LOIS (LC Smith, left), Cass (Katie Kelly, middle) and Barbara (April Krautner) get their first up-close look at Niagara Falls in “Wonder of the World,” at the Napa Valley Playhouse through July 28.
Mike Padua photos

Theater review by Elizabeth Warnimont
Special to The Herald

DAVID LINDSAY-ABAIRE, WHOSE 2006 PLAY “RABBIT HOLE” was performed by Benicia Old Town Theatre Group last spring, wrote a very different play several years earlier. Lucky Penny Productions and the Napa Valley Playhouse together present the playwright’s earlier work, “Wonder of the World,” at the Playhouse theater in Napa now through July 28.

“Wonder” is a far cry from the thoughtful “Rabbit Hole,” in which family members earnestly contemplated crisis. In “Wonder,” Cass (Katie Kelly) instead sets out to escape her circumstances, hopping on a bus headed for Niagara Falls to begin checking items off a to-do list she felt she’d never get to as long as she was still married.

The play feels a little like “Betty’s Summer Vacation,” a work by Abaire contemporary Christopher Durang, but in reverse: In “Vacation,” which was staged in 2010 at Diablo Valley College, all of the oddball characters imposed on poor Betty. Here, by contrast, it’s the vacationer who is doing all the butting in. In both plays, the absurd action nearly obliterates the periodic hints of earnest commentary that peek out amidst the chaos.

THE PILOT (Krautner, right) reveals her fear of heights to passengers Cass (Katie Kelly, left) and Lois (LC Smith).

Kelly is bright and bubbly as Cass, a self-centered young woman who leaves her husband abruptly to seek fulfillment on her own. Kelly has a strong stage presence and whips out her many lines at dazzling speed — but it’s the supporting actors who get most of the laughs. Perhaps the most enjoyable of all is LC Smith as Lois, the unwitting bus companion who gets roped into becoming Cass’s sidekick. Smith, a suicidal alcoholic, is loaded (sorry) with personality. She, too, has left her husband, but she has entirely different reasons for traveling to the Falls. As Cass soon discovers, the blanket on her seat-mate’s lap is concealing a barrel, in which Lois intends to commit a final, desperate act to escape her own unbearable circumstances.

April Krautner steals a few scenes in her multiple roles, most notably as an acrophobic helicopter pilot and as Janie the clown-slash-marriage counselor. Krautner was a crowd favorite on opening night last Friday, drawing laughs with each zany characterization.

Lucky Penny co-founder Barry Martin is hilarious as Glen, half the husband-and-wife team that seems to follow Cass wherever she goes — by land, sea and air — and Bob Broadhurst is a terrific straight man as tour boat captain Mike. The captain is the voice of sanity, gently engaging each of the other characters, seeming to accept them despite their bizarre idiosyncrasies.

CASS (Kelly) gets up close and personal with the captain (Bob Broadhurst).

As in Durang’s “Vacation,” Abaire incorporates absurd and bawdy events — and language — into the flow of the slapstick scenes, with mixed results. Unpleasant graphic images and language disturb an otherwise breezy feel as Betty — I mean Cass — follows her every whim with a determined zeal, and her husband’s icky sexual fetish becomes an increasingly persistent topic of conversation.

Though the characters, including an unlikely pair of private investigators, fit together logically in the story line, they often don’t connect smoothly with each other. Sometimes the punchlines seem isolated, and some details are so closely examined that they begin to shift the general tone of the play — only to be abruptly overrun by the next absurd turn of events.

“Wonder’s” brand of comedy isn’t for everyone. The NVP/Lucky Penny production offers up some fine comedic acting and creative, quality set and sound design, but the flow was choppy, and some of the actors seemed to be out of touch with the action, last Friday on opening night. Overall, “Wonder” is a funny, lighthearted diversion — if you don’t mind a little raunch and a generous sprinkling of f-bombs.

If You Go
“Wonder of the World” continues at the Napa Valley Playhouse, 1637 Imola Ave., Napa, through July 28. Tickets are $10 to $22 and are available by calling 707-255-5483 or online at napavalleyplayhouse.org.

Elizabeth Warnimont is a freelance writer specializing in the performing arts. She is also a substitute teacher for the Benicia Unified School District.

Sharing is caring!