St. Louis Eats and Drinks With Joe and Ann Pollack

Joe Hanrahan is a man of considerable talent, enough to carry a piece of rather lightweight fluff like "Mistakes Were Made," a long way. In what is basically a one-man show, Hanrahan finds the charm and humor, and the pain, too, in juggling 10 telephone lines while trying to produce a Broadway hit. The play, a Midnight Company production, opened last night at the Kranzberg Theatre and will run through Sept. 3.

Of course, Hanrahan is the founder and artistic director of Midnight, so he is in a position to pick his plays. And he doesn't have to audition, either. Craig Wright's comedy had its premiere in Chicago not quite two years ago, and ran in New York last fall.

With a lot of help from Emily Piro as Esther, an overworked secretary/telephone operator who has a small but vital part and shows an exquisite sense of timing, Hanrahan portrays Felix Artifex, a smarmy producer, desperate to get a break and make it into the big time. He has a script called "Mistakes Were Made," about the French revolution, by an unknown writer. He has a theater, and some money, and he thinks that if he can cast a Hollywood star named Johnny Bledsoe in the lead, his worries will be over. He has 10 phone lines and a lot of people trying to talk to him.

Bledsoe, for example, wants to change his role of King Louis (Artifex cannot remember his number) to be sort of a sidekick to Robespierre. The playwright resists. So does the playwright's agent. Artifex also has invested in some sheep, somewhere in the Middle East, and has a Belgian woman running that part of the operation, but not very well. He's trying to contract for some security forces, and he's being bothered by a lot of people. And he's trying to contact his ex-wife, with some sort of absurd hope that they can get back together.

We all know people who eat when they are nervous or under stress. Artifex, when nervous, feeds a goldfish named Denise, hiding this fact from Esther as if he were a little boy trying to snare an extra cookie.

Sarah Whitney's direction is first-rate, and there are a lot of good gags along the way. Three of the best are waiting on stage -- a poster of William Shatner as King Lear, another of Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan in "My Fair Lady," and a third announcing "A Long Day's Journey Into Night-- on Ice." They put the audience in a good mood even before Hanrahan takes us into a funny fantasy land, which is exactly what the theater is.

broadwayworld.com
Chris Gibson

Mistakes Were Made is a very funny play, full of in-jokes for those in the know of theatre and the Hollywood scene for sure, but also for those who aware of the history of the French revolution. Although essentially the ravings of one man, the part of his secretary keeps him in check and adds a bit of sanity to the proceedings. In any event, Joe Hanrahan and Emily Piro are terrific in this 90 minute peek into the world of a desperate Broadway producer who works his wiles as he tries to get a show off and running by tying it to a hot Hollywood commodity. The Midnight Company's current presentation is playing at the Kranzberg Arts Center, and it's a must-see event.

Felix Artifex is a producer trying to juggle the demand of a star, his playwright, his writer's agent, an ex-wife, and ten trucks of sheep on their way to a dipping that have stumbled across a rebel faction that means them harm. All the while his trusty secretary, Esther, patiently takes down messages and passes them along, informing her harried boss of the latest person on hold, or the latest crisis that's developed. And, it's set against the backdrop of an attempt to finance a production called "Mistakes Were Made", which is a particularly apt title, since nothing than can possibly go right, does.

Joe Hanrahan gives a tour de force performance as Felix, letting you feel every bead of sweat that crosses his forehead as he tries to wriggle free from very obligations, or wrangle a solution on the fly to an especially nasty predicament. Hanrahan is nothing short of perfection. Emily Piro neatly underplays as Esther, and that works to her distinct advantage, allowing her to seem reasonable and human, while she attempts to keep her boss and his various callers placated. Together, they offer a neat balancing act that never fails to draw laughs in abundance.

Sarah Whitney directs with a sure and steady hand, guiding these actors through their paces with precision. She aided in her efforts by the superb work of her cast and Robert Van Dillen's nicely lived-in office set, complete with an overfed fish in a tank that Felix has named Denise, and taken to talking to (and feeding) when things get a little out of hand from time to time.

Mistakes Were Made is the kind of compact theatre experience that absolutely delights an audience with its abundant humor, and with the wonderful work provided by its cast. Craig Wright's witty and insightful play continues through September 3, 2011 at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

Playbackstl
Jim Dunn

Felix Artifex (brought to full, shabby life by Joe Hanrahan) is a New York producer and assembler of second-rate dreams who is responsible for putting B-list actors in C-list productions. As evidence of this, one poster on the set proclaimed, "William Shatner in LEAR with Pauly Shore as his fool." He does this with a tortured finesse that is part huckster and part paternal grace.

Mistakes Were Made is the vehicle that is going to change all that for Felix. It is the play with big concepts about subject matter (The French Revolution) that Felix does not understand, yet sees as a ticket away from schlock and an opportunity to show his estranged ex-wife that he has acknowledged and changed his ways. But, like his loose grasp of the play, Felix proves time and again that his ability to make things happen often ignores the more human needs we all have. Even his last name, bestowed upon him by Craig Wright, the play's author, is an ancient Latin word with the double meaning of artist and craftsman: art versus commerce.

During the tightly woven, intermission-less 90 minutes of the Midnight Company's production, we watch Felix as he tries to pull together the pieces that will make this play happen, win back his ex-wife and save the lives of drivers transporting a thousand goats to a dipping facility in the Middle East. He does this using a phone with ten lines or more (at least that is where I lost count). For nearly the entirety of the play, Felix works the phone like a wizard juggling directors, pampered movie stars, the play's tortured writer, the goat transporters, various well-armed rebels threatening the goat transporters, and the mercenaries who are supposed to be saving them.

It seems that all of humanity is on the rolodex of Felix's unflappable assistant, Esther (played by Emily Piro), who seems both Artifex's enabler and foil.The only person she seems to be unable to connect him to is the person he truly wants: Felix's estranged ex-wife, Dolores. Despite all the verbal acrobatics he goes through to bring off the new production, this "mistake" is the one Felix would truly like to fix. Mistakes Were Made, which was directed by The Midnight Company's Associate Director Sarah Whitney, moves at a fast pace as we watch Felix's dreams of bringing the play to the stage, reuniting with Dolores, and fixing the goat situation in the Middle East all come to disaster.

None of the complicated and often hilarious scenarios could have possibly come together without the talents of Joe Hanrahan, who works the phone and the imaginary conversations with a depth that makes the far-fetched setup appear quite believable. And while Felix is perhaps unethical, bossy, and far too willing to sacrifice art for commerce, Hanrahan never lets the audience forget the humanity and loss the man is harboring deep inside. Joe Hanrahan appears regularly on various stages around St. Louis, and visually he often looks very similar: a middle-aged, going-to-seed guy with disheveled hair and glasses balanced precariously on his nose. But, as with many great character actors, he seems to inhabit his characters as if they have lived inside him for many years. In Mistakes Were Made, Hanrahan brings to life a souless man who will say and do anything to get his shows onstage—but what Mistakes Were Made reveals is that line between art and commerce and how painfully sharp it can be.

This was our first visit to see a show at the Krazberg Center, which is in the beautifully reimagined Woolworth in Grand Center. It shares building space with the Boys and Girls Club and the Craft Alliance. My only complaint about this addition to local theater venues is that they should not sell potato chips to the audience (or allow them into the theater). It was as if the couple in the second row snacking on chips was vying for attention with the rebels in the Middle East...and he was winning.