The Local Production of ROOM SERVICE - Does Not Serve up Entertainment

The Raven Playhouse in Healdsburg, CA is performing "Room Service."  One can only hope, nevermore.  The amateur production was sub-stellar.  It was painfully sophomoric.  Perhaps, the problem was from the inception selecting a resurrection of "Room Service" by Allen Boretz (b Amer 1900-1985) and John Murray (b Amer 1904-1984).  The play opened on Broadway in 1937 and ran for 500 performances.  At the time the country was in the Great {don't know why they dubbed it great} Depression.  The slapstick, chiseler comedy played to the audience of the day.  Its revival in 1953 on Broadway ran for only 16 performances.  Jack Lemon starred in this revival & his talent couldn't muster luster for this dated droll comedy.  The popularity of "Room Service" waned in 1953 and in 2019 it should be panned.  Boretz was a playwright songwriter and screenwriter.  He wrote for "Ziegfield Folllies" (1946) and "Copacabana" (1947).  John Murray was a playwright and wrote for TV & radio "The Eddie Cantor Show".   In the 1950s Boretz was blacklisted and never got work after as a screenwriter.  Boretz & Murray did sell the film rights to RKO which was loosely the basis for a Marx Bros. movie of the same name.   There were glimpses of the Marx Bros' wacky humor but none of their timeless comedic genius surfaced in this hometown production.  In this 3 Act {2 acts too long) 1 set production, one of the actors bemoaned "Get me out of here."  I sympathized fully.  Austin Schmidt's performance as Leo Davis the play's director of the fledgling play (within this play) who finagled for funding was abominable.  The straight man, Gregory Wagner (Time Shippey) gets laurels for maintaining his righteous indignation against an absurdist cast of characters. I encourage the public to support their local theater companies but I urge these companies to choose their productions while considering a more contemporary, 21st C audience.