the show, this archived Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article gives a rare portrait of producer Pat Beyer at work during her 20th season in charge of the Delmont barn theatre.
By A.J. Caliendo
In her 20th season as numero uno honcho of one of Western Pennsylvania's premier summer theaters, you'd think Apple Hill Playhouse's Pat Beyer would sit back and reap the benefits of two decades of hard work.
You'd be wrong.
On opening night of "I Do! I Do!," the first production of Apple Hill's 2001 season, Beyer is behind the concession stand selling pop and fielding questions. She leaves momentarily to respond to complaints about ceiling fans making the house too cold, then returns to talk about the season just getting under way.
Stage Review
"I Do! I Do!" Where: Apple Hill Playhouse, 275 Manor Road, Delmont. When: 8 p.m. today through Friday. Tickets: $12 to $16 (student, senior and child discounts available; dinner theater packages available);.
In addition to "I Do! I Do!," which continues this week, the season's musicals are "Grease" and the murder mystery farce "Something's Afoot."
Comedies include "The Housekeeper," requisite straw-hat farce "Love, Sex and the IRS" and two lesser-known Neil Simon plays, "Proposals," which will have its local premiere at Apple Hill in June, and "Fools." Beyer is glad to present some fresher works by Simon, who "went through a blue period [that was] just not right for our audience," she says, citing the liberal use of profanity in recent Simon entries like "Laughter on the 23rd Floor."
The season's final presentation will be "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial," the seventh courtroom drama the Delmont theater will present in the Westmoreland County Courthouse in Greensburg.
But this evening is about "I Do! I Do!," the two-person musical comedy by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, who also collaborated on "The Fantastiks." The story spans 50 years in the life of married couple Michael and Agnes.
Written with original Broadway stars Robert Preston and Mary Martin in mind, the show's book is incidental to both the music and the ability of the performers to hold an audience. In fact, the whole shebang could collapse under the weight of its own syrupy sweetness if performed by actors who were less than totally engaging. This production has no worries in that area.
Pittsburghers Joyce Sterling and Dean Patterson have been performing together for many years, and that history pays off here. Seemingly able to finish each other's sentences, which Jones' book and lyrics often require them to do, Sterling and Patterson project both the familiarity and the contempt of a long-married couple. Both were in fine voice at the preview performance. While Patterson's comedic talents generally overshadow his co-star's, Sterling has one grand moment in a funny first act number titled "Flaming Agnes." All in all, "I Do! I Do!" provides an engaging evening of theater.
It's a good start to Beyer's 20th season at the helm.
But somehow you get the feeling that, no matter how successful 2001 is for Apple Hill, she'll be back in that concession stand when the 2002 season begins.
A.J. Caliendo is a free-lance drama critic for the Post-Gazette.