Tony Mastroianni Review Collection
"Any Wednesday" Given New Twist
Cleveland Press March 9, 1967
"Any Wednesday," as offered by the Play House, is a different "Any Wednesday" from previous productions. Not wrong. Just different.
It is still a play about a business tycoon whose mistress occupies a love nest called an executive suite for tax deduction purposes.
And it retains as its major plot complication the arrival of a young out-of-town businessman at the executive suite followed minutes later by the tycoon's wife.
How long will the suspense last before the wife discovers all? About one and one half acts, just like before.
But what is played out at the Play House is a rather rapidly paced farce rather than the light but sophisticated comedy which "Any Wednesday" once was.
Guest director Raphael Kelly has his four characters milling about like eight people. No longer is the mistress a wide-eyed kook, the kind you would figure would hardly know about the birds and the bees let alone businessmen who tell their wives they are out of town every Wednesday.
As played by Susan Sullivan and directed by Kelly she is instead rather worldly but not very wise; a little mixed up about people, but not exactly innocent. As for being a tax loss, this actress has rather the looks of a gilt-edged security. She lowers her voice to a growl occasionally and that's supposed to indicate something, isn't it?
A STANDOUT IN ALL OF THIS is Susan Sadler as the wife. Her rapid speech is not simply fast without meaning. It has the air of a woman who needn't pause because she has no uncertainties about herself or others in her life. And when she first suspects this other relationship it is not lost on the audience.
William Paterson is his usual sure-footed self as the ruthless tycoon who is basically an immature boy in his attitudes. In his hands the character is comic and yet more sympathetic than might be indicated in the part.
DAVID SNELL IS likable and offers a picture of sincerity as the angry young man who comes on the scene, but he also is a bundle of grimaces.
"Any Wednesday" is a play that will be filling the Play House with laughter as well as people for its seven week run. It has bright lines and antic twists.
The tax deduction gimmick aside, it also has a standard sex joke plot which playwright Muriel Resnik kept from being offensive with some light, airy writing.
Kelly's direction pulls the play in the other direction. Most of the time, Miss Resnik wins.
