Cade Williams, center, plays John Smith, who is married to Mary, played by Sophie Rollins, left, and Barbara, played by Brittany Zimmerman, in Sullivan Theater’s farcical comedy, ‘Run For You Wife.’ Each wife doesn’t know about the other until John lands in the hospital after rescuing a bag lady from a mugger.
John Russo opted to remain in the theater dressing room over mingling with the public the last time he played Stanley Gardener.
So, the public came to him. Well, at least one member of the public.
Russo’s character was the meddlesome neighbor to the main character of Ray Cooney’s “Run For Your Wife.” He’ll be reprising the role when Sullivan Theater opens its production of the farcical comedy on Friday.
It will be the third time Russo has played Stanley, and one of those times was in New Orleans, when an audience member sought him out after the production.
“I’ll never forget it,” Russo said. “I never liked going out meeting the crowd in costume afterwards, but it always used to help the theater grow and progress. And I didn’t go out this one particular time, and a woman came back into the dark theater, and she kept saying, ‘Stanley Gardner, Stanley Gardner, I’ve gotta meet you.'”
John Russo plays nosy neighbor Stanley Gardener in Sullivan Theatre’s production of Ray Cooney’s farcical comedy, ‘Run For Your Wife.’
Russo acquiesced, meeting her outside the dressing room.
“And she says, ‘I’ve got to tell you, my husband died two weeks ago, and I have cried every day since, until this play,'” Russo said. “She said it was the first time she’d laughed, and I can’t tell you how much that means. I well up when I think about it, and it was one of the richest moments I think I’ve ever had on stage, just to be told how what we did helped someone through laughter.”
Plenty of humor
And “Run For Your Wife” promises plenty of laughter as main character John Smith’s double life is upended when he awakens in a hospital after rescuing a bag lady from a mugging.
John, played by Cade Williams, is a taxi driver, and his schedule is a perfect fit for a lifestyle that accommodates one wife in the mornings and another in the evenings. He’s secretly married to two women, Mary, played by Sophie Rollins, and Barbara, played by Brittany Zimmerman.
Of course, each wife is clueless about the other.
Cade Williams plays the bigamist taxi driver John Smith in Sullivan Theater’s ‘Run For Your Wife.’
Meanwhile, the police want to talk to him, as does the media and, of course, both wives. What’s a bigamist taxi driver to do?
Well, Sullivan Theater will have all the answers, as well as lots of slapstick, chaos and slamming doors during its run of “Run For Your Wife.”
“It’s the longest-running play in London,” director Madalyn Mullins said. “The play has been produced in so many countries. They have productions of it in China, Japan and France right now. And I’ve read where they even have one in Ghana.”
Mullins also directed Sullivan’s production of the farce, “Noises Off,” in August, so she was well prepared to take on Cooney’s comedy, which premiered on London’s West End in 1983.
If done right, the comedy will have the audience laughing from beginning to end. But a lot of moving parts have to be in place behind the scenes for it to work.
Meg Jett plays Dt. Sgt. Troughton in Sullivan Theater’s production of the farcical comedy, ‘Run For Your Wife.’
“You have to set up the dominoes for them to fall in the right place,” said Mullins, “So, you have to take that time and put everything in its place, and I love that sort of thing. And I really enjoy working with the actors. … We, together, can create something very fun. So, there are some things that the show demands, but we get to fill in all of the stuff in between.”
Definitely some slapstick
Besides, Mullins said, a farce is the doormat for slapstick.
“I wasn’t planning to do a ton of slapstick for the show, but with this cast and with blocking that came about, I knew that slapstick was totally the direction this show was going,” Mullins said. “But it’s a guaranteed laugh, and it’s always a lot of fun. So I know the audience is going to have fun with it.”
And in the midst of it all will be nosy Stanley stirring the pot.
The cast for Sullivan Theater’s production of Ray Cooney’s farcical comedy, ‘Run For Your Wife’
“To be fair, telling everyone that John Smith has two wives isn’t really a spoiler, because that’s spoiled in the first 30 seconds of the play when Stanley enters the stage,” Russo said. “Stanley is the unemployed neighbor who doesn’t want to work, and as John lies about his wives, Stanley starts to lying about them, too. And when the police get involved, the lies snowball even further.”
Russo’s characterization of Stanley changes with each director, but Stanley’s comedic core remains the same.
“And, you know, comedies like these are a way of not laughing at ourselves, but laughing with ourselves,” Russo said. “Ray Cooney has written a lovely script here, and it makes us laugh.”
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.theadvocate.com ’
