The Matchmaker
The Matchmaker
By Thornton Wilder
Directed by Rob Anderson
Starring Ron Schneider and Meghan Collen Moroney
Mad Cow Theatre, Orlando, FL</strong>
Mix the blarney of the Irish with the bargaining skill of the Jewish and you might find yourself married to someone you never even intended to date. Dolly Gallagher Levi (Moroney) makes a meager income “arranging” things, and is on retainer to marry off blowhard businessman Horace Vandergelder (Schneider.) He’s locked away half a million 1900 dollar bills, and with no current wife, he gets his emotional release by abusing his staff in his Yonkers Dry Goods Emporium. He’s kept Cornelius Hackl (Michael Marinaccio) in servitude for over a decade, and grooms younger Barnaby Tucker (Eric Fagan) to take over when Cornelius dies in the harness. Dolly brokers a marriage between old Horace and widowed Milliner Irene Molly (Erin Beute). At the last minute agrees to help Vandergelder’s niece Ermengarde (Kristen Gunderson) run off with her artist boy friend Ambrose (Jamie Cline). In a plot dripping with this much unrequited romance, the ending is inevitable – a door slamming farce set in a classy restaurant driven by frustrated young men, horny women and an older couple who won’t have that much sex, but the arguments will keep them alive into their nineties.
While the farce keeps the story rolling along, the casting keeps it alive. From the sparing of Dolly and Horace to the spaced-out Flora Van Huyson (Betsy Bauer) everyone makes the most of their lines. The romances even seem believable – for instance, Cornelius Hackl doesn’t seem an embittered 32, but he chases an eager Irene with boyish zest and conveniently leaves the barely legal Barnaby as easy fodder for Irene’s bubbly assistant Minnie Fay (Trenell Mooring.) Supporting actor Dan Johnson’s best role was Rudolf, the vicious mustachioed waiter at the Harmonium Gardens while Tommy Keesling reminded me of a well-lubricated Alfred Doolittle as Vandergelder’s newest staff assistant and man-of-the-people advisor.
While the plot resolves more quickly than might be realistic and people change allegiance more to make the story flow than from heartfelt reasons, “Matchmaker” begged to be a musical comedy, although the music wasn’t added until a few decades after Wilder wrote this gentle and genteel comedy. As always, Mad Cow’s set design wizard Cindy White squeezed four complete rooms into five reversible screens and made an elegant and flexible Gilded Age appear out of nowhere. Highly recommended and never disappointing, “Matchmaker” shows that even getting the wrong partner is OK, as long as you’re both in love. We’ll save the after effects for O’Neil and Albee.
For more information on Mad Cow, please visit http://www.madcowtheatre.com
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