CCM’s “Matchmaker” full of energy

*This is a review of a play I saw at the end of October, written for my Advanced Reporting: Writing about the Arts class

“You’v e got to be willing to risk a little security for a little adventure,” Horace Vandergelder says, almost prophetically in the first act of “The Matchmaker”. It’s good advice too, especially for those of us stuck in the humdrum life of 9 to 5 work. The College Conservatory of Music (CCM) performance was chock full of energy and adventure from the moment the lights came up as the characters shouted, screamed, danced and ran around the Patricia Corbett Theater stage.

Even though the action centers on Mrs. Dolly Levi in the play “The Matchmaker,” the two characters that stole the show were Cornelius Hackl (played by junior Kristopher Dean) and Barnaby Tucker (played by sophomore Will Kiley). Sure Levi’s (played by senior Taylor Cloves) character is supposed to be larger than life, but even she was upstaged by the two clerks.

Those who are familiar with the Broadway hit musical “Hello Dolly!” already know the storyline to “The Matchmaker”. Written in the 1950s by Thorton Wilder, the drama centers around Mrs. Levi’s attempts to be a matchmaker for couples in love. Her ultimate goal is to marry Vandegelder (played by junior Mack Harden), a 50-year old widower, for his money, but Vandergelder is hell bent on marrying the younger Irene Molloy, who runs a woman’s hat shop in New York City.

Molloy ends up falling for Vandergelder’s chief clerk, Hackl. And in the end, Levi’s charm and wit is too much for the frugal Vandergelder to ignore, and they end up married, as do Molloy and Hackl.

Even though Harden’s interpretation of the penny-pinching, profit minded Vandergelder was stout, Cloves’s less than convincing Dolly left me feeling cheated. Dolly’s personality is one of wit and charm, and while Cloves was able to believably pull off some of the lies and off-the-cuff remarks, her stage presence was lacking.

However, the playful interactions of the tall, but younger Kiley and shorter, yet older Dean made the crowd laugh at every turn. And Kiley’s high-pitched voice was absolutely the highlight of some jokes. As Kiley and Dean twisted and ran around the stage, the energy in the room was palpable, and light hearted.

And speaking of turns, the stage rotated nicely between acts, and set designer Brian Ruggaber, as well as CCM student and stage manager Elena Russo should be proud of the seamless transitions their work provided. The two-sided set easily transformed from a living room to the hat shop to the outdoor restaurant veranda and back to a living room for the final act. And it wasn’t awkward when the actors moved the props onto the turntable portion of the stage before scenes changed.

The microphones that protruded from each actor’s hair were slightly concerning. While the audience should expect there to be some minor flaws, the microphones showing were very irritating, especially since there weren’t many times in the intimate, small theater that any actor needed a microphone. Yet, there were times when the microphones distracted from the performance, especially when Kiley’s fell from around his ear because of his heavy sweat.
While the title character is less than convincing, the duo of Kiley and Dean will leave you laughing the rest of the night. As Kiley mentions in his final monologue, “We hope your life has the right balance of adventure and sitting at home.” I wouldn’t be caught at home with this drama playing on stage. It’s too funny to miss.