At the surface, Wally’s Cafe looks like a biting Neil Simon-esque comedy about a bumbling businessman and his beleaguered wife, joking their way through their misfortune. But at its heart, the play is about the strength of a marriage and a dream, born in a bitterly unforgiving wasteland and nurtured through years of laughter and love.
When the play starts in 1941, Wally (Rob Marland) has just abandoned New Jersey for a cafe he buys in the middle of the California desert. His wife, Louise (Chris Jeszeck), hems and haws her way through doubts about the venture, compounded by the warnings of her family, who aren’t fans of Wally. Their first customer (who arrives before the official opening) is Janet (Cara Carucci), who soars into the couple’s life with a clumsy elegance the pair are instantly enamored with.
Janet aims to make it big in Hollywood while Louise and Wally just want to make a dollar at their restaurant (sadly located on the wrong side of the highway on the lucrative route to Las Vegas). Janet’s “talent” lies mostly in her ability to attract the worst kind of men and fall head over heels for them.
Marland does a particularly great job with an aging Wally, and Carucci handles Janet with balanced notes of sadness and childish naivete. But Jeszeck delivers such a multi-faceted performance as the long-suffering Louise, it’s hard to not single her out. Louise is a woman chained to both her husband’s dreams and her own resentment for trusting in him. It takes a talented hand to switch effortlessly between the sassy comedic moments of the role into the deeper sadness of the character, and Jeszeck handles it effortlessly.
The dialogue is punchy and filled with good zingers; there’s not a lull in the entire production. It’s a comedy that deals with some very adult themes such as adultery, aging, and financial ruin. Peppered with familiar tunes of each era (the Deep Purple/”Blue Moon” connection is very clever), the show does an excellent job with fun, tiny details that give the play depth.
The comedic lines and delivery are absolutely what you will enjoy most from this play. It’s funny and bawdy and oftentimes reminiscent of a great sitcom from the 1980s. But it’s Jeszeck’s small moments of anguish and lament that will linger with you long after the lights come up and dinner is over.
Arts and Lifestyle Writer Rebecca Rose has never seen a blue moon standing alone. Contact her at rrose@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 28 – Oct 5, 2017.