THEATER REVIEW: Come Blow Your Horn

Now and then something happens that reminds me that I really am getting older. We just made the trip to the Millbrook Playhouse in Mill Hall to see COME BLOW YOUR HORN. COME BLOW YOUR HORN was the play that opened Millbrook’s inaugural season fifty years ago. I was there. 

This is the first of many comedies written by Neil Simon and like many of his plays, explores relationships within a family as well as between the sexes. In COME BLOW YOUR HORN swinging bachelor Alan Baker has it all going for him, neat apartment, good job in the family business, and beautiful women at his beck and call. When younger brother Buddy leaves home and moves in with him, he is willing to take his brother under his wing and teach him how to be a swinger. According to their father, now the family has two “Bums”.

For this type of comedy to work the director has to be well aware of the timing and pacing of the show. Adam Knight has proven in the past that he understands all of that as well as letting his characters get their laughs. It is to his credit that the evening went so quickly.

The brothers, Alan and Buddy played by Joseph McGranaghan and Daniel Tepper, were well cast. There was a strong “family resemblance” and since they carried the bulk of the show, it was good that the two of them had strong acting skills. The shift in each personality, Buddy becoming a swinger and Alan settling down, was well done.

Erin McMahon as the sexy, airhead Peggy hit it just right. It would have been too easy to over-play the role and turn it into a caricature instead of someone we might know. The more practical Connie was played by Mary Ruth Baggott. The role gave the actress a chance to show a wider range of emotions and Ms. Baggott was up to the job.

I am afraid that the night belonged to the parents, Mr. and Mrs. Baker. Frank Franconeri and Staci Morin may be two of the most talented character actors around. As the typical, emotional mother who worries that her boys are not getting enough to eat and messes up phone messages because she cannot find a pencil, Staci was perfection. (The bit about the pencil was one of the loudest laughs of the evening).

Frank Franconeri is no stranger to Millbrook audiences and I am one of his biggest fans. It was no surprise that he nailed the part of as controlling father with two bums for sons. We can expect to see him later in the season in Woman in Black.

COME BLOW YOUR HORN should be rather dated by now, but it is still a fresh and new comedy. I think that it has held up better than I have.

COME BLOW YOUR HORN closed this past weekend, but The Sound of Music will run on the Main Stage until July 7 and The Woman in Black will open on July 5 in the Cabaret. Check about tickets at 570-748-8083. A warning though, they are having sold out houses.