Groucho A Life in Revue (TV) [2001] Frank Ferrante

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Groucho: A Life in Revue (TV 2001)


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Groucho: A Life in Revue is a stage play written by Groucho Marxs son Arthur Marx and Robert Fisher. It is a look at the life and career of the famous entertainer Groucho Marx of the Marx Brothers and You Bet Your Life fame. It opened off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on October 8, 1986 and played 254 performances closing on May 3, 1987. It starred 23 year-old actor Frank Ferrante as Groucho Marx from age 15 to 85, Les Marsden as Harpo Marx and Chico Marx, Faith Prince as The Girls and Rusty Magee as The Citizen of Freedonia. It was directed by Arthur Marx. The play opened to rave reviews. The New York Times wrote, There is laughter in abundance and described Ferrantes performance as artful...his timing is digital sharp. The New York Post dubbed it hilarious...a brilliant revue. Groucho was nominated for two NY Outer Critics Circle Awards - one for Best Play and one for Ferrantes performance. Ferrante won a 1987 New York Theatre World Award for Outstanding New Talent.

The play opened with Ferrante and Marsden in Londons West End at the Comedy Theatre in summer, 1987. Marguerite Lowell replaced Faith Prince as The Girls. It received more critical acclaim and garnered three Laurence Olivier Award nominations.

In 1982, Gabe Kaplan filmed a version of the play, called simply Groucho, for television co-starring Connie Danese and Michael Tucci. In 2001, Groucho aired as a national television special on PBS starring Frank Ferrante as Groucho, Roy Abramsohn as Chico and Harpo and Marguerite Lowell as The Girls. It was directed for the stage by Ferrante and for the screen by Steve Moscovic.

GROUCHO MARX is irreplaceable, but he is imitable, as Frank Ferrante demonstrates in Groucho: A Life in Revue. Less a musical than a stand-up impersonation with fringe benefits, this is a droll, affectionate portrait of one of our greatest clowns - and two clownish brothers.

The co-author and director is Arthur Marx, who has centered his literary and theatrical career on his role as son of Groucho. Together with Robert Fisher, Marx fils wrote the book for the Broadway musical Minnies Boys, and Groucho is another Marx-Fisher collaboration, albeit a compact model. As an evening of Marx Brothers theater, however, it is far more entertaining than Minnies Boys.

The book is basically a compilation of Groucho jokes and retorts, snippets and songs from the fraternal act and scenes from life, or an approximation thereof, presented as a stream of reminiscence from Mr. Ferrante. Actually, Mr. Ferrante is the shows second most valuable asset (the first, of course, is Groucho himself).

The actors artful imitation is complete with a voice that, like that of his subject, seems to crack and change pitch in a single sentence. Eyebrows are a comic instrument, punctuating punch lines and, without overdoing it, Mr. Ferrante has mastered the walk. Reprising Captain Spauldings famous song and dance in Animal Crackers, the actor twirls his legs as if they are batons. In fact, one might say that he sings and dances better than the original.

Most important, his timing is digital sharp, whether he is sparring verbally with a brother or confiding his own singular sagacity, as in his comment that middle age is when you go to sleep at night and hope that you will feel better in the morning, and old age is when you hope that you will wake up in the morning.

The show begins with Grouchos Carnegie Hall concert, when he proved to be a most unmellow octogenarian, and then, in a flashback, ambles chronologically through the life. As a sign of the smallness of the show, one actor, Les Marsden, plays both Chico and Harpo, which is a bit like a vaudevillian playing both ends of a horse. Faith Prince stands in for Margaret Dumont, chorus girls and Grouchos wives. I know about theatrical economy, but how economical can you be? Say the secret word and perhaps someone will spring a few dollars and hire another actor. If that happens, a problem would arise, which brother would Mr. Marsden play? The truth is that he is ambidextrous, quick-changing from conniving piano player to horn-honking harpist.

