The Time of Your Life
The best known theatrical depiction of the world between the World Wars is probably Kander and Ebb’s "Cabaret." With its goodness without motive, its ad hoc entertainments and its yearnings for purity, William Saroyan’s play The Time Of Your Life is practically the anti-"Cabaret," but its starry-eyed hero is still a fascinating one to follow and the barroom tableau he lives in, a worthy study.
Nick’s Pacific Street Saloon, Restaurant and Entertainment Palace may be "the lowest dive in San Francisco," but it’s never empty: Its owner (Ross DeGraw) serves day and night to desultory regulars like the young, lovelorn Dudley (Jonathan Lavallee), an old frontiersman with a stock of tall tales (Ken Trammel) and a "natural-born hoofer" (Robert Carroll) devising a new dance.
With a front-row seat to the action is Joe (Michael Mendiola), whose mysterious wealth allows him to send his biggest admirer (Matthew DeCapua) on curiously specific errands and comfort a prostitute named Kitty (Daniela Mastropietro) who misses her Midwestern family. Joe protests he wants to discover good, to figure out how to go through life without doing any harm, even though harm seems to unerringly seek out those around him.
Peter Dobbins skillfully manages his large cast to fill the stage without too much distraction from whatever figures he wants you to focus on at the moment. This talent comes in handy in the last act of the show, which takes a really interesting turn with the introduction of two new characters, a Society Gentleman and a Society Lady (played by Sheldon Stone and Holly Davatz). Through their eyes we see Nick’s anew, as the couple bedecked in their evening finery go looking for a little lower-class excitement and get way more than they bargained for. Their presence sharpens the scene and allows the denizens of the bar, who before now have been content to fight amongst themselves, to put up a united front when one of their own is threatened. This in turn allows Joe to finally understand what $2 worth of toys and winning bets on racehorses couldn’t allow him to figure out about life.
Through November 1st at 145 W. 46th Street. For tickets and more information, visit the Storm Theatre website.
