STAGE REVIEWS : ‘SCAPINO’

“Scapino” at Newport Theatre Arts Center proceeds on its merry way with the velocity--and the finesse--of an avalanche. Sometimes all the excess works; sometimes it simply works too hard.

The instincts are good. This updated Moliere comedy treads such familiar ground (mistaken identities, tangled love affairs, even a child stolen by Gypsies) that it makes sense to pull out all the stops, throw in some contemporary references for laughs and let ‘er rip, as director Kent Johnson has done. Picture a soap opera set in Naples starring the Three Stooges.

But too often, it’s hard to see the story line for the slapstick--although the story line is nothing more than featherweight farce: Two young men find the girls of their dreams but dread telling their fathers, who have already arranged marriages for them. They enlist the help of the village ne’er-do-well, Scapino, to bilk their fathers out of some cash and, of course, chaos ensues.

Any surprises here have to arrive through the approach, not the plot. Johnson and cast respond with full-tilt zaniness, led by Christopher Utley as the ringmaster Scapino. And the zaniness never lets up, barreling right through two acts to the curtain call and beyond. But it isn’t until Act II that Utley manages to bring the audience along for the ride. In a long gag involving a man hiding in a sack, Utley becomes a manic cheerleader, exhorting the audience to portray an approaching British cavalry complete with horses, foot soldiers and a whistled bugle corps. The bit becomes an extended tour de force for Utley, who retains an air of unflappable control that nicely dovetails with Scapino’s position as an amused observer to all the hysteria he’s helped to create.

In neat contrast, the tranquil backdrop to all this frenzy is a sleepy Mediterranean seaside village designed by Robert Smith, overseen by a complacent pelican who watches all the foolish mortals from his perch on the roof.