Sentimental 'Time' benefits from lyrical writing

A lot of emotion and very little plot describes "The Time of Your Life," William Saroyan's 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy-drama in a revival at Chicago's Provision Theater.

An overly sentimental play, "The Time of Your Life" serves mainly as a character study of the dreamers, drifters and down-and-outers who frequent a San Francisco tavern. For these folks, happiness comes in small doses, if it comes at all. Still, it has its charms. Saroyan's writing is lyrical, and his characters, even the one-dimensional ones, are entertaining. Moreover, there's a humanity to this play that celebrates individual dignity and whose simple message of compassion, benevolence and tolerance bears repeating.

Set in 1939, the play unfolds over the course of day, during which the regulars seeking sanctuary wander in and out of Nick's Pacific Street Saloon, a faded joint where the tables are covered and the chairs are dust-free. Observing the parade of hookers and cops, drunks, sailors and assorted eccentrics is the enigmatic Joe (a self-assured Tim Gregory, very good as the wounded penitent assuaging his guilt).

The smartly dressed Joe spends the day sipping champagne and playing good Samaritan, doling out money, comfort and small acts of kindness. The chief beneficiaries are the hooker Kitty (nice work by Tien Doman), and Tom (a winning Tucker Curtis), Joe's flunky who's smitten with Kitty.

Larry Wiley injects a shot of humor into the show with his broadly comic yet credible performance as rummy frontiersman Kit Carson, teller of fabulous tales. Laura Sturm and Mary Jo Bolduc deliver affecting cameos as an unhappily married mother and a castoff young woman.

There's also solid work from Philip Wasik as Nick, a proprietor with kind heart and a gruff demeanor; menacing Sean Parker as a vicious vice cop; and fresh-faced Alan Schmuckler as an aspiring hoofer.

However, static staging, tentative acting by less experienced cast members and flagging energy plague director Joe Slowik's production, which never manages to move beyond competent to compelling.

"The Time of Your Life"

2 stars out of four

Location: Viaduct Theater, 3111 N. Western Ave., Chicago

Times: 8 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays through March 2

Running Time: About 2 hours, including intermission

Tickets: $25, $20

Parking: Street parking available

Box office: (773) 506-4429 or www.provisiontheater.org

Rating: For teens and older