Midsummer Magazine 2007 - Utah Shakespearean Festival

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June 25–September 1Randall L. Jones TheatreTheMatchmaker:Live aLittle!By Elaine PilkingtonIN 1938 THORNTON WILDERwrote the critically acclaimed PulitzerPrize-winning play Our Town. Laterthat year Wilder’s The Merchant of Yonkerspremiered. It was based on the 1842Austrian comedy Einem Jux will es sichMachen which had been based on A DayWell Spent, an English original from 1835.Unfortunately, The Merchant of Yonkers wasnot a popular or critical success, despiteWilder’s collaboration with director andproducer Max Reinhart.Always attached to the story, Wilderrevised the play as The Matchmaker. Thistime the play was well received at theEdinburgh Festival in Scotland and theTheatre Royal in London before opening inNew York on August 12, 1955, and runningfor 486 performances. A film versionA. Bryan Humphrey (left) as Harry Binion and BrianVaughn as Gordon Miller in Room Service, 2006
starring Shirley Booth, Anthony Perkins,and Shirley MacLaine appeared in 1958, butperhaps the story’s most memorable incarnationwas the Broadway musical Hello, Dolly!It opened in 1964 with Carol Channingplaying Dolly Levi, ran for 2844 performances,and won ten Tony Awards.What might explain the longevity ofthis story? What would appeal to Londonersof the 1830s, Austrians in the 1840s, andAmericans from the 1950s to the twentyfirstcentury? Several things. First, the charactersof The Matchmaker follow a literarytradition that stretches back through Frenchfarce, commedia dell’ arte, and Roman newcomedy. They are stock characters whosefamiliarity immediately makes a theatreaudience feel comfortable. In the play awealthy, cranky, older man attempts to preventthe marriage of a pair of young lovers.Horace Vandergelder, a successful merchant,adamantly opposes the marriage of his nieceErmengard to Ambrose Kemper becauseAmbrose is an artist and Uncle Horacebelieves that Ambrose cannot adequatelysupport his niece. “A living is made . . . byselling something that everybody needs atleast once a year. . . . And a million is madeby producing something everybody needsevery day. You artists produce somethingthat nobody needs at any time” (ThorntonWilder, 3 Plays [New York: PerennialClassics, 1957], 257).Though the young lovers could easilyelope, Ermengard is sufficiently conventionalto resist the plan, and other measures mustbe used to ensure the couple’s marriage.Matchmaker Dolly Levi, a character inspiredby Frosine in Plautus’s The Miser, decidesto help Ambrose and Ermengard (AmyBoratko, “The Matchmaker, Its Versions andIts History,” The Thornton Wilder Society,www.tcnj.edu/~wilder/work/index.html).Add to the mix two servants/clerks, onetricky and one less so, and the most importantcharacters of farce are in place.Other farcical elements rapidly shift thecharacters from one adventure to another,making the play just plain fun. Like anygood farce, the plot moves so quickly thatthe audience has no time to question thecomic absurdities but must be swept awayin the energy of the action. To justify closingVandergelder’s store for a one-day holiday inNew York City, Cornelius and Barnaby, histwo clerks, explode some of the bulging cansof tomatoes by holding a candle to them.Once in New York, they inexplicably endup in the same street as their boss and mustquickly hide in a milliner’s shop. WhenVandergelder enters the shop, they concealthemselves wherever they can, attemptingto remain hidden despite an errant sneezeor two. Later they pay for an expensive dinnerwith money from Vandergelder’s wallet,dance within inches of him, and thenescape by disguising themselves in women’shats and coats. These farcical elements givethe play wonderful moments of misrule,the lowly clerks besting their overbearingemployer at every turn.But The Matchmaker is not merelyfarce. It is also romantic comedy. Of course,Ambrose and Ermengarde are the thwartedyoung lovers, but there are other romanticcomplications as well. Uncle Horace,though obstructing Ermengarde’s marriage,is himself looking for a wife. Widow IreneMolloy is thinking about marrying Horace,and Cornelius and Barnaby have vowed notto go back to Yonkers until they have kisseda girl. Of course, getting married and kissinggirls are not without their risks. In fact, gettingmarried can be downright foolish.Horace Vandergelder is well aware ofthis. In the past, he was “young, which wasfoolish . . . fell in love, which was foolish . . .REALT Y CENTERTop Producing Officein Iron CountyCall or visit your local ERA agents259 W. 200 North • Cedar City435-586-2777800-819-2771www.cedarcityERA.comWe have over 45 agents to serveYOUR Real Estate Needs!If all the world's a stage, you need to dress the part.We can help you!Men's and Women's Fashion from Head to Toe74 North Main Street, Cedar City • 586-6161Midsummer Magazine 2007 • 21
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Midsummer Magazine 2007 - Utah Shakespearean Festival

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