Hooray for Captain Spaulding!

Or maybe that should be hooray for director Henry Wishcamper and the talented cast of nine actors in George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby’s 1928 musical “Animal Crackers,” which opened tonight at the Goodman Theatre. The original musical starred the Marx Brothers, but the 1930 film based off of the musical is possibly more familiar to many audience members.

This production takes the audience in to the slapstick world of the 1920s, before the election of Herbert Hoover and the stock market crash. The production also has Joey Slotnick, Jonathan Brody, the magnificent Molly Brennan and Ed Kross looking exactly like the Marx Brothers who played the roles of Captain Spaulding, Emanuel Ravelli, The Professor and Horatio Jamison. But it doesn’t have the allusion that one is watching four people try to act like the Marx Brothers, at least it didn’t for me.

The production, which has a lavish set designed by Robin Vest that depicts the interior of a Long Island estate belonging to Mrs. Rittenhouse (Ora Jones). The six member orchestra sits directly in the center of the stage, but you never really notice them until the actors interact with them. In fact, many of the aspects of this production work well. The double casting of some of the roles works well with the actors making the characters unique and donning different outfits and wigs, easily fooling an audience members. The breaking of the fourth wall with some of Slotnick’s lines doesn’t come off as heavy handed, nor do anachronistic remarks about being at Petterino’s in ten minutes. In fact, “Animal Crackers” is a hilarious, roll-’em-in-the-aisle comedy that is truly funny and features such antics that the two-and-a-half hours you spend inside the Goodman’s Albert Theatre fly by.

The benefit of this show is that Kaufman and Ryskind wrote a book that is hilarious without being stupid. Not once is there the feeling of “Hurry up and get to the numbers,” nor is there the feeling of “Hurry up and get back to the dialogue” during Kalmar and Ruby’s numbers, which are usually serving a purpose for the characters to express romantic feelings.

But that’s only if you enjoy slapstick comedy. Those that do not enjoy slapstick will probably find “Animal Crackers” to be repetitive, vulgar and tedious. And even to those of us that do enjoy slapstick, the show is not without flaws. The final scene, a result of The Professor’s gassing antics, seems completely unnecessary except to untangle the mystery of who stole the missing painting that is at the heart of the plot. The unfortunate thing is that is slows down the show immensely, but the fortunate thing is that it’s right at the end of the show.

The entire company does a magnificent job in this production, but primarily Brennan, who relies solely on physical humor for the role of The Professor, Brody and Slotnick, who ensure that the show never has a dull moment with their delivery of misunderstood phrases and double entendres while Jones as the rich Mrs. Rittenhouse.

But what works so well about “Animal Crackers” is that it never feels as though you are watching the actors imitate the classic film. It just sweeps you away like you’re slipping on a banana peel.

“Animal Crackers” continues at the Goodman’s Albert Theatre until October 25. For more info, visit goodmantheatre.org

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” which is running through October 18 at the Court Theatre, is part of August Wilson’s Pittsburgh cycle, but is set on the south side of Chicago in the 1920s. While the setting is different, the play still examines the circumstances around life for African-Americans at the time period the play is set in, like Wilson’s other plays.

And while Ma Rainey (Greta Oglesby) has her name in the title, the members of the band spend more time on stage than she does. The climatic parts of both acts rely on the performance of the actor portraying Levee, a headstrong horn player. James T. Alfred’s performance in this role is thoroughly captivating, making the character annoying at some parts, but ultimately a sad example of the powerlessness in the world of the music industry where white men called the shots and made money off of black entertainers, who at the end of the day, were viewed only by their color. Ma Rainey might be the big name and she may appear to call the shots, but during a problem between her and a white police officer, it is her white manager, Irvin (Stephen Spencer), who smooths things out.

And while the character of Levee might come off as being an obstinate person, he is truly talented and unfortunately lives in this world where there are certain things that are assigned to black people and how things are done with them and how their music should sound. It is the actions of Levee in both acts that create such intense and startling moments in the play, that at the performance I attended, you could only hear the actors breathing if you were close enough to the stage; they stop the heart, making one tense for what occurs after that.

This production features fine performances from all of the actors, each of whom has a large presence on stage, but when Oglesby is on stage, she steals the eye from everything else to focus on her, which is very suitable for Ma Rainey’s diva personality. The actors also mime the actions of playing instruments well enough to fool someone who has played an instrument for several years.

John Culbert’s set is so detailed in depicting the setting of the show that you can see the footprints that have been left by the wintertime sludge on the floor of the practice room. The set is storied, on a lower level is a practice room, a little higher up is the recording space and at the top is the entrance way. This works perfectly because when there is action occurring in two different spaces, you can focus both things simultaneously without being distracted and missing something important.

Parsons production comes together to create something so powerful that it is mesmerizing, heart-wrenching and thought-provoking all in the course of one moment. It creates a powerful moment on stage and in the audience, making Wilson’s words resonate through the space of the theater.