The Backstory of "But Why Bump Off Barnaby": Will the Real Jack Sharkey Please Stand Up?

 

Note:  This piece originally appeared in Lakewood Theater's program for their production of Buty Why Bump Off Barnaby by Rick Abbot

BACKSTORY WITH BOBBY KENISTON

Greetings, friends! I would like to welcome you back to Lakewood Theater for the summer! I know I am not the first to do so--- I have no doubt that the wonderful box office staff, the indispensable volunteer ushers, and the tireless gang at the Lakewood Inn Restaurant have all beat me to it. Still, I would like to add my gratitude to the list and thank you for supporting theater here in central Maine as the world creeps back to sense of normalcy.

Nature often works in cycles, so it feels appropriate to open our 2021 season with last season's closing show, But Why Bump Off Barnaby?, a delightful mystery farce by Rick Abbot. If you have read myessays before, you know I often try to contact the authors of our plays for interviews. Sadly, this is not possible with Rick Abbot. He passed away in 1992. Further, he wasn't really Rick Abbot.

Don't worry, there's no mystery here. Rick Abbot was one of four pen names for prolific writer Jack Sharkey (the others were Monk Ferris, Mark Chandler, and Mike Johnson, who only wrote stage thrillers). Like many other prolific playwrights, Mr. Sharkey employed these pen names to avoid saturating the market, and because he wisely realized that many theaters don't like to produce multipletitles by the same author in a single season.

Born in Chicago in 1931, Jack Sharkey served in the army where he wrote and directed shows for theEnlisted Men's Club. In 1958, he moved to New York City to pursue writing, and, oh boy, did he pursue it! He wrote countless science fiction stories, novels, and chapbooks for children before deciding to solely write for the stage in 1975. And though it is estimated that he wrote 85 plays or more, it is very likely his name isn't nearly as recognizable to you as a playwright like Neil Simon or Beth Henley. This is because Sharkey was one of the playwrights who made a fine living, but never a “killing”. A “working class” playwright, Sharkey geared his plays toward the community theater and school markets, like so many others in his field (Tim Kelly, Pat Cook, and yours truly come to mind), making sure to write great parts for large casts to shine.

“His first play, Here Lies Jeremy Troy, was about two days from opening on Broadway on two occasions,but just didn't happen,” his widow Pat Sharkey told the L.A. Times in 1996. “He got comfortable with not trying for that anymore. He wrote what he would enjoy seeing, feeling that if he would enjoy it, other people would.”

Mr. Sharkey particularly enjoyed creating fast-paced, joke-filled shows that were easy to produce and made people laugh without offending them. It seems he couldn't resist going for the funny bone.

“I remember a few times, Jack would try writing a straight mystery,” Pat Sharkey said, “and after a few pages he'd decide to turn it into a comedy mystery, after all.”

And here, nearly 30 years after his death, Lakewood Theater carries on his legacy of laughter by bringing back the crowd pleasing But Why Bump Off Barnaby?, a quintessential comedy mystery. It is our hope it keeps you guessing--- and chuckling--- until the very end.

Thank you so much for joining us on our journey for 2021! Full steam ahead!

If you are interested in learning more about the play, or producing it, follow this link to Concord Theatricals:

'But Why Bump Off Barnaby?' | Concord Theatricals

A History of the Play "Mid-Summer" by Viña Delmar: How Vaudeville Lies at the Center of this Nostalgia Piece

 

BACKSTORY WITH BOBBY KENISTON

Note:  This was originally written for Lakewood Theater's production of Mid-Summer

Mid-Summer, tonight's entertainment, was one of only 3 plays Viña Delmar wrote, but don't let that fool you--- she was a very prolific writer for nearly fifty years, rising to fame in the late 1920s with her then provocatively titled novel Bad Girl, and went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay of The Awful Truth in 1937. Mid-Summer, premiering in 1953, was a love letter of sorts to vaudeville, and featured a young Geraldine Page in her Broadway debut. Speaking of auspicious debuts, I am happy to report that this production marks the Lakewood directorial debut of (among many other titles) my good friend, Arturo Meneses, who was good enough to talk with me about the play, about vaudeville, and about his love of Lakewood Theater.

“It really is like home,” he told me, a sentiment to which I, and many others, can certainly relate.

Audiences have been enjoying Art's work for quite some time. He made his acting debut while still a teenager in 1997 in the musical Jungle Queen Debutante, and played a memorableHarvey Johnson in Bye, Bye, Birdie. I first acted with him a few years ago in Incorruptible, andaudiences cheered his performances in The Legend of Georgia McBride and Godspell. On topof his work as an actor and director, Art has been spending some time this summer organizingthe Lakewood archives, sifting through old memories of friends made throughout the years.

Art found his summer home after working with Mark Nadeau at Messalonskee High School,who encouraged him to audition, and also cites the late Jeffrey Watts as a mentor and influence. He first pursued his interest in directing at the University of Maine at Farmington, taking the helm of such productions as Pillow Talk and Medea (the hilarious Christopher Durang comedy). He really cut his teeth by directing his very own production of Bye, Bye Birdie at the Hsinchu International School in Taiwan with a group of young people who had never acted before!

