For much of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, no matter where you lived, chances were that actor Edward Everett Horton would eventually turn up at your local Odeon in British playwright Benn Levy’s comedy romance Springtime for Henry. The redoubtable player (better known for his narration of the Rocky-and-Bullwinkle cartoons in his later years) toured with Springtime for decades, starting in 1931, when the play was written. By 1951, Horton had notched more than 1500 performances, with years of trodding the boards as the play’s rakish Henry Dewlip still in front of him.
Unfortunately, Horton’s proprietorship of the play meant that stock and small companies were forbidden to do it. Rather than becoming another Private Lives, a classic and evergreen drawing-room comedy of manners, Springtime lapsed into an obscurity that’s ill-deserved, according to Huntington Theatre Company artistic director Nicholas Martin, who is overseeing the current revival of the work. " It’s like finding out that Diamond Lil or an old Mae West vehicle that she owned and wrote was actually a great play all along. It’s not just an old warhorse for a funny, fading movie actor — it’s actually quite funny. "
The show concerns " a figure that we have today that’s slightly changed: the playboy, " explains Martin. A handsome roué fond of the high life, Henry Dewlip is in charge of the family automobile business. His life turns topsy-turvy when the quick-witted Miss Smith applies to be his secretary. " It’s about identity and infidelity. It’s remarkably amoral in the sense that marital fidelity means very little. Although it’s an English play, it’s got much more in common with the great American screwball comedies than with the world of Noël Coward and Somerset Maugham. It owes a great deal to that world, but there’s a bumptious American quality that makes it appealing to young American actors. "
Springtime will be a complete change of pace for star Christopher Fitzgerald, whose last Huntington appearance was in Martin’s production of Irish playwright Frank McGuinness’s World War I drama Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme. He plays Henry to the Miss Smith of Jessica Stone, who was last seen at the Huntington as the appalled Betty of Betty’s Summer Vacation. " It’s a fun part, because the writing is reminiscent of Coward and Wilde, " says Stone. " It’s witty and lightning-fast. Miss Smith has secrets, but I explore her softer, more vulnerable side, which is just as present as her snapping wit. The play isn’t just frothy quips — there’s real emotional terrain to visit. " For example:
Henry: " I dislike men who do business for love or women who make love for business. It generally means that they do both badly. "
Julia Jelliwell: " Why are you so punctilious in paying my losses at roulette? "
Henry: " Purely a question of ingratiation. Women should be stolen and not bought. "
" The moral values of the play are farcical rather than serious, " says Martin. " The characters are people you think you’ve met before but are actually quite an oddball group. " And for him, Springtime is a breath of spring air, particularly given the seriousness of his previous projects and the current state of the world. " I really needed a few laughs. And I think my condition mirrors the condition of the country right now. It’s like the Second World War — people are ready to have a few laughs. "
The Huntington Theatre Company presents Springtime for Henry at the Boston University Theatre May 16 through June 15. Tickets are $14 to $64; call (617) 266-0800 or visit www.huntingtontheatre.org.
