Theater Review: Heaven Can Wait

by Gina Robertson of John Garcia's The Column

Dupree Theater at the Irving Arts Center is one of the most beautiful theaters in the area, with a broad house of comfortable seats and a gallery of art for patrons to enjoy during intermission. Here the arts are clearly respected and enjoyed.

Heaven Can Wait is a simple, pithy tale about a pugilist who mistakenly gets removed from his body and sent to heaven 60 years before his time. He can't be returned to his body because it's been cremated, so with the assistance of head angel Mr. Jordan, he inhabits the body of the freshly deceased John Farnsworth, a millionaire business tycoon with a scheming, adulterous wife who's plotting with her lover to murder him (again). In Farnsworth's body, Joe falls in love

with the daughter of a man Farnsworth has ruined, and he sets out to make things right while pursuing the boxing career he began in his former body.

In a story as simple as this, entertainment depends on the actors delivering their lines for maximum impact, but also receiving the lines delivered to them in a way that enhances the comedy. This play provides lots of opportunity for comedic stage business and fun physicality that enhances the humor in the dialogue. For instance, when Joe's in a room talking to both angels and other people who can't see them, there's much potential in this "talking to thin air" gag.

Interplay between characters is essential, including good rhythm, reaction and timing. This is a cast of talented actors, each giving a terrific performance but none of them are really in sync with anybody else.

Dan Duncan as Max Levene, Joe's boxing manager, has a few good comedic moments. Jackie Kemp as the angel Mr. Jordan is smooth and professional, earning a few laughs with his own deadpan delivery. Craig Boleman almost carries the role of Joe Pendleton but seems a bit miscast for the superficial reason that he lacks a boxer's build and so fails to carry himself the way a boxer would. He does well with the Jersey accent, but since he never fully convinces himself as a fighter, he seems even more out of place trying to pull off a fighter in the body of a wealthy aristocrat.

The show opens with a nice bit of smoke effect, and the stage is visually magnificent. Costumes and hair are worth noting, for they evoke the lovely vintage black-and-white films of the 1950's.

Heaven Can Wait, presented by Irving Community Theater, runs though April 11. Purchase tickets online or by calling 972-252-2787.