Funny Femmes Fatale Fan Flames at Firehouse

Jack Welsh and I had a rollicking good time this afternoon seeing our friends Melissa Johnston Price, Harriet Traylor, John Moon and Alice Schreiner acting up a (psychological) storm in The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife at the Firehouse.

About three seasons back, this raucous and ribald script from veteran Off-Broadway bard Charles Busch updated the Neil Simon style of comedy for 21st Century Broadway. Busch enlivened his comic urban phantasmagoria with contemporary situations and language that ran the risk of making the more traditional Mr. Simon blush. The play had a long and successful Broadway run.

Now Firehouse’s talented, attractive cast, under the direction of Dan Ruth, looks like they think it's a high hoot to bring this very-Manhattan tale to life in Richmond’s Fan.

Melissa Johnston Price proves once again that she can be gorgeous and funny at the same time. Harriet Traylor develops a character that is both irresistibly seductive and slightly scary--a femme fatale with a not quite fatal attraction. John Moon brings his years as a New Yorker back to the forefront as the titular allergist, proving an able match for both beautiful women. Alice Schreiner prompts one to recall the words “potty mouth.” Joey Chahine, new to me, is terrific as the fifth cog in Busch’s oh-so-modern take on one New Yorker’s search for inner truth.

Three cheers to the Firehouse for giving Richmonders a chance to catch this hip NYC comedy. Broadway laugh-leaders have changed a lot since the classic days of Neil Simon, Mary Kerr, Muriel Resnick, Bob Randall et al. It’s good for Richmonders to have a chance to feel the force of the most recent comic haymaker to knock Broadway off its feet.

If you hanker for contemporary comedy with an edgy twist, rush to the Firehouse to catch Allergist’s Wife before it closes on May 19. As always, the Firehouse is proving how indispensable it is in Metro Richmond’s theatrical mix.

Bruce Miller

The Good Side of Being Big: Dan Ruth to Direct "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife" for Firehouse

Working collaboratively, Barksdale and Theatre IV have an annual operating budget of about $5 million. To put that in perspective, we’re about the same size as the Richmond Symphony, and about two times bigger than the former TheatreVirginia in its prime. In fact, we’re the largest professional theatre in Virginia history, in terms of both annual audience and annual budget.

The downside of all this is workload. If you don’t count the two weeks a year when we take vacation, we have to raise $30,000 in contributions during each of the remaining 50 weeks. That’s what it takes to raise the $1,500,000 we need each year in order to meet budget.

Equally daunting, we have to sell $70,000 per week in tickets and tour shows in order to reach our earned revenue goal of $3,500,000 per year. Needless to say, it takes a lot of work on the part of a lot of people to meet these goals. For 32 years, my workload has been about 80 hours a week. That's the challenging side of working for a large and successful organization.

But being big is good in that it gives you artistic opportunities. For recent and current productions, we were able to spend what it takes to bring in the likes of Harrison White, Dave Winning and Jay Lustig for The Full Monty, Liz Mamana for The Constant Wife, Kathy Halenda and Amy Prothro for Mame, Drew Perkins for Smoke on the Mountain, and Dan Ruth for Brooklyn Boy.

When we bring these seasoned pros into town, it helps not only Barksdale Theatre and the particular shows in which they appear, it also helps the entire Richmond theatre community. Richmond’s finest theatre artists benefit from having the chance to work and network with talented professionals from outside our community. Nothing stunts artistic growth more than working in a closed environment.

And sometimes, the artists we bring to town are then able to work for other local theatres as well. As one example, Dan Ruth (pictured above with Joe Pabst in Brooklyn Boy) began directing The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife for Firehouse Theatre Project while he was still performing in Brooklyn Boy. Now that Brooklyn's over and Allergist's Wife rehearsals are in full swing, Dan is still living in the house of Barksdale staff member Bob Albertia, and Barksdale will still be paying for his transportation back to New York, once Allergist’s Wife opens.

It was great to be able to bring Dan back to Richmond this season, and to see his wonderful work again in Brooklyn Boy. It will be equally great to see his directing expertise back in play at Firehouse. Richmond will enjoy two artistic efforts from Dan while only paying once for his housing and transportation expenses. This double-header represents an efficient use of limited community resources, and an excellent example of cooperation among two Richmond theatres. We’re proud to be a part of it.