A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN FILM
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In fact A History of the American Film is a rich, complex play disguised as just another parody of often-parodied films–Casablanca, Citizen Kane, On the Waterfront. The parodies are chronologically arranged to reflect movies’ evolution from the silent era to the disaster epics of the mid-70s, but the play also tells the absurdist story of a hapless woman, Loretta, who attempts to find happiness in a world that keeps shifting genres. One minute she struggles with life in a 30s gangster melodrama, the next she finds herself cast as the unknown starlet who gets the big break in a Busby Berkeley movie musical (with parodic lyrics by Durang and music by Mel Marvin).
Done well, the play is not only very funny but explores such diverse questions as the difference between theater and film, the relationship between the audience and the screen image, and the ways Hollywood films have changed the way we perceive God, history, and our place in the world. Done badly, the play decays into a series of loosely connected comedy sketches about movies, reminiscent of the mild satires Carol Burnett used to feature on her show in the late 60s. Funny and diverting, yes, but ultimately not very satisfying intellectually–hardly the sort of thing Durang had to go to Harvard and then Yale Drama School to learn to write.
Only Jane Blass, as an Eve Arden clone, and Cathy Schenkelberg, as Loretta’s chief rival, Bette, give consistently good performances. Schenkelberg in particular deserves praise, as one of the few singers in the cast who can sing and the only dancer I would go out of my way to see dance again.
