Word: scripting
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Like This. Three years later, Hollywood snatched it up and turned it into the screen classic Here Comes Mr. Jordan. Decades later, Hollywood dug it up yet again, stuck yet another title ("Heaven Can Wait") on the marquee and milked one more hilarious blockbuster out of essentially the same script, this time starring heartthrob Warren Beatty and the venerable James Mason...
Part of the success of Heaven Can Wait (or whatever you want to call it) can be credited to author Harry Segall's virtuoso incorporation of every popular comedy element known to man into a two-hour script. This play has it all: mistaken identities, fumbling criminals, an adorable romance, a working-class mug playing a millionaire, a boxing match, some good black humor, and a whole bunch of scenes set in heaven with genuine angels...
...shucks grin reminiscent of Warren Beatty's but adds the distinct nuance of a die-hard Bruins fan. Draped in a baggy sweatsuit and perpetually bouncing on the toes of his high-top sneakers, Ducey's Pendleton doesn't quite pull off the New Jersey punk of the script, but his portrayal of the native Boston variety is equally winning. There's something about a really thick Boston accent, liberally sprinkled with words like "dame" and "mug," that assures the audience they're dealing with a regular...
Lighting is ably handled by Patrick Gurian, and some tricky special effects seem to run as planned. Director Jeff Hass also makes good use of the less than optimal performance space of the Currier House fishbowl. His updating of the script, with details like Bruce Springsteen and Sugar Ray Leonard, is on the whole useful and unobtrusive Especially amusing is Pendleton's query to an angel, "How's Elvis doing these days...
...come from the stage and the band's music comes from the pit. Somewhere, the rhythm is out of sync. Fortunately, the off rhythms never diverge far enough to destroy any of the numbers. Generally, the sound effects and the music add effectively to the emotional impact of the script...