O.C. Theater Review : It’s a Properly Proper ‘Story’

Style is everything in a revival of a Philip Barry play. His era was that of black tie at dinner, a champagne glass in every hand and a firm denial that the Great Depression was going on outside the theater. It also was the period of stylish acting, and light comedy that floated like a summer zephyr across the footlights.

As directed by Gary Krinke at the Vanguard Theatre, Barry’s “Philadelphia Story” is stylish as stylish can be. Krinke has brought out Barry’s gossamer sense of humor, and has imbued the play’s cast with an old-line-money aura of ease and complacency, even when a possible scandal might turn the Lord household upside down and absolutely ruin daughter Tracy’s imminent wedding. These Lords seem to breathe the same air that the characters breathed when they were created almost 60 years ago.

Placing the action in the Vanguard’s postage stamp-sized space makes the play seem even bigger than it is. Krinke’s choreography of the prenuptial busy-ness at the Lord estate is intricate and true to place, period and genre, and his stage pictures, under Terry Gunkel’s gentle and evocative lighting design, are classy.

The director’s success is especially evident in his actors. It is particularly important to have a proper Tracy, the impetuous daughter who is approaching her second marriage with less than total enthusiasm--especially after the arrival of Mike Connor, a writer assigned to get an inside story on the high jinks of the rich (and of Tracy’s first husband, the dashing, glib, charming C.K. Dexter Haven). Debbie Grattan is a bubbling, impish whirlwind of a Tracy, snappy yet vulnerable in a sparkling gem of a performance.

*

Perfectly matched is Robert Shaun Kilburn’s masterfully manic Dexter, subtle in detail and charm, a playboy to the core with a warmth and affection Tracy can’t resist. Damian Papahronis’ contained, thoughtful Connor has just the right weight to attract Tracy’s intellectual curiosity, along with a gentle humor to set her at her ease during a drunken late-night romantic peccadillo.

Joni Higginbotham is bright and delectably funny as Tracy’s giddily conniving younger sister, and Joyce Eriksen and Stuart Eriksen are excellent as the upper-crust parents.

Tony Masters is super as Tracy’s brother Sandy, full of charm and high spirits as he puts all the speed bumps in the family’s path and then removes them just in time. He looks (despite an anachronistic haircut) and acts very much like a rich kid honestly trying to make his way in the workaday world.

Kelly Godfrey’s Liz Imbrie, the photographer who accompanies Connor, is gracious and witty; Michael John McKay, as the man Tracy doesn’t really want to marry, is a perfectly and properly attractive cluck, and Bob Sessions is funny as Tracy’s tippling Uncle Willy.

*

Lynda Blais’ costumes are (except for Connor’s modern striped tux jacket) just right for the time, and Michael Keith Allen’s settings easily turn the small space into the Lords’ expansive drawing room and summer gazebo.

* “The Philadelphia Story,” Vanguard Theatre, 669-A S. State College Blvd., Fullerton. Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 5 p.m. Ends Oct. 1. $12-$14. (714) 526-8007. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes. Debbie Grattan: Tracy Lord

Robert Shaun Kilburn: C.K. Dexter Haven

Damian Papahronis: Mike Connor

Tony Masters: Sandy Lord

Joni Higginbotham: Dinah Lord

Joyce Eriksen: Margaret Lord

Michael John McKay: George Kittredge

Kelly Godfrey: Liz Imbrie

Bob Sessions: Uncle Willy Tracy

Stuart Eriksen: Seth Lord

A Vanguard Theatre Ensemble production of Philip Barry’s comedy, produced by Brenda Parks, directed by Gary Krinke. Set design: Michael Keith Allen. Lighting design: Terry Gunkel. Costume design: Lynda Blais. Production stage manager: Elisabeth Graham.