Waning ‘Moonlight Eddie’ Stumbles in the Shadows

Some plays surprise you because you couldn’t see where they were headed. Some surprise you with their breathtaking simplicity. Still others surprise you to divert your attention from the fact that they have nothing to offer but the disclosure of lame, totally unbelievable secrets from badly written characters.

Welcome to Jack LoGiudice’s “In the Moonlight Eddie.” The play is having its world premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse, although it’s hard to imagine that the world is waiting for this perfectly inept, sentimental light comedy in which not a single scene is entirely credible. Even in the bygone Broadway of 1966--the play’s setting and an era in which a gentle comedy with not much to say except a few aphorisms could have a run--even then “In the Moonlight Eddie” would have been a very bad investment.

The play centers on Gil Landau (Robert Forster), a divorced, once-successful playwright who’s had a number of bad years. Now he has a new hit play, a comedy called “Rupert’s Melody” (a title that bespeaks the tin ear of both Gil and his creator). He celebrates with his producer, the done-it-all, seen-it-all Max Bennett (Bill Macy), and with the play’s leading lady, the breathy, curvaceous, aging glamour puss Abby Norman (Ann Wedgeworth), who is engaged to Max.

Also on hand is Gil’s sensible Jamaican maid, with the questionable name of Henna Burns (Joan Pringle). Everyone is careful around Gil’s grown son Eddie (Anthony Lucero), who has come home to live after a breakdown and an apparent suicide attempt.

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We know that Eddie is ultra-sensitive because he has a care-bear expression and he believes his father should be writing serious drama rather than light comedies. Also, Eddie has a way of stopping conversations dead with musings about why people insist on wearing the same shoe on both feet. “Why is it that things must match?” he wonders. “Why? Wouldn’t it be nice if someone came up to you on the street and said, ‘That’s an awfully nice red shoe you got on there?’ ”

No, “In the Moonlight Eddie” is not a children’s musical, however much it might sound like one. It attempts to be a moving father-and-son reconciliation play, but it insists on more pointless twists and turns than a winding dead-end road. The big surprises--the ones designed to induce “ahhs”--are deeply unbelievable. Even the naturally occurring drama rings false.

In one of the most embarrassing scenes, Eddie shyly confesses his boyhood adoration to Abby, who responds by opening her dress and exposing her breasts. Why “In the Moonlight Eddie” feels suddenly compelled to turn into a scene from “The Elephant Man,” I have no idea.

If it’s possible, director Ken Howard makes things worse. People converse face to face, rooted to the stage, or they remain static in a tableau on Gary Wissmann’s solid-looking set. The scenes have no rhythm, and often the only way you know a scene is over is that the set starts revolving.

Macy (best known for his character on the TV show “Maude”) gets off his no-nonsense responses like the pro he is, and almost always finds a laugh. Then he seems to be waiting for his next line. Who can blame him? You will too. Ann Wedgeworth delivers her patented vamp and gamely does whatever is called for.

With every line, Forster gets sucked deeper into the vortex of nonentity that is his character, the playwright Gil. As Henna, Pringle valiantly keeps her dignity, which isn’t easy. As the idiot savant Eddie, the play’s captain, Lucero goes down with the ship. Spencer Garrett plays an opinionated bartender in the first scene only--consequently, his career might remain uninjured.

* “In the Moonlight Eddie,,” Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Tuesday-Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 5 and 9 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends June 23. $13.50-$35.50. (818) 356-PLAY. Running time: 2 hours.

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(In the Moonlight Eddie)

Spencer Garrett: Bartender

Bill Macy: Max Bennett

Robert Forster: Gil Landau

Ann Wedgeworth: Abby Norman

Joan Pringle: Henna Burns

Anthony Lucero: Eddie Landau

A Pasadena Playhouse production. By Jack LoGiudice. Directed by Ken Howard. Sets Gary Wissmann. Lights Kevin Mahan. Costumes Zoe DuFour. Sound Jon Gottlieb. Production stage manager Elsbeth M. Collins.