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Usher Nonsense, Vol 2., No 11
THE FOREIGNER, by Larry Shue, directed by Scott Schwartz
With Matthew Broderick, Frances Sternhagen, Kevin Cahoon, Mary Catherine
Garrison, Neal Huff, Byron Jennings (Sight Unseen) Lee Tergesen
Set Design – Anna Louizos, Costume Design – David Murin, Lighting Design – Pat Collins
Roundabout Theatre Company, Laura Pels Theatre, 111 West 46th Street
Through January 16, 2005
This is the story of a bashful Brit,Charlie Baker, who is more or less marooned in a cabin located
in Nowhere Tennessee with a bunch of people he doesn't know. His friend, Srgt. Froggy
LeSueur, leaves Charlie there for a few days while he is off on a military project. In order to
help Charlie cover his extreme bashfulness and total lack of self esteem, they concoct a story
that Charlie is a "Foreigner" who doesn't speak or understand English. This leads to people
talking to him as if he were deaf as well as saying whatever they please because they think he is.
A few (20) years ago, my father made his one and only solo trip into town to see me. He stayed
for two nights, and I mapped out our evenings. One night we went to the Gulf and Western
building to see the sunset, then down to Washington Square for dinner and then to the Astor
Place Theatre to see The Foreigner. Normally, my dad was not a demonstrative man. He rarely
laughed out loud. The night we saw The Foreigner he laughed so hard I thought he was going
to fall out of his seat.
This production is not that production. From the minute the curtain comes up it seems the
actors are all operating on the same little ear phone George Bush didn't have in that first debate –
the one with the time delay. They hear lines, then something goes on in their head, then they
respond. It's like they are under water.
To complicate things, the characterizations are just odd. Matthew Broderick, as Charlie Baker,
drags in some of his Bloom character from The Producers. He sounds like he just snorted a
weasel up his nose. Frances Sternhagen prances around pretending she is a dimwit – which she
clearly isn't. Everyone else seems to be a caricature, not a character. To be sure, this is a
broadly written comedy that goes so far as to make fun of the Klu Klux Clan, but the Marx
Brothers and Charlie Chaplin did as much to Hitler – and they still reeled us in.
This production doesn't even hook us.
Oh, yeah - the scene in The Foreigner that my dad laughed at the most was the one where
Ellard, a dim-bulb even on his good days, starts communicating with Charlie Baker (the
Foreigner). He thinks Charlie doesn't speak any English, and doesn't like talking in general, so
Ellard uses breakfast utensils and pantomime to communicate. The scene started out silly, then
tipped way over the edge and took us all along. The actor I saw play Ellard was Kevin Geer
(now in Twelve Angry Men). His performance in the Foreigner was one of those theatre
moments – the ones that keep on giving in more ways than one.
©2005 by Tulis McCall