The Heir Apparent. Classic Stage Company (see Off Broadway). By David Ives. Directed by John Rando. With Carson Elrod, Paxton Whitehead, Suzanne Bertish. Running time: 2hrs. One intermission.
The Heir Apparent: In brief
The ever witty David Ives (All in the Timing) returns to CSC with an adaptation of Jean-François Regnard's Le legataire universel, a 1708 comedy about a French aristrocrat whose rich old uncle has designs on his fiancée. Director John Rando's cast includes Dave Quay, Paxton Whitehead, David Pittu and, as a wily servant, the comedically gifted Carson Elrod.
The Heir Apparent: Theater review by Adam Feldman
When rusting classics need repolished lives,
Is anyone fitter than David Ives?
He loves to dip his quill where others daren’t,
Most newly in Regnard’s The Heir Apparent.
With rhyming verse, Ives kicks out all the jams,
Pentameter agleam with bright iambs,
And happily creates for all to see
A comic marvel at the C.S.C.
The 18th-century plot—already a
Tad familiar from commedia—
Concerns young lovers, lawyers and misers
And servants who serve as their advisers.
But here the stock is flavored to a T
With vibrant comic ingenuity.
A zippy Carson Elrod heads the cast
As Crispin, crafty valet of Eraste
(Dave Quay), a callow but handsome fella.
Amelia Pedlow plays Isabella,
Who loves Eraste, but who, despite her want,
Obeys her mom: the mean Madame Argante
(Ripe Bertish), who will only have her wed
To someone with a luxury of bread.
The old Geronte (ace Whitehead) fits that bill
And so Eraste must bend his uncle’s will
To get the ancient pincher to agree
To leave him all his dough as legacy.
This summary can only just begin
To limn the joys of Ives’s loony bin.
There’s John Lee Beatty’s rich set, and—oh
Yes!—whip-quick direction by John Rando.
Go see the play and you’ll surely concur
This Heir Apparent is a farce majeure.
—Theater review by Adam Feldman
Follow Adam Feldman on Twitter: @FeldmanAdam