But the slightly naughty, slightly longer stage version
adds characters

Sunday, March 2, 2003

BY CHRISTOPHER POTTER
News Arts Writer


Trivia question I: If you're a fan of the movie "Pillow Talk" (and
they are legion), are you aware that this
ever-so-slightly-naughty Doris Day/Rock Hudson comedy
romance was nominated for a half-dozen 1959 Oscars, and
took home a gold statuette for best original screenplay?

Trivia question II: Are you aware the screenplay was
expanded by playwright Christopher Sergel into a full-length
stage show - also named "Pillow Talk" - which opened
off-Broadway in 1962?

If the answer is "No" to both questions, join the crowd.
According to Ann Arbor Civic Theatre's Lorna Colon - whose
production of "Pillow Talk" opens Thursday at AACT
Downtown - much of Sergel's adaptation is a word-for-word
transcription of the movie script by Russell Rouse, Clarence
Greene, Stanley Shapiro and Maurice Richlin.

"But he also added characters who weren't in the film," she
adds. "There's so many in the play that I'm double casting
some of my (22) cast members."

Worshipers of the movie will be happy to know that "Pillow
Talk" sticks rigidly to the film plot - although the immortal
split-screen tub/phone sequence is nowhere to be found. Jan
Morrow (Melissa White in the Doris Day role) is an in-demand
interior decorator whose otherwise blissful life is ceaselessly
disrupted by macho-playboy songwriter Brad Allen (Kevin Gill
in Rock's role). Although the two move in different circles, by
coincidence they share a party-line phone: Whenever Jan
attempts to make a call, there's beastly Brad monopolizing the
line, sweet-talking a different woman every time his frustrated
phone mate lifts her receiver.

Jan and Brad unknowingly share a friend in fabulously wealthy
Jonathan Forbes (Brian Parrish in a role played by Tony
Randall on film). Catching wind of the dilemma, Jonathan
reveals it to Brad along with an homage to the joys of
pulchritudinous (though possibly virginal) Jan. Rising to a new
carnal challenge yet aware he must disguise his voice and
general demeanor, Brad takes the role of Tex Stetson, a
caring, sensitive male eager to ever-so-genteelly sweep Jan
off her feet and into the bedroom.

Director Colon says this exercise in PG ribaldry (which, I'm
told, brims with gay allusions) is as funny now as it was back in
'59. "It's a great all-around romantic comedy. There's all sorts
of high jinks, mistaken identity, great gag lines. It's a great
show, and I'm really excited because nobody's done it here (in
the Ann Arbor area). It's like staging a new show."

Other notable characters include Jan's loyal if tipsy maid,
Alma (Susie Berneis); and her neurotic, worry-wart business
partner Pierot (Jeremy Wardle). Anne Bauman, Kimberly
Endahl, Emily Raymond and Alix Berneis also play major roles
in the play, which retains the movie's 1959 time setting -
especially in its background music.

"We've got the Top 20 hits from 1959 recorded," says Colon.
"We've got 'Tears on My Pillow,' 'I Only Have Eyes for You,'
'Venus,' lots of others. We're also using jazz music in a scene
where they go to a jazz club. You'll hear Ella (Fitzgerald), Billie
Holiday, Etta James. It's a show with a lot of mobility. I think
you'll like it."