‘Inherit the Wind’ Lacks Evidence, Conviction

From Agatha Christie to TV’s “The Practice,” we love courtroom dramas.

That’s the primary appeal in Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s “Inherit the Wind,” a popular play that premiered in New York City in 1955 and five years later became a Hollywood movie starring Spencer Tracy and Fredric March.

The story is based on the 1925 “Scopes monkey trial” in Tennessee, which pitted the almighty Clarence Darrow against the almighty William Jennings Bryan in a battle of creationism vs. evolution. In the play, the names were changed--Darrow became Henry Drummond and Bryan was Matthew Harrison Brady--but the essential facts remained.

Director Robert Berman has the principals in place at the Huntington Beach Playhouse. Jack Rubens is a folksy and shrewdly disarming Drummond, John Parker a righteous, bombastic Brady. The gray-haired, ample-waisted actors work well with and off each other.

That’s where the success ends for this limp, uneven production. When Drummond and Brady aren’t going at it, the show bogs down.

A watershed event, the Scopes trial took place in “the buckle of the Bible Belt,” as one character puts it, and questioned Americans’ image of themselves. Were they free thinkers open to science or puritans who interpreted the Gospel as the only truth?

A teacher (Christopher Gilmer) is arrested after discussing Darwinism with his students, all but turning the religious townsfolk into a mob. Sensing a political opportunity, Brady, a three-time presidential candidate, appears. Sensing a crusade, Drummond makes his entrance.

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The media also leap in. There’s a wise-guy reporter (Frank Romeo), supposedly modeled after H.L Mencken, who tosses out pithy lines about justice and hypocrisy while trying to divine how the trial will end. Photographers, other newsmen and a radio announcer all descend as the verdict nears. It’s a circus--but a rather muted one in Huntington Beach.

The lanky Romeo is effective as the reporter, played like a young Jimmy Stewart, all sly looks and clever asides. The rest of the central actors, including Gilmer and Lisa Anne Nicolai as his loyal girlfriend, aren’t as involving as they need to be.

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* “Inherit the Wind,” Huntington Beach Playhouse, Huntington Beach Library & Cultural Center, 7111 Talbert Ave. Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends March 29. $11-$13. (714) 375-0696. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

John Parker: Matthew Harrison Brady

Jack Rubens: Henry Drummond

Christopher Gilmer: Bertram Cates

Frank Romeo: E.K. Hornbeck

Lisa Anne Nicolai: Rachel Brown

Thomas Michael Kappler: The Rev. Jeremiah Brown

Bob Goodwin: Judge

A Huntington Beach Playhouse production of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s drama, directed by Robert Berman. Set and sound: Ed Gates. Scenic design: Bronson Hardy. Set decorator: Barbara Gates. Lighting: Douglas Vining. Costumes: Dawn Conant. Stage manager: Ron Smith.