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The Royal Family
by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber
directed by Frank Galati
Through June 22, 2002
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
1650 North Halsted Street
Chicago, Illinois 60614
Box office: (312) 335-1650
http://www.steppenwolf.org
The Royal Family, the 1927 play by two of the wits of New York's Algonquin circle, George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, is a dramatic oddity. Unlike most plays that are enhanced by a dazzling production, such as the one Steppenwolf Theatre Company has lavished on this revival, in performance this three-act comedy about a New York theatre dynasty inspired by the Drew-Barrymores is less witty, less charming, and less intriguing than the playscript. Nevertheless, the almost three-hour production is splendid theatre: it regales the audience with its magnificent set, lighting, and music; its elegant costumes, and some very fine ensemble acting.
The subject of The Royal Family is the off-stage life of the Cavendish family of actors that includes widowed grandmother Fanny Cavendish, daughter Julie, son Tony, granddaughter Gwen, and Fanny's brother Herbert and his wife Kitty. The play is set in 1927, in the family's New York City duplex apartment. James Schuette's set design results in a punctilious presentation of the Cavendish's Bohemian lifestyle. The dual stairways with the iron balustrade curve around the center stage front door -- every entrance and exit becomes more dramatic. The upper floor containing the doorways to the bedrooms is dominated by the life-size portrait of the Cavendish patriarch, Aubrey, in full theatrical costume of royal uniform, medals, and sword. The downstairs is replete with the important accouterments of theatrical royalty: an antique grand piano (for entertaining and rehearsing scenes); chaise lounge (for swooning); an Oriental secretary (to hold important magazines of fashion, the cinema and theatre, and bills); overstuffed chairs, cocktail tables, lamps with fringed lampshades, oriental rugs, silver trays, silver tea and coffee services, china plates, cups and saucers (to provide sustenance and comfort to the countless visitors and family members). This set is luminously bathed in nostalgic period lighting, as designed by James F. Ingalls. Joe Cerqua's sound design evokes the energy and vitality of the period and the household through his musical compositions and the incessant ringing of door bells and telephones.
The plot of The Royal Family is the basic comic movement from the old society of rigid mores and values to a new society that is flexible and all-encompassing. As in most comedy, the new society is formed after marriage, birth, and death. Act I presents the effect of lives devoted to the theatre on the personal desires of individual family members. The older ones, Fanny, Herbert and Kitty, want to remain in the theatre at all costs, despite lackluster careers on the stage and aging and illness. Fanny's husband, Aubrey, whose omnipresent portrait watches over the family, is the ultimate example of this dedication: he died on stage, but after the curtain call. The younger ones are conflicted -- Gwen has a suitor who has proposed marriage; Julie has a love that she reluctantly rejected 20 years ago but who is returning to woo her (both men are in the business world); Tony has left the theatre for the flamboyant and glamourous life in the Hollywood cinema. However, Tony does not fare so well in this new world. At the end of the act, he hurriedly returns to New York when he incurs the wrath of a jilted lover, the wife of his Hollywood director.
In Act II, the theatrical dynasty seems to be ending: Fanny is still in poor health, although planning a return to the stage; Tony departs to Europe to find himself; Gwen departs to wed her suitor; Julie accepts the marriage proposal of her South American businessman, but continues to appear on the stage for the run of the play. In Act III, a year later, Gwen has had her first child, but has arranged to return to the stage 'temporarily.' Tony returns from Europe inspired by Bertolt Brecht's dramaturgy -- with a scale model of a multilevel German stage and two charming St. Bernard pups in tow. Julie's hit play has closed, her fiancee returns from the platinum mines, and she still is inquiring about new stage roles. Kitty and Herbert, who is sporting a 'youthful' toupee, have new careers in vaudeville. The dynasty continues -- with new members answering the same calling to the theatre.
Although the plot of this comedy of manners is simple and predictable and the characterization is stereotypical, The Royal Family succeeds as a dramatic work because of the very witty dialogue, which is laden with self-deprecation, irony and self-dramatization, and because the subject of the play is theatre folk, who are egotistical and quirky but somehow noble in their dedication to their calling as actors. In fact, it is essential to the appreciation of the play that the audience accepts the phenomenon of a theatrical dynasty on the American stage, whether they actually know anything about the Drew-Barrymores.
Certainly the Steppenwolf Theatre Company itself is the contemporary equivalent of such a theatrical dynasty. And under Frank Galati's direction, the cast exhibits some very fine ensemble acting. As they perform their roles, in Mara Blumenfeld's sumptuous costumes, the cast is a marvel of physical comedy: the play begins with the servants rushing about and everyone shouting; Tony and his fencing master frenetically duel across the upper landing; Fanny, Julie, and Gwen swoon at various points in the play; Tony, ever the swashbuckling hero, vaults over the balustrade with aplomb. However, fluid stage movement alone cannot capture the charm of this play, which is also in its witty dialogue.
For this task, the major roles seem miscast. Lois Smith's delivery of Fanny's quips usually misfire. Her advice to her granddaughter about marriage ("Your mother and I both got married but we didn't drop more important things to do it.") is more homespun than Oscar Wildean. Although Fanny is ill, Ms. Smith's portrayal lacks the elegance of the royal theatrical matriarch; her costumes are frumpy in comparison to the rest of the cast. Both Amy Morton and David New are supple and energetic in their roles as the Cavendish stars of stage and screen -- but they are not believable. Neither one of the actors have captured the cadence of worldliness of the dialogue; neither one seems to exude the appropriate amount of star quality. Yet, there is some inspired casting: Rondi Reed and B.J. Jones, as Kitty and Herbert, are wonderfully lackluster 'B-actors;' Sally Murphy is a believable, spoiled ingenue; Ian Brennan and Christopher Innvar -- the loves of the Cavendish women -- are great foils for the egotistical, self-dramatizing dynasty.
Although The Royal Family is a slight play with stock characters in a thin plot, it has somehow been revived continuously since its December 1927 Broadway opening and run of 345 performances. Even if Steppenwolf Theatre Company's revival attenuates the dramatic effect of this play, the production is a theatrical extravaganza that enlivens our appreciation of the theatre and those that are called to it.
The Royal Family. George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber's showbiz satire directed by Frank Galati. Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 1650 N. Halsted, 312-335-1650. Through June 22: Tuesdays-Fridays, 7:30 PM; Saturdays-Sundays, 3 and 7:30 PM; Wednesday, June 5 and 12, 2 and 7:30 PM; Sunday, June 9 and 16, 3 PM only. $40-$55.
--Sandra Marie Lee
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