Delightful 'Jeeves' makes welcome return to First Folio
If actors could copyright a role and claim it as their own, Jim McCance deserves first dibs on Jeeves, the unflappable gentleman's gentleman created by British humorist P.G. Wodehouse and masterfully inhabited by McCance in First Folio Theatre's "Jeeves in Bloom."
McCance reprises the role he played in First Folio's 2008 production of "Jeeves Intervenes," and it's difficult to imagine a more pitch-perfect, drolly deadpan performance. Playing the straight man isn't easy; McCance makes it look as though it is.
His Jeeves is the stoic at the center of this screwball comedy and gentle satire, the savior who "shimmers in silently like a wisp of smoke" to restore the order upset by his bumbling employer Bertie, played with genial goofiness by Christian Gray, also reprising his role from 2008's production.
Director Alison C. Vesely's funny, thoroughly charming production reunites McCance and Gray with "Jeeves" veteran Kevin McKillip. McKillip, who played Bertie's dim best friend Basie two years ago, returns to play another bungling pal, newt-loving Gussie Fink-Nottle.
Wittily adapted from Wodehouse by Margaret Raether, "Jeeves in Bloom" incorporates typical Wodehousian devices: witty banter, convoluted schemes that go awry, misinterpreted intentions and physical shtick. It's all rather silly, but it's a refined sort of silliness that's especially apparent in the spot-on sensibility of the McCance-Gray-McKillip trio which anchors the farce.
"Jeeves in Bloom" occupies the chapel at the Mayslake Peabody Estate which affords more room for set designer Angela Miller. Ivy climbs the red brick walls and flora overflows stone urns on the patio of Miller's Binkley Court, a stately, English country estate where most of the action - with one notable and resourcefully designed exception - takes place.
The play opens with Bertie (Gray, charming as the well-intentioned, albeit generally inept aristocrat) confronting dual dilemmas. The first involves his Aunt Dahlia, played with delightfully dry humor by the excellent Jeannie Affelder, whose impeccably delivered affronts - particularly her suggestion that her nephew drown himself in a pond so she can fish him out and dance on his grave - provide some of the play's biggest laughs.
Dahlia has summoned Bertie to the country estate she shares with her blustering, gun-toting husband Tom Travers (the hardworking James Leaming who delivers in dual roles). Meanwhile, Bertie's school chum Gussie (a sweetly awkward, nervously energetic McKillip) has a problem of his own. Gussie, who has long preferred the company of small amphibians to women, has fallen in love with Madeline (a lilting Melanie Keller), but finds himself tongue-tied in her presence. When Bertie learns that the object of Gussie's affections is staying with his aunt and uncle, he bundles all of them, including Jeeves, off to the country to get Gussie engaged.
Factor in Dahlia's larcenous intentions, a wooing that goes awry, a wayward newt, a tongue-tied suitor and a volatile, cleaver-wielding chef and things spiral quickly out of control. But the conclusion is hardly in doubt, not with our man Jeeves around to set things right.
The 90-minute first act could use some tightening, but that's a minor point in a winning production. The return of "Jeeves" is as welcome as a reunion with old friends. Here's hoping First Folio invites him back again.
"Jeeves in Bloom" Rating: #9733; #9733; #9733; #189;Location: Mayslake Peabody Estate, 1717 W. 31st St., Oak Brook (630) 986-8067 or firstfolio.com Showtimes: 8 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 28, also 1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9 Running time: About two hours, 30 minutes with intermission Tickets: $28-$30 for adults, $23-$25 for seniors/studentsParking: Free lot adjacent to theater Rating: For teens and olderFalse20001333Levelheaded Jeeves (Jim McCance, center), dissuades the enraged Anatole (James Leaming, left) from carving a bit from Bertie (Christian Gray) in First Folio Theatre's spirited "Jeeves in Bloom." False