As an actor, Paul Slade Smith has "had the intoxicating thrill of experiencing farce with a live audience ... watching your every effort disastrously thwarted. It just doesn't get any better than that."

Except perhaps now, when Slade Smith has turned playwright, with his "Unnecessary Farce," receiving its world premiere at the BoarsHead Theater.

In a send-up of every cop show you've ever seen in TV or the movies, the playwright creates nonstop hilarity on stage, aided and abetted by seven first-rate comics.

Many of them are familiar to BoarsHead audiences. Local actors Carmen Decker and Len Kluge, and frequent visitors Erin Noel Grennan, Jim Wisniewski, and Kate Berry are joined by BoarsHead newcomers Doug MacKechnie and David Girolmo. And each of the actors gets a memorable character to play in Slade Smith's convoluted tale of a sting operation gone haywire.

Berry is hilarious as an outwardly prim, but sexually seething accountant, peering nervously through her glasses one moment, ripping off her blouse the next. MacKechnie plays her boyfriend, a bumbling cop, whose pantomime gets us laughing in the show's first minute as he buttons his shirt around a phone cord.

Grennan as MacKechnie's equally bumbling and naive police partner is totally endearing. And so, in his own way, is Girolmo as a towering Scottish hit man who tortures intended victims with his bagpipe playing.

Wisniewski plays the apparently sinister Agent Frank, who becomes hysterical when the going gets rough, while Kluge and Decker round out the cast as an elderly mayor and his wife.

Shelly Barish's set of two adjoining hotel rooms, each with four doors, provides the perfect playing space for the ongoing shenanigans. And director Kristine Thatcher's fine sense of timing allows the comedy to flow with no apparent effort on anyone's part.

"Unnecessary Farce"? Don't you believe it! Nothing could be more necessary for your well-being than a date with BoarsHead Theater before this show closes Nov. 19.

Back to top

There's something farcical about coming up with the idea to write a farce while stooped inside a wardrobe during a performance of "Hello Dolly" - which is based on a farce, Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker." But that's exactly how actor-turned-playwright Paul Slade Smith - a very tall actor, I might add - came to write his second-ever script, "Unnecessary Farce," that had its world premiere this past weekend at Lansing's BoarsHead Theater. And what a thoroughly delightful production it is!

A farce, experts tell us, is "a play characterized by broad humor and a complicated and improbable plot" - a definition that perfectly describes this zany comedy that has more tasty twists to it than a full bag of Twizzlers.

Set in a small Midwestern town, Officers Eric Sheridan (played by Doug MacKechnie) and Billie Dwyer (Erin Noel Grennan) have been sent to conduct an undercover sting operation at a local hotel. Mayor Meekly (Len Kluge), it seems, has embezzled $16 million, and by secretly videotaping the mayor's off-site meeting with Karen Brown (Kate Berry), the town's new accountant, they hope to get the goods on him.

So why, then, does everything fall apart only minutes into the operation?

Because this is a farce, of course - and a very good one, too! The laugh-out-loud comedy has everything one can hope for in a modern-day farce: two likeable cops operating way out of their league, a supposedly crooked mayor with impeccable timing, his innocent-acting wife, a shy accountant with a penchant for dropping her drawers, a nervous double agent who'd like to get IN those drawers, a Scottish hit man whose brogue gets thicker the angrier he gets, two adjoining hotel rooms, simmering sexual tension and eight doors a slammin'.

But since it's far more fun to watch a farce than it is to read about one, that's all I'll reveal - except for this: Playwright Smith has one very sharp funny bone - and a gift for storytelling, as well!

So, too, does director Kristine Thatcher, who takes Smith's madcap story and fills it with infectious energy. With the dialogue and action often taking place simultaneously in two rooms, timing is of the utmost importance - and Thatcher pulls it off quite well.

But the real excitement is happening on stage, thanks to Thatcher's excellent ensemble of actors, each of whom seems to be having more fun than the law should allow.

Grennan is a master at delivering even the shortest of lines with just the right shading.

David Girolmo physically dominates the stage as Todd, the Scotsman with anger issues. A scene he shares with Grennan - who's translating his longwinded set of instructions - is a showstopper.

And what's not to love about Carmen Decker as the not-so-meek Mary Meekly?

However, I suspect scenic designer Shelly Barish has spent way too much time in cheap hotels, since everything on her set is absolutely perfect, from the wallpaper to the bedspreads to those little doorknob protectors on the wall.

The Bottom Line: After all of the political mudslinging we've been subjected to this season, we're all in need of a good laugh - and this fits the bill perfectly!

Back to top

Paul Slade Smith’s play, “Unnecessary Farce”, now playing at BoarsHead Theater, is a necessary diversion from reality and a comic farce to be reckoned with. It begs the question: Can a playwright re-invent the comic shtick of in-one-door innuendo, out-the-other-door?

