Cactus Flower

     Yes, Dear Readers, I know. It has been more than two weeks since my last offering. I've been a slacker since April 7th, but I made up for it this week by seeing three shows! I'm not going to write about them in chronological order, however, because two of them have closed already, and one is still in previews.

  The first production that I am going to discuss, which consequently was the second production I took in this holy week, is the off Broadway revival of Abe Burrows hit comedy Cactus Flower. This was recently modernized and made into a film  called "Just Go with it" with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Anniston.

  Plot wise it's pretty simple. A man pretends to be married so he doesn't have to get married. He meets a girl he wants to marry, which complicates things because he's married already, or so she thinks, comedy ensues. Or at least it's supposed to.

    Don't get me wrong. The play itself is very funny. There are some fantastic bits of dialogue. The problem with the current production is that aside from it's leading lady, (Jenni Barber) the show is completely without a soul. It takes place in the rollicking free love sixties, but much of the humor is out dated. This is fine, except that the cast doesn't handle it well. You can almost see them grimace every time an old style "yuck yuck" joke is played.

     The only one who comes out on top is the previously mentioned Jenni Barber who completely and unabashedly commits to her role as naive, charming, and sweet  Toni. Maxwell Caulfield is fine as the married but not really dentist Julian, and is devilishly handsome, but has no chemistry with either of his leading ladies.

  Over all the entire production seems completely staged and forced. The set design and the music that plays during the set changes were quite enjoyable. I completely understand why this show is closing. The supporting cast is fine, but nothing special. I don't even remember their real names, or their characters names, which shows what an impression they made.

     It's easy to see why this play was a hit for so long in it's original run, and why the film version earned Goldie Hawn an Academy Award, however, this particular Cactus Flower fails to blossom.