Wheaton Drama comedy celebrates 1930s

Once upon a time, the clickity-clack of a train moving down the tracks didn’t remind people of their commute into the city to work.

In bygone days, the sound of a train whistle meant travel, adventure, excitement.

Wheaton Drama’s latest production invites people into Playhouse 111 and “all aboard” the Twentieth Century Limited train: destination New York City.

It’s a throwback to when luxury travel meant riding the rails and sexual references were little more than innuendo. It was the 1930s.

“It’s a fun comedy without any dire sexual overtones,” said actor Jim Arnold of Clarendon Hills. “It’s from the era of the ’30s when everything is clean and neat and fun.”

“Twentieth Century,” Wheaton Drama’s third show of the 2010-11 season, departs the station at 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28.

With the action set on a 1930s train, Broadway producer Oscar Jaffe finds himself trying to save his fading career. He learns famous Hollywood actress Lily Garland, once one of his chorus girls, is also on his train and decides he must convince her to return to Broadway.

But Max Jacobs, played by Arnold, sets out to thwart Oscar Jaffe’s plans.

And then there’s Lily’s jilted agent/boyfriend, George Smith, who learns during the trip that she’s been cheating.

True to traditional ’30s style, the production isn’t overtly sexual and characters don’t use vulgar words. But that doesn’t mean it’s not implied.

“It’s all there. It’s not blatant, but it definitely has a flair for the sensual,” said Christopher Williams of Aurora, who plays George Smith. “People love to see their big stars be lovers — it’s not boyfriend-girlfriend. Everything is big but not raunchy.”

The setting, similar to a regular train car, is articulated and moves on occasion.

“I don’t mean that it’s on tracks, that it’s going to run to one end of the building or the other,” Arnold said. “There’s movement at critical times to indicate that it’s a moving vehicle.”

Although train travel doesn’t hold the same romance today, Director Steve Blount thinks the production will recall memories for those old enough to remember those days and fascinate younger audience members.

“Celebrities rarely travel by luxury train anymore. Nor, for that matter, do the rest of us,” he said in his written description of the production.

“But the glamour of luxury train travel remains a part of the American soul. Long before the telephone or the Internet, our cities and towns were knit together with train tracks. Railroad songs such as ‘Casey Jones’ and ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo’ are part of our popular culture. And who among us does not react with nostalgia to the distant wail of a train whistle in the night?”

Wheaton Drama’s 2010-11 season includes two more coming productions: “All My Sons” and “1776.”

“Twentieth Century” begins at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and 3 p.m. Sundays, through Feb. 20.

Tickets are $13 on Thursdays, $16 all other days.

For information, visit wheatondrama.org or call (630) 260-1820.

If you go

What: “Twentieth Century,” presented by Wheaton Drama

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and 3 p.m. Sundays, Jan. 28 to Feb. 20

Where: Playhouse 111, 111 N. Hale St., Wheaton

Cost: $13 Thursdays, $16 other days

Info: (630) 260-1820 or <a href="http://www.wheatondrama.org">wheatondrama.org</a>