Engaging cast energizes 'Philadelphia Story' revival

Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart loom large over "The Philadelphia Story," George Cukor's 1940 big-screen version of Philip Barry's 1939 comedy-of-manners -- a witty, perceptive play about class, wealth and love.Given the star power of the cast and the film's iconic status, eclipsing those performances would be near impossible. So the laudable cast of Remy Bumppo's polished, pleasurable production doesn't even try. Erica Elam's Tracy Lord is softer, less angular than Hepburn's and Grant Goodman's C.K. Dexter Haven is more aloof than Grant's. And while Steve Key's voice recalls Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," his Macaulay (Mike) Connor is more prickly than Stewart's.Director Shawn Douglass has cast the show well. And if his actors' performances are not what Turner Classic Movies viewers expect, they are credible and thoroughly engaging.The play unfolds outside Philadelphia on the Lord family's estate in a patrician parlor designed by Jackie Penrod and Rick Penrod that transforms into a gracious garden in the second act.The story centers on Tracy Lord (fine work by Elam who makes this sophisticated socialite approachable), who has grown weary perching on the pedestal she (and her admirers) have placed her.Smart and spirited, Tracy is a feminist in all but name (it's no accident that she wears slacks in the first act). She's also judgmental and a bit of a scold, qualities that heralded the breakup of her first marriage to childhood friend and fellow member of the privileged class C.K. Dexter Haven, played with cool understatement by Goodman.Two years after their divorce, Tracy is set to marry George Kittredge (Aaron Christensen) a self-made, up-from-the-bottom man who's had some help remaking himself. However, a scandal involving her father Seth (Peter Davis) and a chorus girl threatens to disrupt the nuptials. To keep the family out of the headlines, older brother Sandy (Gregory Anderson as a savvy spin-meister) makes a deal with a tabloid publisher to allow reporter Macaulay Connor (Key) a novelist reduced to writing fluff and photographer Liz Imbrie (a witty, whip-smart Wendi Weber who delivers comic asides like a master) to cover Tracy's wedding. In exchange, the publisher will keep Seth's illicit affair under wraps.Grudging respect between Tracy (who has no tolerance for human failings, including her own) and Mike (a proud proletariat who disdains the upper-crust) turns to attraction, forcing Tracy to re-think her future.Confounding the situation are Willy (Donald Brearley), an endearing lecher of an uncle who has his eyes (and hands on Liz); younger sister Dinah (Margaret Katch terrific as a precocious pre-teen) and long-suffering mother Margaret (Annabel Armour, another actress who knows the value of a well-timed comic aside)."The Philadelphia Story"Three stars out of fourLocation: Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., ChicagoTimes: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays; 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Sundays through Jan. 6. Additional 2 p.m. show Dec. 12 (no evening performance that day); 7 p.m. performance Dec. 31Running Time: About 2#189; hours, including intermissionTickets: $25.50-$40Parking: Discounted parking with ticket stub in the Children's Memorial Hospital parking garageBox office: (773) 871-3000 or www.remybumppo.orgRating: For teens and older