MACK AND MABEL TAKES AUDIENCES BACK IN TIME TO WHEN "MOVIES WERE MOVIES"

By Liz Alper

Saturday, March 12, 2016 (La Mesa) - On Saturday night, I saw the Lamplighters Community Theatre’s production of Mack and Mabel.

The play stars Don Evans as Mack and Lindsey O’Connor as Mabel.  Through Mack’s retelling and flashbacks, it tells the true story of how silent film director Mack Sennett and actress Mabel Normand fell in love.  From their humble beginnings in Brooklyn to becoming major stars in early 1920s Hollywood, the play covered a surprising amount of their history, including the rise of Mack Sennett’s Bathing Beauties and the Keystone Kops.

I wanted to see this play because I am a silent film fan and I was not disappointed.  In the first number alone, “Movies Were Movies,” Mack makes several references to Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and other silent film stars of the day.  Also, throughout the play, references are made to other silent film stars, such as Norma Talmadge and Gloria Swanson.

Now, for the musical numbers.  My favorite song was “Big Time,” in which the entire company sings about going to Hollywood.  The singers are wonderfully together on the harmonies and that makes the song work.  Lindsey O’Connor has some great solo numbers, including “Time Heals Everything” and her portion of “I Won't Send Roses.”

I wish the play had focused more on Mack and Mabel's relationship, but I really can't complain; the attention paid to getting the history moderately right is excellent and the kiss they share together at the end of the play makes the wait well worth it.

Even the director, George Bailey (not played by Jimmy Stewart; he was an actual man named George Bailey. *wink*), gets in on the fun, playing Slim, an actor in Sennett’s company and Mabel's friend.  I think he was my favorite character; he had the most acting chops out of the entire cast and was a great singer too!  And the line about his 80-year-old landlady is hysterical.

Speaking of lines, the best and most powerful line comes in Act Two, Scene Three when Mabel is boarding a cruise ship to go to Paris with W.D. Taylor, another director, when Mack stops her.  At first, she is overjoyed that he has come to stop her from getting on the boat, but that soon changes when Mack enters into his usual habit of describing everything in terms of movie scenes and not real life.  After a long description of a movie scene where he and Mabel fall in love, Mack notices Mabel is turned off and asks if it was something he said and Mabel says no, that he said the only thing he could say.  I thought that was very powerful.

The only flaw I think this play has is that maybe there could be an older actor playing older Mack Sennett and a younger actor playing younger Mack Sennett.  It would make more sense because Mack Sennett looked incredibly young as a young director.  He even looked a lot like Charlie Chaplin, in my opinion!  

But that was a minor flaw.  Overall, I thought the show was excellent and is definitely a must-see!