Review excerpts
PUBLISHED ON OCTOBER 2, 2008
By JAMES REEL
Dallas Thomas' performance as Susy is the best reason to see this show. She very precisely presents to us a formerly plucky woman who has now gone fragile; she's full of frustration and self-doubt, yet making a valiant effort to get by, even if she does occasionally give in to bitterness and self-pity. In the end, when she knows her life is in danger, her fear is palpable, but although she may tremble, she never falls apart. There are many contradictory aspects to this Susy Hendrix, but Thomas strings them together into a coherent whole.
Steve McKee is also good as the bad guy who goes by the name of Mike Talman. He's no angel, but he's too soft for this sort of business, and McKee starts revealing this softness (which is not to be confused with niceness) from his very first scene.
Roat, the ringleader, is played by Gary McGaha, who has wisely decided not to imitate Alan Arkin's spectacularly creepy film performance, which somehow melded Maynard G. Krebs with Fu Manchu. If McGaha, with his steady malevolent gaze, is channeling any screen actor, it's Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith in The Matrix; he's just a few sibilants away from hissing "Misssssss-es Hendrix." While McGaha scores points for consistency, he doesn't suggest the pleasure that Roat derives from manipulating and intimidating people, including his own henchmen.
Roat's other henchman, who impersonates a police officer, doesn't fare very well in the hands of Benjamin C. Dygert. On opening night, in the early scenes, Dygert's timing was a bit off, and later on, he resorted to a one-note characterization, even though the script leaves room for at least the sketch of a personalized melody.
As Susy's husband, Chuck Rankin isn't on stage long enough to show what he's capable of, but it's amusing to see this tall, somewhat bearish actor embrace the very petite Thomas; in Rankin's arms, Thomas looks about 12 years old, which is the most graphic representation of her character's vulnerability you can imagine. Speaking of 12-year-olds, let's not forget Susy's feisty upstairs neighbor Gloria, an angry and unreliable little girl played exceptionally well by Molly Howard.
Joel Charles has contributed a fine set design, and Lori Franklin-Garcia's costumes anchor the characters in the 1960s without resorting to silly fashion shorthand. And these characters must remain in the '60s--so much of the action hinges on telephone technology made obsolete by cell phones, 911 and the demise of phone booths.
If you have a taste for this sort of old-fashioned stage thriller, itself made obsolete by the rise of murder-mystery TV shows, you may well be satisfied by this production's overall pacing--and especially Thomas' performance. Other elements of Wait Until Dark, though, are needlessly murky.