In the case of “Unnecessary Farce,” the answer is yes. Smith’s play is dazzlingly funny, with one silly bit overlapping the next. By intermission, the audience is laughing at everything—even things that otherwise might not produce more than a passing chuckle.

The seven-actor ensemble creates memorable characterizations, starting with Erin Noel Grennan’s portrayal of Officer Billie Dwyer, a rookie cop with erratic shooting skills.

Her partner-in crime, Eric Sheridan (Doug MacKechnie), pairs up in a lustful liaison with the mayor’s earnest new accountant, Karen Brown (Kate Berry). MacKechnie and Berry draw many laughs as they pursue one another.

David Girolmo, the Scottish assassin Todd, “BIG MAC,” steals most of Act I with a comedic portrayal of a hit-man with an inarticulate accent.

Local veteran actors Len Kluge and Carmen Decker play roles of Mr. Mayor Meekly and his wife Mary Meekly. (Editor’s note: Kluge, who reviews local theater for City Pulse, will not review Boarshead productions for the remainder of the season.)

Kluge does very well with just a few hilarious lines, while Decker, no stranger to Boarshead, gets applause for showing up briefly in Act II.

There are as many doors in this play as there are actors, and each door is used to maximum comedic effect. Agent Frank is locked in closets so many times that when he does venture out — everyone gets the joke.

Smith’s script is reminiscent of the Marx Brothers but is updated in tempo and relevance for today’s world.

Back to top

“Rated: FOUR OUT OF FORDYCE”

An Unnecessary Farce continues at the BoarsHead Theater, and this is one funny show you don't want to miss!!

The cast takes the new script from Paul Slade Smith and under the outstanding direction of Kristine Thatcher brings the audience two hours of non-stop laughter.

There are two bumbling cops, a security guard, a repressed accountant, a feeble mayor and his wife and the man in the kilt. They are all in two hotels rooms with one video camera. And the plot weaves you through mix-ups and mayhem you won't believe.

Carmen Decker, the first lady of Michigan theater stars, along with Erin Noel Grennan (the playwright’s wife) and a cast whose comedic timing is perfect.

And that is what gives this show a perfect four out of Fordyce.

Because if the timing had been off this would have been a disaster and not the smash hit it is!

It runs through November 19th at the BoarsHead in downtown Lansing, and get your tickets now. When the word spreads about this play, it is bound to be a sell out.

Back to top

THE BOTTOM LINE: This may be the most wickedly funny farce of the season. The world premiere is sure to hit it off with all sorts of audiences.

Bagpipes are deadly. Especially when they're played by a Highland Hitman who belongs to the Clan (with a C).

Toss in some incompetent cops, some doughnuts, and clothes that slip down faster than a Floridian on ice, and you have the elements that begin to make up Paul Slade Smith's world premiere of "Unnecessary Farce" at BoarsHead Theatre in Lansing, Michigan.

It's a delightful script played to perfection by the ensemble of seven actors. As a farce, it demands--and gets--constant energy and motion. It opens in a pair of adjacent, connecting hotel rooms. A pair of cops have been assigned to spy on the mayor while he meets with a new accountant who has uncovered some serious embezzlement.

There is a delightful cast of fleshed-out characters who add to the humor of this farce with their quirks and fears. Officers Billie Dwyer (Erin Noel Grennan, wife to the playwright) and Eric Sheridan (Doug MacKechnie) are incompetent, but highly earnest and honest cops who are convinced this will be their big break. Never mind that Dwyer is afraid of guns, the dark, and enclosed spaces and that Sheridan has been too shy to even ask a woman on a date for years. All that is about to change.

First, Accountant Karen Brown (Kate Berry) and Sheridan realize that their talking and sitting on the bed was an aggressive form of flirting. They'd pursue this if it weren't for the fact that the bumbling Mayor Meekly (Len Kluge, a local reviewer who stepped in at the last minute) keeps popping in for his meeting--a meeting that gets delayed by Agent Frank (Jim Wisniewski). Agent Frank warns Karen of a Clan (with a C) that controls the city. It's led by Big Mac and the Highland Hitman who plays bagpipes for his victims before shooting them.

Add to the mix Mayor Meekly's wife (played by the ever-popular local actress Carmen Decker) who wanders through looking for her husband and the Scottish Todd (David Girolmo) who gave everyone reason to fear him and his Scottish brogue.

All of the characters have a wonderful sense of both comic timing and extreme physicality. They were fully committed to each role and were obviously enjoying the play as much as the audience was.

Director Kristine Thatcher beautifully choreographed this constantly moving play, keeping the pacing and energy high.

Smith has written a show that is in the finest tradition of farces. It is his second play, this one was written while he was on tour with "Phantom". When BoarsHead picked it up for its 2006-2007 season, he took leave from his tour with "Wicked" (he plays Elphaba's father) to help workshop the play. It's a farce that deserves to see many more productions, especially if they can all have the casting and direction that this show benefited from.

Back to top