“American Homestead Winter,” by Currier and Ives
“It was like déjà vu all over again,” the eternally confused Yogi Berra once quipped.
For those of you who see a lot of theater, you may be visited by a strong sensation of déjà vu as you watch the Circle Theatre’s “Christmas in New England,” Laura Marr’s adaptation of the 1945 Barbara Stanwyck comedy “Christmas in Connecticut.”
Marr clickety clacks along on a manual typewriter … hey, wasn’t that her gig in the recent “84 Charing Cross Road” on the same stage? Cullen Chollet yammers away in an accent that comes across as a delightful blend of Boris Badenov (“The Adventures of Bullwinkle and Rocky”) and Latka (Andy Kaufman’s character from “Taxi”), the same idiom he employed in “The Foreigner” at the Bellevue Little Theater.And Rosanne Glock dons a multihued series of wigs, just as she’s done in what seems like virtually every role she’s ever tackled at the Circle Theatre.
Déjà vu? Yes, just as in the familiar feeling that comes in waves every time you cross the Circle threshold, that tingling vibe announcing that a comedic treat awaits.
This time the laughs are of the screwball variety when we discover that Marilyn Street (Marr) has a problem. The unmarried New York career woman, author of the wildly successful “Diary of a Homemaker” column, is a fraud who suddenly finds herself in desperate need of a husband, baby and farm in Connecticut to prevent the charade from crumbling into a million little pieces.
Strong performances from Marr, Chollet as a Russian servant, Don Harris as a war hero, Kendall Gray as Street’s publisher, Jerry Onik as the faux husband, Glock as a series of background characters and the seldom seen Curt Siemers as a tipsy judge make “Christmas in Connecticut” the perfect spice for any holiday nog.
