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'Secret Affairs' goes wild at CVLT
(by Herb Hammer - March 17, 2010)
THEATER, BY HERB HAMMER
'Secret Affairs' goes wild at CVLT
Roy Wild's life is about to literally crash in on him. The wrecking ball is ready to destroy his Greenwich Village candy store, along with the tiny living quarters he shares with his screwball wife, Mildred.
Mildred cares little about such things. Her rich fantasy life is what keeps her busy.
Paul Zindel's zany 1972 comedy "The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wild" is currently lighting up the stage at Chagrin Valley Little Theatre.
This is surely not Mr. Zindel's best work, but it is his funniest. Trying to compare "Mildred Wild" with the award-winning "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Merigolds" or his "And Miss Reardon Drinks A Little" is a waste of time. "Mildred" comes in a distant third. And yet the loony goings on at CVLT are well worth a look.
Anchored by the talented Lisa Tarr, as Mildred, the play takes off in more than one direction. You are often not sure where reality leaves off and fantasy begins.
Mildred lives with her 40-year collection of movie magazines and more often than not escapes from reality into her dream world of 3,000 movies she has somehow managed to see.
As Mildred imagines herself swaggering her way to the top, we find her in a nutty romp of "Gone With the Wind," then she's in a jungle scene where she is snatched away by the enormous hand of "King Kong."
It's when she wins first prize in a call-in movie quiz that the play goes haywire. Along with some junk prizes, she is flown to Hollywood, where the accommodations are a disaster and the screen test -- well, it's best to take it as it comes, for fantasy and reality practically climb all over each other.
Mildred's butcher becomes a movie director, while all the rest of those in her humdrum life become part of her nutty secret life.
In the middle of this messy play, Mr. Zindel gets sentimental and saves the crumbling marriage of Roy and Mildred.
Director Michael Rogan does his best to sort things out along with Edmond Wolff, whose movable set and imaginative light changes try to let you know what is real and what is not.
Adam Young plays Roy, as a dispirited klutz. He's quite good. How Roy manages to have a girlfriend on the side has more silliness.
Lisa Tarr's Mildred is just crazy enough. She would be better if she would cut out her foot-dragging strut.
Coletta West, as Roy's annoying sister Helen, fits in rather well; in fact, the entire cast is well into the comedy.
"The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wild," with all its confusion and insults, plays rather well. Once the play overcomes its slapstick, sometimes rather dumb start, it's fun to go along for the ride.
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