Rising Above It All

John Barrymore’s stage and screen performances were usually more memorable than the vehicles in which he appeared.

The same can be said for Christopher Plummer in “Barrymore,” which opened Wednesday at the Ahmanson Theatre. His Tony-winning portrayal is amusing and evocative, but William Luce’s play is paper-thin and utterly predictable.

It’s almost a solo. Plummer is the only person we see. However, we hear another actor, John Plumpis, calling out from the wings.

Plummer plays Barrymore in late April, 1942, one month before his alcohol-induced death. He has rented a theater for a one-night return to “Richard III,” which was the first of his two Shakespearean triumphs, 22 years earlier. We’re supposedly watching a rehearsal, to use the noun loosely. It consists primarily of personal reminiscences, spoken directly to the audience, with only sporadic intrusions of Shakespeare. Offstage, a young man named Frank (Plumpis) serves as the star’s prompter and stage manager.

For some unexplained reason--perhaps to appeal to Broadway sensibilities--Luce set the play in New York, on an old-fashioned stage designed by Santo Loquasto. The real Barrymore spent almost all of his final two years in Los Angeles, where he was a self-deprecating regular on Rudy Vallee’s radio show.

According to one of his biographers, Michael Morrison, the great star delivered excerpts from “Richard III” at the end of one of the generally lighthearted Vallee broadcasts. That strange juxtaposition of the crooner and the thespian sounds like a more dramatically charged situation than the one invented by Luce. So, for that matter, does a reported 1941 overture by an inebriated Barrymore to Dame Judith Anderson about the possibility of playing opposite him in “Macbeth,” perhaps at the Hollywood Bowl.

Neither of those situations would have worked as an almost-solo show, however, and apparently someone perceived a great need for another Barrymore monodrama, even though Nicol Williamson also played a Barrymore monodrama here and on Broadway a mere two years ago.

Plummer’s performance almost justifies the redundancy. His Barrymore is one charming drunk.

Though he’s eight years older than Barrymore was when he died, Plummer looks exactly the right age--in other words, just a few years and many drinks beyond the Barrymore who’s familiar from early ‘30s movies. His voice is still powerfully resonant. He has the requisite great profile--though it looks just as formidable on his right side as it does on Barrymore’s preferred left side. In one of Luce’s wittier touches, Barrymore insists that his prompter move to the wings on the other side of the stage so that we can see Barrymore’s favored side when he calls to the wings for a prompt.

In the first act, Plummer wears a bold pinstriped suit and a hat that emphasize Barrymore’s rakish qualities. But after intermission, he emerges in a stereotypical Richard III outfit--complete with tights, hump and Prince Valiant wig--that makes up the evening’s biggest sight gag, topped only when he then tries on an enormous but somewhat threadbare crown.

Under the direction of Gene Saks, Plummer guides us expertly through Barrymore’s bawdy limericks, wisecracks, brief mimicking of other characters in his life and occasionally funny comic exchanges with the unseen Frank. He successfully blends Barrymore’s frequent imbibing of liquid refreshment into the pacing of the evening, without the prolonged pauses that would probably afflict a truly tipsy actor in such circumstances. He turns a drunken stagger into incongruously light-footed movement.

Likewise, Plummer knows how to plumb the script’s fill-in-the-blanks pathos. Not surprisingly, this Barrymore is raging against the dying of the light. Not surprisingly, Frank’s disgusted threat to walk out on him shakes him up. Unfortunately, Frank doesn’t make good on his threat, which might have led to a marginally deeper level of soul-searching.

It’s a pleasure to hear Plummer recite scattered lines from Shakespeare. But it’s a somewhat slender pleasure, given the slightness of the play and the expectations of much bigger shows in a hall with 1,600 seats. “Barrymore” stokes desires to see similar talent in a real play about the Barrymores (“The Royal Family,” perhaps) or in a real play by one William Shakespeare.

* “Barrymore,” Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Sept. 27. $15-$52.50. (213) 628-2772. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

Christopher Plummer: John Barrymore

John Plumpis: Frank

A Livent (U.S.) Inc. production. By William Luce. Directed by Gene Saks. Sets and costumes by Santo Loquasto. Lighting by Natasha Katz. Hair design by Michael Kriston. Production stage manager Robin Rumpf Corbett.