Jake’s Women for Galleon Theatre Group
When directors and theatre companies look for plays with audience appeal the works of Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Neil Simon invariably come into the mix. It’s therefore no surprise that Adelaide’s Galleon Theatre Group didn’t need much persuading by Director Warren McKenzie to stage Simon’s Jake’s Women as the company’s first 2015 show.
Known as Chapter 3 by some, Jake’s Women is a touching and funny story about letting go of yesterday and embracing the here and now.
Jake is a writer who struggles with the realities of life. When his own circumstances overwhelm him he retreats into his imagination. Here, things are delightfully complicated too, because Jake is often confused between the real and the imaginary, especially when it comes to the characters he creates with his writing.
Jake’s Women premiered at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California, in March 1990. Following ordinary reviews Neil Simon rewrote much of the play. The new version opened on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theater in March 1992, directed by Gene Saks. The character Jake was played by Alan Alda who received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play for his performance.
Importantly, the comedy has been an ongoing critical success in its re-written form:
"Fantastically funny...Jake's Women are a wonderful crowd." - The New York Post.
"One of Simon's best." - The Los Angeles Times
"Wit and wisecracks aplenty." - UPI
"Spending time with Jake's Women is a wholly justifiable diversion for the audience as well as the protagonist." - The New York Daily News
Neil Simon grew up in New York during the dark days of the Great Depression, a time when comedy was an important escape from the tough realities of life. Simon was inspired to become a writer by observing the great comedians of the time, including Charlie Chaplin.
Over his prolific career Neil Simon has written more than thirty plays, but he started out writing radio and early television scripts alongside well-known writers such as Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks and Selma Diamond.
Simon’s first play Come Blow Your Horn took three years to complete. Following its successful run on Broadway, the playwright wrote Barefoot in the Park (1963) and The Odd Couple (1965), for which he won the first of three Tony Awards. In 1991 his Lost in Yonkers was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Warren McKenzie is relishing bringing Jake’s Women to the stage for the first time in Adelaide and is delighted with the actors in his Galleon Theatre Group production.
‘Jake’s Women gives a superbly strong cast the opportunity to shine in this gem from the pen of the master of relationship stories,’ he said.
Well known to regular Galleon audiences, Andrew Clark is the bemused and bewildered Jake. The seven women in his life, both real and imaginary, are played by Marie Nield, Jo St.Clair, Laura Antoniazzi, Anita Canala, Molly McCormack, Laurie Mulgrew and Eilish Devlin.
Galleon Theatre Group has produced two of Simon’s plays before, The Gingerbread Lady and the semi-autobiographical Chapter Two, based on Simon’s complex emotional response to his first wife’s death.
Galleon is so fond of Neil Simon that its November show will also be one by this prolific playwright, Rumours.
Don’t wait for November though; with Galleon’s critically acclaimed capacity to put on a great Neil Simon production you can enjoy an excellent example of the man’s enduring work soon, by heading to the intimate Domain Theatre to see Jake’s Women.
Lesley Reed
WHEN: Preview Wednesday April 29, 8pm;Thursday April 30- Saturday May 2, 8pm; Thursday May 7-Saturday May 9, 8pm; Saturday May 9, 2pm.
WHERE: Domain Theatre, Marion Cultural.
BOOKINGS: www.galleon.org.au or call 0437 609 577.
Choice of conventional or cabaret seating.
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