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Cape Cod theater: Chatham Drama Guild puts on funny ‘Barefoot in the Park’ through Oct. 6

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Cape Cod theater: Chatham Drama Guild puts on funny ‘Barefoot in the Park’ through Oct. 6

CHATHAM – Chatham Drama Guild’s production of “Barefoot in the Park” is a fun night out, with the comedic skills of a minor character contributing in a big way.

You can see “Barefoot in the Park” at 7:30 tonight, 4 p.m. Sunday, 7:30 Oct. 4-5 and 4 p.m. Oct. 6.

Todd Cashdollar is hilarious as “Telephone Repairman” in Neil Simon’s 1963 romp about newlyweds adjusting to marriage in a cramped New York fifth-floor (six if you count the stoop) walkup.

In one scene, principals Paul and Corie Bratter are fighting when Paul asks his fuming spouse “Do we have any beer?” Cashdollar gestures to Corie, who is silently ignoring the question, before he, a stranger, asks if he should check the refrigerator.

The exchange is hard to do justice to in the retelling, but Cashdollar’s perfect awkwardness left the audience in stitches.

It was seasoning for director Pam Banas’ well-cast show. Nicole Gardner as Corie and Matthew Gardner as Paul share the same last name in real life but are not related and had not met until they began rehearsing the show, Banas said.

They are immediately believable as newlyweds struggling to transition to real life after six days at the luxurious Plaza Hotel. Whether kissing passionately or fighting furiously, the two pull no punches. When Corie throws her shoe at the closed bedroom door, the thunk resonates and we can only imagine the set construction crew is breathing a sigh of relief somewhere at the sturdiness of their work.

Deborah Mahaney plays Corie’s mother with a nice balance of reserve and ridiculousness. Every time she climbs the six stories to the apartment, she explodes through the door collapsing in exhaustion.

Richard Wilber is Victor Velasco, the well-traveled would-be ladies’ man, Corie decides to fix up with her staid mother. Rich in experience but otherwise broke, Velasco will be the antidote to Mother’s loneliness if he doesn’t kill her first.

Highlights and lowlights of  ‘Barefoot in the Park’ in Chatham

Simon’s Tony-nominated play is peppered with funny lines, one of the funniest delivered by Paul responding to Corie’s threat to get a guard dog: ‘She’d take him for his first walk, he’d see these stairs and go right for her throat.”

Many people may remember Simon’s “Barefoot in the Park” from the movie starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, which is based on the play. In Chatham Drama Guild’s production, Corie is a more approachable girl-next-door, rather than a mini-skirted poster child of the era.

Act 3 drags a little and then ends abruptly, but it is more the fault of Simon’s script than of this production. The show has many other funny moments not described here because humor depends in great part on the element of surprise. Along with the laughs comes some good marriage advice.

How can I see ‘Barefoot in the Park’ in Chatham?

Shows are 7:30 tonight, 4 p.m. Sunday, 7:30 Oct. 4-5 and 4 p.m. Oct. 6 at Chatham Drama Guild, 134 Crowell Road. Tickets are $23, $26 for cabaret tables; cocktails and snacks are sold before the show and during intermission. Get tickets at chathamdramaguild.org, by calling the box office at 508-945-0510 or at the door.

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