review: the lady in question at bay street theatre...

by jan silver

Bay Street Theatre's final summer mainstage production, Charles Busch's satire, The Lady In Question, opened last weekend at the Sag Harbor playhouse. Busch is known for his high-camp comedies in which he often stars in gorgeous drag. I am one of his fans, but the satire is showing its age - or, perhaps, I've have moved beyond its too obvious camp. Now almost twenty years old, this melodramatic spoof of Nazis, militarism, art and artists feels heavy-handed. Mel Brooks satirized these same subjects with a lighter touch in the Springtime for Hitler scenes in both his 1968 movie and 2001 musical, The Producers.

As with all Bay Street Theatre productions, this staging is done at the highest professional level. The polished cast carries off its over-the-top lines in deadpan fashion. The handsome costumes by Dona Granata are luxurious and look authentically 1940s. Katherine Carr's wigs for Mr. Busch and Julie Halston are divine, and Derek McLane's Alpine castle and mountains are darkly threatening.

Charles Busch plays Gertrude Garnet, a former Brooklyn vaudeville tootsie turned classical pianist, now on a European concert tour. In a flaming red wig and chic costumes, Gertrude confronts a Nazi and throatily declares: "You may have taken the Maginot line, but you'll never take the Canarsie line!" (That's the level of humor.)

Richard Kind is amusing as Baron Wilhelm Von Elsner, the area's Nazi commander who

is smitten with Gertrude and also has a mother issue. Candy Buckley displays brilliant comic timing and does great stage business in her dual role as the Baron's mother, Augusta Von Elsner, and the prisoner, actress Raina Aldric. Matt McGrath almost steals all scenes he appears in as the homicidal preteen Lotte Von Elsner, and Julie Halston is funny in her too brief part as Gertrude's sidekick Kitty, Countess de Borgia.

The accomplished cast is completed, in strong supporting roles, by Larry Keith as Professor Mittelhoffer and Dr. Maximilian, the delicious Ana Reeder as his daughter Heidi, handsome Barrett Foa as Heidi's teenage amour and budding Nazi, Karel Freiser, and the dashing Perry Ojeda as Raina Aldric's son Professor Erik Maxwell.

Broadway director Christopher Ashley keeps the onstage action humming at a quick tempo. Philip Rosenberg did the fine lighting design, Tony Smolenski and Walter Trarbach did the sound design. The show plays in two acts.

The Lady In Question runs Tuesday to Sunday evenings with Wednesday and Saturday matinees through September 2. Tickets ($50-65) are sold at the box office (631-725-9500) and online at www.baystreet.org. Comediennes Julie Halston, Joy Behar and Angela LaGreca are doing an 11 p.m. "Three Gals Undone" stand-up show ($50) this Saturday, August 25, after the play's performance, and the documentary Charles Busch Is The Lady In Question will be screened after the Saturday, September 1, performance.

Back to Contents