Will Rogers: An American Original
This isn’t the first time Stormfield Theatre has hosted a one-man show by a living American playwright about a famous dead American. However, Will Rogers: An American Original marks the first time to this critic's knowledge that the famous dead American hasn’t been storied company inspiration Mark Twain. In the current production, Artistic Director Kristine Thatcher invites playwright and performer Kevin McKillip to bring to life a plain-speaking humorist and all-around good guy who was liked — and who liked in turn — the world over.
The play is packaged as a regular stop on one of the gentleman cowboy’s national lecture tours, near the end of his accomplished and varied career. In character as Will, McKillip engages in conversation directly with the audience from in front of a self-consciously artificial backdrop. Set designer Michelle Raymond adds a few painstaking details to an empty expanse that recalls movie sets of old; Joseph Dickson’s lighting design statically keeps the focus on the performance. The only tricks possible here are Will’s lasso work (at which McKillip is impressively competent) and his word play, which seem like key components in promoting his folksy brand of philosophy.
There’s a pleasant effortlessness in chronicling both Rogers’s life and his persona that is a credit to McKillip’s craft as a playwright. Oklahoma born, with very little formal education, the rope impresario found success first in rodeos, then Broadway, then Hollywood, as well as concurrent success in print as a syndicated opinion columnist and writer of humorous nonfiction — as portrayed here, Will comes across as an Everyman pundit. A substantial percentage of the play is taken up by his brand of gentle stand-up comedy covering topics from prohibition to Emily Post, even politics; the near-prescient staying power of the latter material is likely a result of its pointed vagueness, but this also keeps it uniquely (and perhaps refreshingly) inoffensive. Peppered liberally with phrases like “It seems to me” and “I tell ya, folks,” the humor comes from simplifying everything to such an extent that real-life complexity is reduced to so much baffling overcompensation. McKillip’s conception of Will is a plain, unfussy man with plain, unfussy opinions; interestingly, his dressed-up cowboy duds (wardrobe overseen by Holly Iler) suggest a man too clean and fancy to belong on the range, but too distinctively dressed for any other pursuit — a testament to his brand as an onlooker who grasps what those in the throes cannot.
Onstage, McKillip pairs real modesty with poise and assertion, smile always at the ready. His evident comfort with the material and with Rogers’s mannerisms and affectations make it easy to accept that this is the very essence of the man, instead of an imitation. Yet even so, the whole package suffers from an unfortunate lack of thrill: either contemporary audiences are wired for a different kind of entertainment, or Rogers was possessed of some exceptional star quality that this Will cannot quite replicate. His yarn illustrating the general uselessness of Prohibition is a prime example, in which a repeated punchline fails to build in its clear aim for hilarious absurdity. The character work is otherwise solid, the product of research and affectionate homage, and the more personal anecdotes — such as a madcap tale of a gall bladder operation or a purely heartfelt recollection of a favorite pony — are better equipped to win over the viewer.
Everything the audience needs to know about Will Rogers: An American Original is right there in the title. This is your one-of-a-kind cowboy philosopher: take him or leave him, because he’s the focus of all nearly two hours of this production. As suggested here, part of Rogers’s originality seemed to be his ability to enthrall an audience just by standing and speaking his mind, an innate skill that proves difficult to replicate; however, McKillup’s dual role as playwright and performer gives him a clear fondness for the material that helps viewers connect to him and, by extension, his subject.
November 11, 2011