Duffers grapple with links, life

Four elderly golfers meet for a Sunday round of golf and a metaphysical exploration of life’s big questions -- including the fate of a famous lunar golf shot -- in “Golf With Alan Shepard,” Carter W. Lewis’ comedy at the Falcon Theatre.

As they insult and chaff each other from hole to hole, death and loss are on the minds of these old-timers, played by some terrific veterans: octogenarians Jack Klugman and Charles Durning, septuagenarian Paul Dooley and junior member Granville Van Dusen, age 60.

With the recent death of Kenny the golf pro, Griff (a very fit Klugman) has lost his best friend and the Army buddy whose life he saved in battle, while Milt (Dooley) has lost the brother whose shoes he’ll never fill. Ned (Durning) is mourning his beloved wife. Defrocked priest Larkin (Van Dusen) has lost his God.

Life has become a waiting game for the foursome; golf passes the time. Death may have the answers. Or not.

Call it Godot-lite, but the heavyweight cast makes the most of it. It’s a pleasure to watch these pros work -- and hold their own against the competition. Keeping a firm hand on the reins, director Skip Greer holds his own, too, and that’s no small task, when dealing with sly old foxes Klugman and Durning.

As gentle, whimsical Ned, rotund Durning breaks out a signature move, approaching each putt with a mischievous, gravity-defying little dance combination. Dooley, with his basset hound droop, makes the most of Milt’s still-water surface. Van Dusen plays verbose Larkin with theatrical flair, appropriate to an ex-priest who plants flower seeds in each divot and raises a flask to his absentee Almighty with a defiant “In your face, Old Man.”

Klugman’s Griff, until he’s sidelined by second act expository overload, is the play’s ferocious vortex, a relentless, irascible force going un-gently into death’s good night. The harsh rasp that Klugman’s voice has become since his bout with throat cancer years ago only deepens Griff’s bile-filled impact. In it, he delivers the play’s funniest lines (which can’t be repeated here).

Griff rides Milt for not being Kenny, he’s contemptuous of Larkin’s golf philosophy (“spiritual voltage”) and when duffer Ned is suddenly able to hit winning shots, Griff is frantic to ferret out Ned’s secret. Unfortunately, his vitriol is more interesting before the reason for it emerges.

There’s meaningful stuff in Lewis’ biting humor. He has a deft comic touch and knows how to write big-laugh one-liners and running gags. His sloganeering profundities, however -- it’s not winning, “it’s what we sacrifice”; “life is fighting” -- fall flat.

Most regrettably, Lewis sacrifices the snap of the first act with earnestly spelled out psychological insights and anti-climactic revelations in the second.

A defanged Griff nearly disappears. Dooley’s 16th hole epiphany, laying brother Kenny’s spirit to rest, is overdrawn, and although Durning’s tender voice tears your heart out the first time Ned sings “Stardust,” in an attempt to contact his dead wife, repetitions (alternating with “Blue Moon”) feel manipulative.

The wrap-up, when an astronaut (Daniel Waskom) makes a mystical, redemptive appearance, and the golf course announcer’s voice takes on new significance, is overdue, but deeply moving, nonetheless.

And, even when they’re playing out of the rough, the wily actors make the most of it all, and the chance to see their combined expertise is worth the round.

Keith E. Mitchell’s satisfying set -- a one-hole green, a wooden bench, outdoor table and chairs and a broad expanse of sky -- is complemented by Leigh Allen’s lights and starry nightfall. Robert Arturo Ramirez did the efficient sound; costume designer Denitsa Bliznakova’s motley golfing garb is just right.

*

‘Golf With Alan Shepard’

Where: Falcon Theatre, 4252 Riverside Drive, Burbank

When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, 4 p.m. Sundays

Ends: Oct. 10

Price: $30 to $37.50

Contact: (818) 955-8101

Running time: 2 hours