The Unfettered Critic, April 2014 – by Paula Block Erdmann & Terry Erdmann

We made a mistake.

Two seasons ago, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival presented “Animal Crackers,” the Marx Brothers masterpiece that stormed Broadway in 1929 and hit Hollywood in l930. We’d heard how great the OSF production was. But we were busy. We missed it. And we’re sorry. Which is why we cheered when OSF announced “The Cocoanuts” as one of its 2014 non-Bard choices.

Interestingly, this production takes OSF a step backward in time. “Cocoanuts” was the Marx Brothers’ first Broadway play (and movie), followed a year later by “Crackers.” It was the brothers’ big chance to tread the boards in Manhattan after years of perfecting their brand of nonsense in small vaudeville theaters across America. The brothers fused their endless patter of puns and ad-libbed shtick with a slim plotline provided by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright George S. Kaufman. The play instantly became the wry toast of the town, playing to packed houses, and Paramount Pictures, looking for popular fare to offer audiences eager for “talkies,” jumped on it. When “Cocoanuts” finally closed, the brothers continued performing it in front of a camera during the day, then raced across town to do “Animal Crackers” on Broadway every night. So for the Marx Brothers, “Cocoanuts” was first, and “Animal Crackers” was second. Got it? And while we haven’t caught up, at least we’ve caught on. And so should you.

You know the Marx Brothers, right? Groucho, the con artist in the swallowtail coat and grease-pencil moustache, with leering eyes like windows into a dirty mind; Chico, the pseudo-Italian country bumpkin with a pinhead hat propped over calculating eyes; curly-haired Harpo, his trench coat bulky enough to accommodate the utensils and silver platters he appropriates, his rubber-cheeked cherubic face silent while his rubber-bulb taxi horn speaks for him. Trust us—you need to know these comedic geniuses better.

Or, at least, their brilliant incarnations on the OSF stage. This is an immaculate, perfectly cast cast. (Yes, we said that.) With Mark Bedard (who also adapted the original material for this production) as Groucho, a.k.a. “Mr. Hammer,” complete with signature “duck walk,” John Tufts as Chico, and Brent Hinkley as Harpo, you’ll never get closer to meeting the real guys. And meet them you just might. These three are ever ready to engage the audience—as in: jump into the seats, climb over you, set you in their laps, dig though your pockets and purses and take your money. You’ve heard the term “interactive?” Well, the Marx Brothers invented it and this trio has revived it. Be prepared.

“Cocoanuts,” by the way, is a musical, with songs by the great Irving Berlin. His classic tune “Always” was included in the Broadway score, but it was among several songs cut from the play when the Marx Brothers’ expanding barrage of jokes made the production too long. OSF has smartly and successfully reincorporated the missing tunes.

As for the plot, it’s zanily sweet. Boy (Zeppo, the fourth Marx Brother) meets girl, loses girl, gets girl back. The songs and dance numbers are glorious (and every person in the cast is top notch). Yet it’s the dialogue that soars above all else. How can your funny bone not crack under the comedic weight of lines like:

Groucho: “Here’s Cocoanut Manor, here’s Cocoanut Heights… and right over here where the road forks, that’s Cocoanut Junction.”

Chico: “Where you got Cocoanut Custard?”

Groucho: “Why, that’s on one of the forks. Now, over here on this site we’re gonna build an eye and ear hospital. This is gonna be a site for sore eyes. You understand?”

Yes. We do.

Paula and Terry each have long impressive-sounding resumes implying that they are battle-scarred veterans of life within the Hollywood studios. They’re now happily relaxed into Jacksonville.

Posted March 28, 2014