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'My Destination' reaches for clouds
(by Herb Hammer - May 06, 2009)
THEATER, BY HERB HAMMER
'My Destination' reaches for clouds
Eight years after Thornton Wilder's 1927 breakthrough novel "The Bridge at San Luis Rey" and three years prior to his 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Our Town," his novel "Heaven's My Destination" made its debut. Surely not as highly regarded as some of Mr. Wilder's many other works, "Heaven's My Destination" is making its appearance as a 2 1/2-hour play at the Cleveland Play House.
Renowned playwright Lee Blessing has been commissioned by the Play House to bring the novel to the stage. The National Endowment for the Arts and the Roe Green Foundation are sponsoring the play. The generous Ms. Green made an appearance with director Michael Bloom just prior to the opening-night curtain on April 24.
"Heaven's My Destination" follows the comedic adventures of textbook salesman George Brush as he travels middle America calling on schools and school boards representing a New York book publisher.
We never witness George at work. We only follow him as he visits and revisits the boarding houses, smoky trains and bars, spreading the gospel and innocently getting himself into all kinds of trouble.
Right from the start, you find George to be a likable screwball. Most of the people he meets -- and there are scores of them, all played by only seven actors -- believe him to be somewhat crazy.
Though the play winds up going nowhere, if you can take its 2 1/2-hour length, you find it full of laughs and warm, fuzzy scenes led by Michael Halling, a tall, skinny George Brush who keeps you asking for more.
The author imagined George to be his own personal Don Quixote, spreading the word of God through one scene after another until he finds himself married, though he only thinks he's married. This may seem confusing, but Lee Blessing straightens things out in this, the only serious part of the play.
Besides the surprising Mr. Halling, the rest of this sparkling cast works wonders. Having them pop out from time to time narrating some of the scenes is something Mr. Blessing might well have left out.
The set by Russell Parkman appears to be made up of a towering and turning pile of junk. A closer look reveals the pieces and parts of the Great Depression. Times were not only tough, but they were terrible.
Yet Mr. Wilder, and so, Mr. Blessing's characters, make it through without troubling the readers or the audience.
Director Michael Bloom's outstanding work keeps us not only laughing but brings along a certain sentiment borrowed from Thornton Wilder. Mr. Bloom's pacing is fast and funny. The play couldn't have made it without him.
From prostitutes to farm girls to bums to landladies, the characters, and so, the actors, are gleaming spectacles and charming performers.
The combination is nearly a miraculous fit. Thornton Wilder, Lee Blessing, Michael Bloom, a great cast and the wonderful Michael Halling, as the nutty George Brush. See this, you'll never get another chance.
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