Biography: Theater 3 at The Mint, November 24, 2009

New York Times, November 30, 2009

She’sWriting Her Tell-All Memoirs, Guys

By ANITA GATES

Was S. N. Behrman one of those women who wrote under a masculine pen name? Of course not. But you might think so, considering the strong feminist viewpoint in his 1932 play “Biography.”

Tracy Shayne, left, and Cheryl Orsini in “Biography.”

There are many pleasures in the cheeky production at Theater 3 at the Mint, directed by Pamela Moller Kareman and brought to us by Mare Nostrum Elements and Theater 808, in association with the Schoolhouse Theater. Just to make things even more interesting, theatergoers may know almost half the cast as staff members at Orso, the popular theater-district restaurant.

The heroine of “Biography” is Marion Froude (Tracy Shayne), a single woman semi-famous for painting celebrities’ portraits. Now she’s “frightfully hard up,” so when a magazine editor, Richard Kurt (George Kareman, the director’s son), offers her a $2,000 advance to write her memoirs, she can’t resist.

Ms. Shayne plays Marion as a post-sitcom Mary Tyler Moore, if the cheery Mary Richards had dressed for dinner and enjoyed scandalous affairs. The men in Marion’s life adore her. Among them is Bunny, a k a Leander Nolan (Kevin Albert), an old beau who begs her to edit him out of her life story.

It’s a clever tale, well played, Cowardesque but sincere. When Bunny accuses Marion of flippancy, she apologizes, adding, “One gets into an idiom that passes for banter.”

Richard, Mr. Kareman’s character, is convincingly 25, fresh-faced and overconfident. Some of the other casting, though, seems off base. Richard is enchanted by Marion, who acknowledges only that she is at least 35 (maybe 45).

As Minnie, the German maid, Cheryl Orsini is likable but seems either too young or too egalitarian. In Behrman’s script Melchior Feydak, an old friend, is 45, but Tyne Firmin has the bearing of an older man. Maybe 45 was the old 65. And Bunny’s future father-in-law, the newspaper magnate Orrin Kinnicott (Keith Barber) doesn’t look much older than Bunny himself. Simon MacLean makes a brief, delicious appearance as a visiting movie star who seems just the right age.

Kimberly Matela’s costumes are attractive, but most of Marion’s seem bad color choices for a fair redhead. The fur-trimmed suit that Slade Kinnicott (Sarah Bennett), Bunny’s fiancée, wears is good looking but seems to have gone just over the line between heiress and gun moll.

Biography: Theater 3 at The Mint, November 24, 2009