80th Season Premieres Premiere!

It isn’t often that members of a playwright’s family show up to talk to members of an audience, but that’s exactly what happened at The Barn Theatre’s West Coast premiere of Premiere!

In the first place, Abby Wasserman of Mill Valley had brought this, her uncle’s play, to the attention of Robert Wilson of the Ross Valley Players. The script arrived with full credentials. Abby’s uncle was Dale Wasserman, who’d adapted Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and prepared the book for Man of La Mancha, among many other original works. Robert Wilson agreed to open RVP’s 80th consecutive season with Dale Wasserman’s play.

Premiere!’s central character, Gil Fryman, is a hugely successful comedic playwright, possibly modeled on Wasserman’s friend, Neil Simon. Fryman is just coming from a celebration of his third consecutive hit, but he’s weary of winning at comedy, feels that he’s entitled to “write a flop, the same as everybody else.” His wife Becky says he’s “in a mood,” and Gil explains his dissatisfaction in a monologue to the audience. (This will be the first of several monologues by different characters.)

Gil’s father-in-law, Dr. Eli Brand, is a tireless book collector who buys whole collections, sometimes in other languages. He never reads the books he buys, so it’s not inconceivable that he might have accidentally acquired Shakespeare’s lost work, Alcibiades. (Here the characters entertain themselves with riffs on the word “Bard.”) The lost work is especially important now because an internationally-recognized Shakespearean scholar, Professor Justinia Hawkins, will be coming to look over Dr. Brand’s collection. If Alcibiades is in there, she’ll certainly spot it, and Gil is determined that it will be there. He will write and forge a fake Shakespeare, then proclaim that he did it and finally be recognized as a poet.

Surprisingly, his wife offers no objections to the plan, and Gil sets out to find Lefty, a master forger who charges “by the century.” Lefty explains how a fake antique book is made – matching the binding, ink and paper. (The paper will be burgled from some of Dr. Brand’s excess of old books.) Gil sets out to write the work that will make his reputation. All this – the writing and the forged volume – is accomplished in a matter of months.

Lefty’s masterpiece is presented in “simply awful condition” and is inserted into Dr. Brand’s bookshelf just before the eagle-eyed Professor Hawkins is due to arrive. Will she find the hidden volume? Will she spot it as a fake? Will Gil Fryman be recognized as the serious poet he believes himself to be?

Without spoiling the surprise, we can say that the ending is not what the audience might be expecting, but it’s satisfying, and is accomplished with a generous helping of good-natured wit. Ron Severdia has the role of would-be Shakespearean, Gil, with Molly McGrath as patient, exasperated Becky. Dr. Brand is played with scholarly detachment by Wood Lockhart, and Edward McCloud portrays his son Peter, Gil’s hanger-on producer.

The comic roles – Lefty Guggenheim and Professor Hawkins – have the most fun. Buzz Halsing’s Lefty is right out of Damon Runyon, even neglecting his cell phone in favor of the more-secure wall instrument. Judy Holmes yields Professor Hawkins’ authoritative soprano as a cross between Julia Child, who wasn’t British, and television’s fictional Hyacinth Bucket, who was.

The time of this work is supposed to be the present, but both Michael Berg’s costumes and some anachronisms in the script (“I’m the Queen of Romania!”) suggest that it’s really earlier. These are bumps that usually get ironed out in the workshop process – especially by a pro like Dale Wasserman. But Mr. Wasserman never got to see the finished show. He died last December, one month before Premiere!’s Arizona production, having worked on the play right up to the last. He was ninety-four.

Dale Wasserman’s Premiere! will play in the Barn Theatre at the Marin Art & Garden Center in Ross through Oct. 11, Sundays through Thursdays. Ticket prices range from $15 to $25. For complete information or reservations, see the website, www.rossvalleyplayers.com or call 456-9555.