Serving Up the Simple Pleasures

James Yaffe’s comedy thriller “Cliffhanger,” at the Long Beach Playhouse, is not so much a real cliffhanger as it is a simplistic psychological comedy about intent, murder and how to behave in the aftermath.

The play is genuinely amusing in the many and various twists and turns of plot that tumble over one another, and it provides actors with some interesting challenges.

Henry Lowenthal is a philosophy professor at a western university, nearing an obligatory retirement age that might be ignored if he receives the Van Voorhees chair in his department. Former student Edith Wilshire, now chair of Henry’s department, is determined to clear the school of “back numbers” like Henry and refuses to recommend him for the Van Voorhees. After a bitter, violent argument, Henry picks up a bust of his hero, Socrates, and bashes it into Wilshire’s self-important noggin.

Henry and his wife, Polly, face the decision of covering up the murder for the benefit of his students and department, or not. They decide on a complicated ruse that results in Henry’s throwing the body off a cliff outside Wilshire’s country cabin, to make it look as though she tumbled over by accident. That’s when the fun begins.

It’s a difficult play to make work, but director Barry Cavin knows the genre and approaches it with delicacy and just the right touch of lightness. He never lets it get more serious than the playwright intended and knows where Cavin’s jokes are and how to help them get their laughs.

*

Bob Conner couldn’t look more right as the professor, white hair askew and just a little bit scroungy around the edges. Conner’s only flaw is a tendency to hesitant delivery and surface readings. Most of this is made up for by an excellent performance by Joanne Underwood as his wife, who is almost delighted at their flight into crime. She greets each challenge with a sly grin, each defeat with the look of a startled deer in headlights.

Keri Kropke is properly proud and prickly as Wilshire, with some of the quasi-importance the character needs. The evening is almost stolen from the others by the performances of David L. Corrigan as a conniving rich brat student who wants his failing grade changed and Tony Candell as a police detective. Corrigan makes his student likable enough to cover up the thoughtless evil lurking in the shadows of his quirky brain, and Candell brings a great deal of humor into the cop’s joy in playing his own game of cat and mouse.

* “Cliffhanger,” Long Beach Playhouse Mainstage, 5021 E. Anaheim St. Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; matinees Sunday and July 20, Aug. 3. Ends Aug. 9. $10-$15. (562) 494-1616. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes.

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“Cliffhanger,”

Bob Conner: Henry Lowenthal

Joanne Underwood: Polly Lowenthal

Keri Kropke: Edith Wilshire

David L. Corrigan: Melvin McMullen

Tony Candell: Dave DeVito

A Long Beach Playhouse production of James Yaffe’s comedy thriller. Directed by Barry Cavin. Scenic design: Snezana Petrovic. Lighting design: Michelle Evans. Costumes: Donna Fritsche. Stage manager: Dan Knecht.