Old Globe Shakespeare Festival artistic director Darko Tresnjak currently turns 20th-century-style romantic with John Van Druten’s classic 1950 Broadway comedy about a coven of Greenwich Village witches, “Bell, Book and Candle.”
The beguiling play “” many remember the 1958 film version with Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, Hermione Gingold and Elsa Lanchester ” continues in the Cassius Carter Centre Stage through Sept. 9.
Gillian Holroyd (Melinda Page Hamilton) is a witch. She lives alone with her familiar, a cat named Pywacket. Frequent visitors are her malicious warlock brother Nicky (John Lavelle) and her dotty witch of an aunt, Queenie (a marvelous character turn by Globe associate artist Deborah Taylor). When Gillian discovers through Queenie that her attractive neighbor, publisher Shep Henderson (Adrian LaTourelle), is about to announce his engagement to her college nemesis, she and Pywacket put a spell on him. He dumps the girlfriend and promptly tumbles into bed with Gillian. There’s a side plot concerning a rumpled and alcoholic writer named Sidney Redlitch (Gregor Paslawsky, whose hairpiece deserves an award), who’s writing a new book about sorcerers that Henderson wants to take a look at.
Hamilton is cool, sexy and beguiling in her fabulous black dresses by Emily Pepper. Her dark wigs sport those spit curls we all affected in the ’50s. Alexander Dodge’s sunken conversation-pit setting, lushly decorated in red velvet and sequined cushions, is surrounded by flat, black “halls” or walkways that allow for slow, character-laden entrances. Adding to the charm are the silhouettes of lighted buildings on the walkways. The Pywacket effigy doorbell is a hoot, tangible evidence of many Tresnjak touches throughout, including Matthew Richards’ witch-spell lighting and Paul Peterson’s period sound design, rife with Yma Sumac, Eartha Kitt and Frank Sinatra.
As Gillian falls truly in love with LaTourelle’s handsome, truly nice guy, she begins to lose her power and Pywacket disappears. When she confesses to Shep that she intentionally bewitched him, he leaves her.
Hamilton catches all the subtleties of Gillian’s gradual change from bitchy witch to softer, emotional woman. If one looks for it, there’s a real ’50s message here: Time to desert the WWII factories and your independent lifestyle, girls, and go home and get barefoot and pregnant. Another subtlety exists if one is aware: Van Druten was a closet homosexual, and there are numerous undertones of that lifestyle as well in the multi-layered play and the production.
For some viewers, enjoyment of “Bell, Book and Candle” may depend on the degree to which they are able to set aside the film adaptation and to enjoy the stage production for what it is, a glittering gem of period comedy.
“Bell, Book and Candle” continues Tuesday through Sunday through Sept. 9 at the Cassius Carter Centre Stage, The Old Globe, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park. For tickets and information, visit www.theoldglobe.org or call (619) 23-GLOBE.
