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'Light Up the Sky' shines

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By David Burke | Thursday, February 21, 2008 12:32 PM CST | () comments

There's nothing quite like the hours before the opening night of a theater production.

It’s a mixture of sincerities and insincerities, nervousness and niceness that hangs thick in the air.

All of those involved at the birth of this new creation want to be the proud parents.

But then the baby’s born.

And the baby’s ugly.

That’s the scenario presented in Moss Hart’s “Light Up the Sky,” which ran for six months on Broadway in 1948-49 and is currently revived by the Richmond Hill Players in Geneseo, Ill.

The nostalgic piece is a smart, old-fashioned comedy, nicely played by the ensemble of 10.

It all takes place in actress Irene Livingston’s (Molly McLaughlin) suite at the Ritz in Boston, before and after the out-of-town premiere of the Broadway-bound “The Time is Now,” which its producer (Dave Bailey) promises to be a “Roman candle in the tired face of show business.”

Knocks on the door bring in a parade of theater types, including a prone-to-tears director (Dave Rash), a veteran playwright (Don Hazen), the star’s mother (Jan Golz) and the star’s husband (Greg Golz, playing his real-life wife’s son-in-law), the producer’s reluctant-to-invest wife (Susan Philhower) and a truck driver-turned-neophyte playwright (Eric Noyd).

Everyone is showered with affection and repeated toasts — until the audience sees the show and declares it a stinker.

Cue the blame game.

All those involved point the finger at each other in the depiction of a play that somehow involves the end of the world taking place at Radio City Music Hall.

Add to the mix a Freemason (Renaud Haymon), in the hotel for a convention, who may be able to salvage this mess after all.

Having opened on Feb. 14, it’s appropriately a Valentine to theater life. Cast members get their best quips in, with several strong performances from a show that receives the espirit de corps it demands.

Hart — best known for co-writing “You Can’t Take It With You” — lands squarely on behind-the-scenes theater convention and uses both Hazen’s Owen Turner character and Noyd’s playwright Peter Sloan as the outsiders looking in, giving the audience perspective to what they might not understand.

Richmond Hill didn’t change a word in the — probably for the late ’40s anyway — sometimes-salty dialogue and smartly provides a glossary page in the program to acclimate the audience with long-ago theater personalities and terms.

Special kudos to co-director (along with her stepdaughter, Michaela Giebel Moore) Eugenia Giebel, who stepped in at the 11th hour in place of Mary (Meme) McCarter, who unfortunately suffered a stroke hours before the show opened. Giebel is smooth as the ghostwriter of McLaughlin’s diva character’s autobiography.

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.

IF YOU GO

What: “Light Up the Sky” by Richmond Hill Players

When: 7:30 p.m. today-Saturday, Feb. 23; 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 24

Where: Barn Theatre, Richmond Hill Park, Geneseo, Ill.

How much: $8

Information: (309) 944-2244 or RHPlayers.com