The authors make the assumption, perhaps valid, that in the case of the Marxes, art imitated life (and a little versa). The real Chico, we are told, was a compulsive gambler and ladys man, Harpo was, of course, angelic and Groucho was always grouchy and witty. Evident love passes among the three (quicker moves for Mr. Marsden), though there are signs of sibling rivalry, as in Grouchos observation, Harpo, who couldnt speak, became the darling of the intellectuals. Apparently, Grouchos dilemma was that people did not take him seriously enough. It was he who inspired the comedy, and it was he alone who survived as a solo - on the radio and television program You Bet Your Life. One on one, he could insult the world.

The first and funnier act rushes through vaudeville, Broadway and on to Hollywood. In the second act, the show drifts and dawdles. A stronger director might have been able to tighten the transitions. The 14 years of You Bet Your Life are represented by an amusing excerpt from a broadcast with Chico as a guest, and then the show seems momentarily at a loss for words - something that could never be said about Groucho.

Soon the elderly Groucho is on stage and Mr. Ferrante responds with a convincing alteration in voice and posture. Unwisely, the authors dredge up that dreariest of devices, the interviewer who quizzes with platitudes, as Have you ever known sadness? Hearing that question, the real Groucho would have jumped up and sung, Hello I Must Be Going.

Despite the slackening in the second act, there is laughter in abundance in Groucho: A Life in Revue. Though the jokes are old, they are vintage. As Groucho says, There is no such thing as an old joke, if youve never heard it before, and, in his case, even if you have heard it before.

The show began as an off-Broadway play in 1986 and has been performed off and on since, to modest success. A taped PBS performance from 2001 released on DVD 29 March, it is essentially a one-man show. Frank Ferrante plays Groucho, delivering monologues from prominent points in his life. There are two other actors, Roy Abramsohn as brother Leonard/Chico (he also plays Harpo) provides a context to GrouchoΓΓé¼Γäós fussiness and is the only relationship explored in depth. Marguerite Lowell as ΓΓé¼┼ôThe GirlsΓΓé¼┬¥ covers a variety of roles, including Margaret Dumont and GrouchoΓΓé¼Γäós wives.

The dramatization separates GrouchoΓΓé¼Γäós life into four sections in two acts: boyhood and vaudeville, great success on stage, movies and television work, and old age. Along the way, well known Groucho and Marx Brothers bits are duly reenacted: Hooray For Captain Spaulding, Lydia, The Tattooed Lady, You Bet Your Life, I donΓΓé¼Γäót care to belong to a clubΓΓ鼪 The show advertises the chance to relive these moments (and see vaudeville skits that few people alive have ever seen), but itΓΓé¼Γäós a mixed bag: You Bet Your Life captures the seriesΓΓé¼Γäó improvisational zing, but Marx Brothers moments like Captain Spaulding have a hard time capturing their anarchic energy on a small stage with a cast of three.

The script too, written by Arthur Marx and Robert Fisher, is marred by the cursory contemplation and sentimental gloss one might expect from somebody writing a play about his father (that isnΓΓé¼Γäót being written as an act of revenge). The play doesnΓΓé¼Γäót consider what drove Groucho to and through his famous moments, but instead details his ordinariness. The script seems to aspire to a deeper character study, in its flirtation with the manΓΓé¼Γäós (possible) faults, but seem unwilling to acknowledge that he was anything but a good-hearted man. In a typical ΓΓé¼┼ôseriousΓΓé¼┬¥ scene, Groucho acknowledges that he was a verbally abusive husband only to conclude, Insulting you was just my way of loving you. And all is forgiven.

Repeating tired trademark Groucho mannerisms, FerranteΓΓé¼Γäós performance is less a comment on GrouchoΓΓé¼Γäós temperament as an entertainer, than an instance of the sort of self-indulgence that lurks behind too many one-person shows. Ferrante plays the rare moments when Groucho drops his guard as generically earnest. At its worst, his performance is grating, like being stuck in a room with a precocious child that wonΓΓé¼Γäót calm down.

In the end, a life in revue is not a life at all. Rather than make the show a greatest hits extravaganza, the producers add a layer of biographical schmaltz to convey schmerz, which sinks any overriding whimsy and fun it may offer. The original brilliance of Groucho lay in his cynicism and anarchy and the gleeful mocking of such theatrical shams.