The Sunshine Boys - 4 out of 5 stars
Adelaide Repertory Theatre
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Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys is very much a play of its time. Written in 1972 about two ageing vaudeville performers whose partnership ended years ago, it would be difficult to drag the play into the present without losing much of what makes it work. Director Peter Goers wisely doesn’t try. Instead, Adelaide Repertory Theatre keeps the production firmly rooted in its period, leans into the vaudeville sensibilities of the writing and trusts Simon’s comedy and its performers to do the heavy lifting.
Robert Cusenza as Willie Clark captures the eagerness of a
man desperate to still be part of it all, even as time has moved on without
him. Willie wants to keep up appearances, insists on his independence and
struggles with his age while refusing to admit that he is struggling at all.
Cusenza finds the comedy in that stubbornness without turning Willie into a
caricature.
Robin “Smacka” Schmelzkopf brings a different weariness to
Al Lewis. Where Willie is still fighting against retirement, Al seems largely
resigned to living out his days at his daughter’s house. There is an acceptance
in Schmelzkopf’s performance that contrasts beautifully with Willie’s
determination to prove that nothing has changed.
Together, Cusenza and Schmelzkopf bring a genuine sense of
having known each other for decades – which is easy for them, because they
have. That familiarity translates wonderfully on stage as they replace
real-life friendship with Willie and Al’s long-held enmity. They portray
classic vaudevillians who know the lost art inside out, their expertise
tempered by ageing bodies and aching joints. More importantly, their irritation
with each other feels accumulated rather than manufactured for the evening.
Willie bristles at the habits Al has presumably been inflicting upon him for
years – the finger jabbing into his chest and those emphatic Ts spat directly
into his face. These are tiny things that become enormous after decades
together, and Cusenza makes Willie’s reaction to them wonderfully specific.
Tom Tassone as Willie’s nephew and agent, Ben Silverman,
creates the production’s second double act with Cusenza. He captures the
particular frustration of dealing with an older relative who refuses to admit
they might need more help than they would like. There is genuine love for his
uncle alongside the exasperation of continually being regarded as “just an
agent”, and Tassone and Cusenza make that family relationship feel lived in.
Goers’ direction understands that The Sunshine Boys does not
need to be embellished or gilded to remain funny. He leans into its vaudeville
sensibilities with plenty of cheating out, knowing looks to the audience and
moments that deliberately bring us in on the joke. The fourth wall is flexible
rather than sacred here, and it works for characters who spent their lives
performing directly to an audience. The timing has also clearly been a focus.
Simon’s comedy relies heavily on rhythm, and Goers allows the exchanges to feel
natural without losing their precision. He and the cast also indulge a personal
favourite of mine – the extended pause. Used well, there are few things
funnier. Here, they are used to great effect, stretching just long enough to
heighten the enmity or frustration of characters who would very much like the
other person to stop and just listen.
There are elements of Simon’s 1972 script that inevitably
land differently in 2026. The play itself comments on the changing attitudes
towards blackface between the vaudeville era and the 1970s, but society had not
progressed quite as far when it came to sexism and sexist jokes for their own
sake. Lauren Thiel, as the TV Nurse, knows exactly why she has been cast in
this 1972 play about old vaudeville stars and puts the audience at ease enough
to laugh at the joke without pretending it has aged particularly gracefully.
Penni Hamilton-Smith provides a stark contrast as the
no-nonsense Registered Nurse, complete with a flair for a cheeky joke of her
own. It is to the credit of both performers and Goers that this material
remains intact but is handled with sensitivity. Goers refuses to shy away from
the attitudes contained in Simon’s writing or hide them, but neither does he
glorify them. They remain jokes of their time, and we are now able to laugh at
least partly because society’s morals have shifted.
The set, also designed by Goers, is cluttered in a way that
can perhaps only be achieved by someone who has lived in an apartment for
decades. Willie’s home feels accumulated rather than carefully dressed. The
photo wall at the rear does occasionally drift away from “a collection of a
lifetime’s memories” and towards “a showcase of performers appearing in
tonight’s production”, but the overall effect works.
Laura Doheny’s costuming is en pointe for the production, particularly in the way it captures the different stages of life of our three leads. Their clothes reflect not only where the characters are in life, but how they see themselves and how they would still like the world to see them.
Martin Smith’s lighting is simple and unobtrusive, with no
out-of-place shadows distracting from the performers, while the one obvious
lighting change is held back until it can be used to great effect.
Keeping The Sunshine Boys firmly in 1972 is ultimately the
right decision. The matinee audience I attended skewed older and clearly
enjoyed spending time in a world they recognised, and trying to aggressively
modernise the play or aim it at a younger audience unfamiliar with vaudeville
would risk stripping away much of what makes it what it is. Goers instead
recognises the play for what it is – a classic of its time written by a
brilliant playwright – and trusts the writing, the performers and the style of the
piece, neither apologising for it nor glorifying it.
Adelaide Repertory Theatre has produced a well-handled
revival that knows exactly who its audience is, and that confidence in the
material is what makes it work.
- Scott
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