Double Vision

The saying “No matter where you go, there you are” has its own special corollary for New Yorkers: “No matter where you go, you’ll see someone you know.” So the bevy of familiar faces that greeted me upon entering the Williamstown Theatre Festival’s gorgeous ’62 Center for Theater and Dance for a mid-week performance of The Opposite of Sex should hardly have surprised me. Milling about were Tony Award-winning composer David Zippel, who is collaborating with Sex director and co-author Robert Jess Roth on a Las Vegas spectacular called Buzz; the divine Andrea Marcovicci, whose husband hails from Williamstown, all aglow about her upcoming salute to the late, great Hildegarde at the Algonquin this fall; and Tony winner and current Emmy nominee Shirley Knight, on hand to support her very talented daughter Kaitlin Hopkins, who played the bitter, sarcastic Lucia in the tuner. (Note to Marc Cherry: If you’re reading this, Knight and I both think you need to bring her back to Desperate Housewives a.s.a.p.)

Above all, producers Fran and Barry Weissler were jn the audience, having motored up north to check out the show. Reportedly, they were all smiles afterward; but I wouldn’t necessarily expect to see them produce Sex, which I found vastly entertaining, on the Great White Way. And I think that’s just fine; the musical might better be served Off-Broadway, due to its relatively intimate nature. Fortunately, the crackerjack cast, led by the brilliant Kerry Butler as the decidedly troubled Dedee Pruitt, has some exciting projects to keep them busy while the show’s future is being decided. Butler, who has a full time gig as Claudia Reston on One Life to Live, and Hopkins will reunite for the NYMF presentation of Party Come Here next month. In October, Hopkins will take on the role of Mama Who in the Broadway production of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Meanwhile, the adorable David Burtka, who shone as the dimwitted Matt, is heading out west to film a bunch of episodes of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, starring his good pal Neil Patrick Harris.

Even a visit to nearby MASS MoCA on Thursday uncovered a theatrical connection of sorts; the museum is hosting an exhbition of the work of its resident sculptor, Don Gummer, husband of the great Meryl Streep and father of up-and-coming star Mamie Gummer. Meanwhile, back at Williamstown on Thursday, the opening night crowd for Double Double — the two-hander co-written and directed by WTF artistic director Roger Rees — was less starry than I expected, with one major exception: Rees’ friend and former Indiscretions co-star Kathleen Turner, who was directing a reading of Crimes of the Heart there the following day. At the show’s after-party, Turner told me that she’s looking forward to doing more directing and teaching as well as embarking on the upcoming national tour of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, for which she’ll re-team with her Tony-winning co-star, Bill Irwin.

Double Double, written in 1986 by Rees and Jersey Boys scribe Rick Elice, has been performed extensively throughout Europe, but not in the States. That’s only half-surprising; it’s the sort of old-fashioned, comic, quasi-thriller that probably wouldn’t play in New York any longer than Tryst did, though it might do very well regionally.

As the play opens, wealthy Phillipa James has brought a homeless man back to her palatial London flat (beautifully designed by Neil Patel). She soon explains the reason: the man, one Duncan McFee, bears a distinct resemblance to her just-deceased husband Richard. Since no one knows that Richard is dead, her plan is to clean up Duncan, teach him to speak properly — yes, the debt to Pygmalion is acknowledged — and have him impersonate Richard at their lawyer’s office seven days hence. This will allow Phillipa to collect two million pounds from his trust fund, which she will split 50-50 with Duncan.

Because of the nature of the genre, the audience knows that some of this clearly isn’t true. Is Richard really dead? Is Duncan really Richard? Is Phillipa actually Richard’s secretary, Laura? I hate to admit it, but I guessed the ending wrong, in part because the denouement is simpler than I imagined. Watching the production, it was easy to imagine how magnificent Rees — who was standing in the back of the house — must have been when he first did the show two decades ago in London. But I doubt that he was actually better than Matt Letscher, whose sudden changes of personalities, moods, and accents — not to mention his much called-upon athleticism — were flawless. As Philippa, Jennifer Van Dyck proved a worthwhile foil for him and was extremely impressive in the show’s final scenes.

I hadn’t consciously planned my Berkshires getaway as a theme visit, but that became the case once I decided to see the Barrington Stage Company’s production of Jean Anouilh’sRing Round the Moon. This is the first offering at BSC’s new permanent home in Pittsfield, and the company has transformed the former Union Square Theatre into a very comfortable, aesthetically pleasing space. For now, only the 270-seat orchestra section is finished; renovations to the 220-seat balcony and the lobby are to be completed by next spring.

Anouilh’s play, written in 1950 and last seen on Broadway in 1999, is quite tricky — part farce, part social commentary. The action takes place in the winter garden of the home of Madame Desmermortes, a French society woman who has gathered some of her nearest and dearest for a grand party. Her evil nephew Hugo has decided — for a variety of reasons — that his goody-goody identical twin brother Frederic should not marry the beautiful, wealthy, and bitchy Diana Messerschmann. So he hires a lovely but poor young dancer named Isabelle to distract Frederic and enrage Diana. Of course, Isabelle instantly falls for Hugo, further complicating matters. But Anouilh coughs up the requisite happy ending.

Julianne Boyd’s, Barrington’s busy artistic director, captures the play’s serious side somewhat better than its comic one, and the pacing often seems a tad sluggish. Still, Boyd gets yeoman work from Christopher Innvar as the twins, and from Jordan Charney, Tandy Cronyn (looking more and more like mom Jessica Tandy), Mark DuSold, and John C. Vennema in supporting roles. Most notably, she helps draw a striking performance from Ginifer King, who embodies Isabelle to perfection. Conversely, TV star Debra Jo Rupp might be more amusing as Isabelle’s flighty mother if she didn’t seem so utterly American.

For many theatergoers, the main attraction here will be Tony winner Carole Shelley in the scene-stealing role of Madame Desmermortes. It’s hard not to compare her with Marian Seldes, who walked away with the 1999 Broadway production; but Shelley makes the role her own with an extremely earthy take on it, nailing Anouilh’s barbs with bulls-eye precision. A longtime friend of the company, she is once more proving her devotion by extending her Barrington stay through August 28, when she’ll join Kathleen Chalfant, Myra Lucretia Taylor, and Virginia Wing for a reading of Sybille Pearson’s new play Next at BSC’s Stage II.

As for the new theater, its next tenant (in October) will be Mame, and Boyd promised me that it will feature a leading lady grand enough to match the new surroundings. If so, get your engines ready.