Playwright: Mark Childers, Peter J. Loewy
At: The Mercury Theater, 3745 N. Southport
Phone: 773-325-1700; $42.50-$48.50
Runs through: Aug. 24 ( at least )
Someone asked how Brian Childers compares to Danny Kaye, when I mentioned at intermission that twice I'd seen Kaye perform live. ( I still have his autograph. ) It's an unfair question. Rich Little does a great George Burns, but he's not George Burns. Childers gives a remarkable performance, mastering Kaye's tongue-twisting material, manic energy and fey mannerisms. He even looks sufficiently like Kaye, although he is not a natural redhead and has a smaller nose.
What disappoints about The Kid from Brooklyn aren't the performances of Childers or his three supporting players or the cooking four-piece band, but the vehicle. Neither complete nor compelling as biography, it's a vaudeville bill of some of Kaye's greatest hits and famous associates: Gwen Verdon, Sammy Goldwyn, Alfred Drake, Kitty Carlisle, Gertrude Lawrence, Cole Porter, Laurence Olivier, Moss Hart, etc. Portrayed as caricatures, most appear in just one sketch-like scene each. Only Kaye and his wife/chief writer Sylvia Fine ( Karin Leone ) emerge as real. Even Eve Arden, Kaye's longtime lover, is caricatured, although she has multiple scenes and songs.
And so much is left out. Kaye swore like a sailor and was a notorious perfectionist who drove himself and those around him, but the show ignores these devastating personality traits. You never see Kaye and Fine developing his specialty material, Kaye working to master it or Kaye driving others to distraction. Kaye was a political liberal who, in 1947, protested the actions of the House Un-American Activities Committee, thereby jeopardizing his career. The show ignores politics although it portrays Kaye's film/radio costar, Lionel Standing, who later was blacklisted. There's no reference to Kaye's three finest films: The Inspector General ( 1949 ) , Hans Christian Andersen ( 1952 ) and The Court Jester ( 1955 ) .
What's left is a relatively shallow and sanitized portrait. Not until deep in Act II is there an earnest dramatic scene, when Fine tells Kaye he must grow up and stop behaving as a child, but we haven't seen him behave as a child, only as a philanderer. The show only hints at Kaye's multi-year relationship with Olivier, although Olivier's biography several years ago wasn't so coy.
Other points: When's it all taking place? There are too few time markers ( it's mostly in the 1940s ) . What kept Kaye out of World War II? Also: The energy is too high and the volume too loud for the 350-seat Mercury, and Childers' hairpieces need to be subtler. The hairpiece seam and microphone tape are apparent from mid-house. Playing Chicago after successful runs elsewhere, the author/producers may resist improving the show. However, it should be easy to add a timeline of Kaye's life to the program, adjust the volume, soften the performer's attack energy and contemplate a different hairpiece.