“They all auditioned very well,” he said with a shrug. “But then didn't know how to act as soon as they were cast in the play.”

A self-proclaimed “Actor's Director,” Art has certainly made an impression on the cast of Mid-Summer. “He really takes the time to ask us questions, encouraging us to find our motivation,”

Kaelie Merrill, the talented young actress who plays Lily, the Geraldine Page role, told me. “He really wants us to think about our characters and how we connect to them. This experience has taught me how I can grow as a person just by putting myself in her [Lily's] shoes.”

Art has delved into the world of vaudeville, and read the delightfully titled No Applause- JustThrow Money, a history of vaudeville by Trav S.D. When I asked him how we make an older art form like vaudeville accessible to audiences today, he said, “The issues we go through today are the same ones people went through back then. The situations will always be relevant.”

Kaelie agrees, and adds, “I think vaudeville is fascinating... They could say things that we can't say!”

Though the brilliant Viña Delmar is no longer with us, and, sadly, vaudeville itself has faded away, we are all fortunate to experience a kind of time travel tonight, thanks to the hard work of Arturo and the talented cast and crew. So prepare to be transported to the Lenoir Hotel in New York City in the year 1907, as we enjoy Mid-Summer during our very own glorious mid-summer here at Lakewood Theater.

If you are interested in producing Mid-Summer, you can find it at Concord Theatricals by following this link:

Mid-Summer (Delmar) | Concord Theatricals

BULLSHOT CRUMMOND: a history of the play, and a brief history of parody

Note: This essay first appeared in the program for Lakewood Theater's Production of Bullshot Crummond

BACKSTORY WITH BOBBY KENISTON 

In 1974, Ronald House and Diz White were in a fringe comedy troupe called The Low Moans

when they first developed the initial concept for Bullshot Crummond, tonight's entertainment.

The idea was fleshed out with fellow troupe members Alan Shearman, John Neville-Andrews,

and Derek Cunningham, and had its first production in San Francisco at the Palladium Theater

the very year it was written.

The play, as you will soon witness for yourselves, falls into a very particular style of comedy we

like to call parody. Specifically, Bullshot Crummond, the name and the play, is a send-up of the

character Bulldog Drummond, who was created by author H.C. McNeile in a 1920 novel named

after the hero. Bulldog was a World War I veteran who had trouble going back to the boredom of

a humdrum civilian life. He decided to place advertisements, looking for excitement, until, lo and

behold, he transformed from listless veteran into a world class adventurer! And there were

plenty of adventures to be had--- McNeile wrote ten more novels, four short stories and four

stage plays about them!

Certainly there are elements (including his name) that made Bulldog Drummond a perfect target

for the parody provided by The Low Moans' performers. While researching this play and the

source material it spoofs, I began to wonder just how long parody has been around, and where

it all came from. It should have come as no surprise to learn that it has been around since

Ancient Greece at the very least. In his Poetics, Aristotle mentions Hegemon of Thasos as the

inventor of parody. Hegemon would slightly alter the wording of well-known poems, and thus

“transformed the sublime into the ridiculous.” There were other narrative poems in Ancient

Greek literature known as a “parodia”, which took the ideas of epics, but treated them in a light,

satirical manner with mock-heroic subjects, like The Diliad (sadly, a lost parody of the Iliad,

mentioned by Aristotle) by Nicochares. Aristotle, always a bit self-serious, wasn't much of a fan,

saying that Homer made men better than they were, while these writers of parody made men

worse.

Perhaps Aristotle was missing the point, or simply didn't know how to take a joke. Parody

continued to thrive. It was first mentioned in English in 1598's “Every Man in His Humor” by Ben

Jonson, and Shakespeare, of course, used parody quite freely, notably in A Midsummer Night's

Dream with a group of rustics making a clown show from Pyramus and Thisbe, complete with a

talking Wall (something our former President would no doubt love) and Lion.

Nowadays, it is not uncommon for the parody itself to outlive its source material, which may be

the case for Bullshot Crummond, a play still widely produced and a well-known crowd pleaser

(trust me, you'll see in just a few minutes). It is reported that when Mel Brooks, a master in the

art of parody, saw the play, he was so impressed by its zaniness and humor that he said it

couldn't ever possibly be filmed. And while Mr. Brooks has been right about so many things in

his 95 years, he was wrong about this. Perhaps inspired by the success of other parody films

like Airplane!, a movie adaptation simply called Bullshot was released in the UK in 1983, with

three of the Low Moans reprising their stage roles, and several cameos from famous British

comedians. The film was produced by George Harrison's production company, Handmade

Films, as the former Beatle was known to love a good laugh.

And a good laugh is what we have in store for you, dear audience, as our very own lively troupe

of performers wait in the wings for the curtain to rise on Lakewood Theater's production of

Bullshot Crummond,

 If you are interested in learning more about the play or producing it, you can check it out at Concord Theatricals by following this link: https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/5604/bullshot-crummond