(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – Animal Crackers, the 1928 Broadway musical that George S. Kaufman created for the Marx Brothers and that went on to become one of their most beloved films, is being staged in a modern adaptation written and directed by Henry Wishcamper on the Main Stage at Williamstown Theatre Festival from Wednesday, June 26, 2013, through Saturday, July 13, 2013. Opening at the same time on the Nikos Stage and running through Sunday, July 7, is the world premiere of American Hero by Bess Wohl.
Animal Crackers includes the classic Marx Brothers number “Hooray for Captain Spaulding.” Spaulding, played by Groucho in the original, is an intrepid African explorer, inveterate womanizer, and interminable jokester. The play captures him hobnobbing with high society as the guest of honor at a swanky soiree. But when a priceless painting is pilfered, he and the guests are swept up in a screwball search for the thief.
Animal Crackers is also one of the Marx Brothers’ most subversive shows, in which Groucho tweaks the upper-class wealthy, including Mrs. Rittenhouse, played by Margaret Dumont in the original, in terms that even today are shocking for their confrontational manner. The musical includes the legendary “Abie the Fishman” routine, wherein Groucho “outs” university president Roscoe Chandler as someone very different from whom he is pretending to be – a signal moment in the history of pop culture awareness of Jewish assimilation.
In Wishcamper’s production, a nine-person cast portrays 21 roles. Playing the iconic trio of Marx Brothers are Joey Slotnick (The Big Knife, Twister, “Nip/Tuck”) as Groucho, the role he performed to critical acclaim in the Goodman Theatre’s 2009 production; Jonathan Brody, who performed alongside Slotnick in the Goodman production, reprises his celebrated role as Chico; and Brad Aldous (“Boardwalk Empire”) takes on the hilarious Harpo.
Animal Crackers features a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind with music with lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.
In American Hero, seventeen-year-old Sheri and her co-workers at a new submarine sandwich franchise have honed their skills making everything from the Turkey Torpedo to the Big Kahuna Tuna exactly as specified in the corporate manual. But when the franchise owner mysteriously disappears, they are forced to improvise, and Sheri takes charge of the ragtag band of “sandwich artists.”
The world premiere of American Hero marks playwright Bess Wohl’s return to the Nikos Stage, following her play Touch(ed), an audience favorite in 2011. Wohl’s American Hero is a humorous and heart-filled tale, directed by Leigh Silverman, widely celebrated for her skillful direction of new plays such as David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish and Lisa Kron’s Well.
The cast of “sandwich artists” includes star of stage and screen Omar Metwally (Sixteen Wounded, Steven Spielberg’s Munich) playing multiple roles, Ari Graynor (The Performers, “The Sopranos”) as Jamie, WTF favorite James Waterston (WTF’s Children and The Torch-Bearers) as Ted, and newcomer Erin Wilhelmi (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) as Sheri.