‘Barefoot in the Park’ Is a Comic Time Capsule

Jenny Wanasek, Emily Vitrano & Neil Brookshire in Renaissance Theaterworks’ production of “Barefoot in the Park” by Neil Simon. Photo by Ross Zentner.

As retiring artistic director Suzan Fete remarks in a Renaissance Theaterworks program note, this production may seem a strange parting choice for her and the company she helped start 33 years ago. Indeed, the late Neil Simon’s Broadway hit from 63 years ago, Barefoot in the Park, has long been a staple not of her sort of company, but of the world of amateur community theater.

Before the outbreak hereabouts of professional theater companies, with Renaissance an important component, Simon’s plays were the community theater’s go-to laugh machine. I saw the original Broadway production and many Milwaukee ones, so it is nice to reveal that the laughter holds up and the characters that may by now seem formulaic can breathe with life. The snappy exchanges and comic timing are in the hands of a talented cast, and Fete’s production is more sensitive than many others to the gentle message about tolerance in life and love.

Decades ago, I wrote about how Simon’s works in theater and in movies were dismissed as too pop-conventional to be considered important — and that was wrong, particularly when he wrote about people with more depth than the quippy dialogue everyone wanted. There are touchstones of meaning and warmth in his best work, often buried by laughter.

Barefoot actually helped Simon find a key to good theater — relying not on his joke ability but his sense of place and people, which spawned the jokes. It made a name for its Broadway star, Robert Redford, and its new stage director Mike Nichols.

The hidden laugh machine here is the New York apartment building where the newlyweds roost on the fifth floor. Oliver Smith’s original proscenium design in 1963 made a silent partner of the hidden stairway leading into this bare, freezing environment.

At Renaissance, housed these days in the Next Act Theatre, various hardworking set design hands had to heroically try to figure out how to re-create the same integration of actors and place on a three-sided stage. These days it is usually the proscenium stage, not the thrust stage, that feels old-fashioned and distant.

The laughs still erupt, but our imagination works differently as winded people stagger up the hidden staircase or suffer the snow from the broken skylight or walk the dangerous roof to the attic. We laugh loudly and often, but we observe more intellectually than we should.

Due to Simon’s overexposure, the setting and plot have become a comedy standard — for TV as well as theater. Few realize how much the place propels the story and the conflicts of the newlyweds — Paul, the level-headed lawyer and Corie, the exuberant sexually open sprite expecting everyone to join her free spirit, including her long-suffering suburban mother.

The cast is carefully timed to make us believe all this is really happening — if timing and professional competence were enough. As Paul, a fine actor, Neil Brookshire has some of the best lines and most realistic zingers, delivered to perfection. Except we never quite believe he exists.

Emily Vitrano is also talented. She captures the impulsive energy of the bride, but here we are again, more admiring how she does it than accepting the character as real.

The star performance is Jenny Wanasek as the bride’s mother, always game, always victimized. Copied so often, this character has become a recognizable type in modern comedies, thanks to Simon, but Wanasek adds a wonderful fresh bubble of reactions and body language to the role.

There is solid panting from Mohammad N. ElBsat and Bob Balderson as the workmen who keep stumbling up the hidden stairs. Reese Madigan hits the appropriate notes as the personable, aging Lothario who lives in the attic and brings knishes to the party.

Despite my negative remarks, I happily admit the laughter here has a fresh flavor even for someone like me who thought I knew the play too well to be surprised.

Renaissance Theaterworks is also appreciating elements of the play underrecognized six decades ago. And today’s world and the need for enduring laughter are good reasons to freshly admire how human and observant “Doc” Simon was.

Renaissance Theaterworks has taken over Next Act Theatre for this production through April 12. For more information: https://rtwmke.org/shows/barefoot-in-the-park/

Barefoot in the Park Gallery

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Dominique Paul Noth served for decades as film and drama critic, later senior editor for features at the Milwaukee Journal. You’ll find his blog here and here. For his Dom’s Snippets, an unusual family history and memoir, go to domnoth.substack.com.

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