The Herricks Community Players are reviving a vintage Neil Simon comedy this month, bringing “Barefoot in the Park” to the Herricks Community Center stage.
Longtime Herricks Community Players director John Hayes said he selected the play – his 62nd show in 38 years at Herricks – because of his admiration for Simon’s craft.
“I’m a fan of Neil Simon. It’s one of his earliest comedies,” Hayes said.
“Barefoot in the Park” was also Simon’s longest running Broadway hit, starring Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley. Redford reprised his role in a movie version with Jane Fonda as the young newlyweds who are the central characters,
“It’s lots of lines and it’s very physical,” said John Mezzo, a Herricks company veteran who plays Paul, a man in his mid-30s adjusting to married life in this version. “We’re working with people we’ve worked with for years. So we’re very comfortable with each other.”
Mezzo said he enjoys playing the range of emotions his role requires as the strait-laced Paul, who progresses from being loving and sweet to angry and finally, being drunk, in the few days the play depicts.
“We’re in love and then life hits us. It’s great fun to have an argument onstage,” said Maura Ryan. “I think a lot of people will relate to it. There are a lot of people who were young and didn’t know what life was about.”
Apart from playing the shifting feelings of her emotionally open character of Corie – a contrast to Paul – Ryan enjoys Simon’s facility with words.
“There’s a lot of fast dialogue,” she said.
Carol Giorgio, who plays Corie’s very proper mother, said she shares that affection for the playwright’s wordplay.
“You can’t fail with Neil Simon. He picks every word specifically. So we always try to get every word exactly as it’s written,” she said.
Warren Schein, who has played as broad a range of characters as anyone who has appeared on the Herricks Community Center stage, said he’s trying to emphasize the eccentricities of his character, the gourmet-artist-womanizer Victor Velasco who seduces Giorgio’s character.
“He creates very interesting characters,” Schein said of Simon.
Schein said he also enjoys playing comedy for its tonic quality.
“The best thing about comedy is it makes the audience forget their troubles,” he said, adding that the play “is real fun and it’s nice.”
Peter Triolo, who has acted and directed off Broadway and worked with Hayes for 32 years, is playing roles on both sides of the curtain in this production.
“I like building sets. I like Neil Simon,” said Triolo, who plays the telephone repairman. “His humor is very intellectual.”
“Barefoot in the Park” debuts in the Herricks Community Center auditorium at 100 Herricks Road on Friday, Oct. 18 at 8 p.m., with a performance at the same time on Saturday, Oct. 19. Performances continue the following weekend on Oct. 25 and 26 at 8 p.m. Sunday matinees are scheduled for Oct. 20 and 27 at 3 p.m.
Tickets are $23 for adults and $18 for seniors and children. Group rates are also available, Call 516-742-1926 for further information.
