If there weren't so many problems in Aubrey Hampton's plays, we just might notice what a benevolent soul their author possesses. So yes, over the years Hampton has brought us one unsuccessful work after the next at his Gorilla Theater — with the exception of the hilarious Manhattan Play Doctor a few seasons ago. But let's hold off the critique for a moment and just look at the worldview that pervades all these offerings.
The first thing we notice is that Hampton is a history buff; he repeatedly offers us the company of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, George S. Kaufman and the Marx Brothers, Alla Nazimova and Ellen Terry. Then there's Hampton's particular interest in George Bernard Shaw, who turns up as a live character in two plays (GBS and Company and Sherlock and Shaw) and as a puppet in another (the current Christmas Gremlins). Hampton's a fan both of stage magicians and ventriloquists ('Tis the Season to Do Folly and Gremlins) and has a showman's love of special effects (War of the Currents). His morality is the most desirable and comforting type — the good guys win and bad guys are foiled — and when a boy loves a girl, they just might break into song (Manhattan), before they go on to live happily ever after (Gremlins).
Finally, Hampton prefers a clear-cut ending to his plays, in which all mysteries are solved and all loose ends tied up. These are plays that might work best with an audience of children — plays entirely without moral or existential ambiguity. If you had to guess, you'd say that their author had a good heart.
But as genuinely kind and ethical as Hampton's worldview is, he's still not a playwright who's solved the problem of how to keep an audience interested. His plays, brought year after year to the theater he owns, tend to be overlong and under-compelling, asking dramatic questions of little relevance to the spectators, reveling in historical data of little importance to anyone but him, and structured so strangely, you can't always tell what's central and what's marginal.
Now he's got a new show on — the aforementioned Christmas Gremlins — and it's another example of the above: a scattered, sporadically interesting tribute (this time to ventriloquism) suffused with goodwill but lacking in efficiency, urgency, pertinence and (where most of the onstage ventriloquists are concerned) talent. If good intentions and holiday spirit were enough to make a theater production satisfying, I suppose Gremlins
would be worthwhile. But in a world that demands excellence from its theater artists, this show just can't stand up. I suspect even children might find something amiss here.
The play has four or so plots, the first of which gets underway when Santa Claus (David C. Baker) banishes a gremlin named Gadge (Scott Isert) from his North Pole workshop. Ill-tempered Gadge, jealous of Santa's elves, warns jolly St. Nick that he'll be sorry he sent him away — at which point we move to Plot Two, about 18-year-old Henry (Nick Carter) and his ventriloquist dummies. Henry, it seems, wants two things from life: a career as a professional ventriloquist and the love of a certain Vickie (Jackie Rivera). As for Vickie, well, Henry senses she won't take him seriously until he owns some real wooden dummies, not just cheap puppets like his gorilla and bird-of-paradise.
Which brings us to Plot Three, about gremlin Gadge's interference with a dummy-making couple called the Pinxys (Robert Anthony and Marilyn Marsh). This plot — which is afforded the most stage time — has just gotten underway when we switch to Plot Four, a traditional Punch and Judy show (perhaps the best thing in the production) on a miniature stage. Once this crude but effective spectacle is over, we return to the Pinxys and several less than compelling subplots: the couple's failure to produce a Bad Boy dummy for their agent Peter O'Flaherty (David Jankiewicz), the efforts by rival Frank Marshall (Rob Glidden) to merge his operations with the Pinxy's, and the attempt by gremlin-buster Ace (Slake Counts) to teach an imprisoned Gadge to act like a cash-producing sideshow attraction. Not only are these too many plots for one enchanted evening, but author Hampton interrupts them at every possible occasion with ventriloquist's routines by virtually anyone who happens to wander near a dummy (even Santa Claus).
And these routines are more than a little problematic. It seems that Robert Anthony as George Pinxy is the only actor in the show who can actually throw his voice. That hasn't stopped Hampton and director Nancy Cole, however; so we meet performer after performer who moves his or her own lips while pretending that one dummy or another is speaking. The implications of this panoply of failed ventriloquism is mind-boggling: are we actually supposed to ignore the fact that these entertainers are lacking the one essential of their craft?
The conventional acting in the show is, fortunately, more skillful. Best of all is Isert, who, as the grumpy, mischievous Gadge, contributes a performance so well conceived he seems the epitome of gremlinhood. But also fine are Baker, Carter, Alexander and Counts, all of whom have the power to delight us. There's real trouble with Anthony and Marsh as the two Pinxys, though: neither seems comfortable with dialogue or stage movement, and their inadequacies are magnified by their centrality in the play.
Allen B. Loyd's set is an unqualified success: Everywhere around it are puppets, dummies and marionettes, Christmas gifts and books. Frank Chavez's costumes are equally winning; his colorful get-up for Gadge, like something out of an old circus, couldn't be more visually satisfying. And though director Cole has failed to cast true ventriloquists (with the exception, again, of Anthony), she does her level best to find unity in the plethora of Hampton's plots. If she fails, it's only because, with this play, no one could succeed.
Still, one leaves Christmas Gremlins conscious of its author's kindly perspective. Innocence is rewarded, miscreants are punished and even gremlins are worthy of mercy. Of course, Santa Claus is on hand. Pretty girls will fall for earnest ventriloquists.
And good Aubrey Hampton will use his theater to showcase his plays, whether they're ready or not.
We might as well learn to discover what's best in them.
Briefly… If you're looking for a musical Christmas revue that's fun, occasionally stirring and fit for the whole family, try Holiday Cabaret at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. To my taste, it's a little saccharine, but the audience roared, etc. Bring Granny and tiny Fergus. Leave your weltschmerz at the door.
mark.leib@weeklyplanet.com or letters@weeklyplanet.com
This article appears in Dec 8-14, 2004.
