Kind-hearted Elwood P. Dowd has a magic trick he likes to perform when he meets someone new in the classic comedy “Harvey.” He pretends to find his business card behind the surprised stranger’s ear. There’s no sleight to his trick. It’s all hand, this clumsy-sweet gesture.
The same cannot be said of playwright Mary Chase’s enduring play. Seventy-plus years after debuting on Broadway, “Harvey” still exerts an impressive magic. One might even argue it pulls a rabbit out of the proverbial hat. And the cast gathered for the Arvada Center revival — under Gavin Mayer’s direction — has a grand time of teasing this fluffy tale.
For those unfamiliar with Chase’s charmer (and the film that made her Pulitzer Prize-winning play an enduring classic), it’s about a man named Elwood (Torsten Hillhouse) who has a best friend by the name of Harvey.
This titular pal isn’t human. Instead he is a rabbit. Indeed, a very tall rabbit: “6-8” is what James Stewart says of his co-star in the DVD extra accompanying the 1950 movie adaptation.
The one in this production is not quite as towering. He is, however, invisible. A fact that leads Elwood’s nearest and dearest to worry about his grasp on reality.
That this concern is often a byproduct of shame says a great deal about the character of the characters in this play and even more about journalist-turned-playwright Chase’s wise sense of society.
Marriageable niece Myrtle Mae Simmons (Missy Moore) is mortified by her uncle’s behavior. And “Harvey” begins with Myrtle and mother Veta — Elwood’s younger sister — trying to make sure Elwood is out of the house when they entertain the female muckety-mucks of the community.
In this regard, “Harvey” has something in common with the story of Margaret “Molly” Brown.
was born in Denver, attended West High School, and studied at both the University of Denver and CU-Boulder. A child of Irish immigrants, Chase, too, seems to have gotten a taste of the town’s high society and found it in need of needling.
Kate Gleason amuses and galls as the increasingly agitated Veta. She’s set on institutionalizing her brother after all.
Veta is unhinged enough by Elwood and Harvey that in trying to commit her brother, she is mistaken as the one in need of a “rest” at Chumley’s Rest sanitarium.
In contrast, Hillhouse’s Elwood is a genial soul. He’s terrifically friendly and deceptively clueless. He’s a tippler, a regular at a number of watering holes, which adds to Veta’s embarrassment.
The chase is on as Dr. Chumley (Jeffrey Roark), his associate Dr. Lyman Sanderson (Graham Ward) and burly orderly Duane Wilson (Steven Coles Hughes) try to figure out where Elwood has escaped to. Audra Blaser adds a screwball frisson to the goings-on as Ruth, the nurse Dr. Sanderson hankers for.
More than once Elwood says his friend’s a “pooka.” If you look up breeds, you won’t find that one amid the Netherland Dwarfs or impossibly cute Holland Lops. But the word will you lead you to wonder if “Harvey” is about madness or mystery, folklore or society’s straitjacket approach to uncomfortable behavior. That so many decades later, the answer remains “both” hints at the power of Chase’s magical work.
Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567, lkennedy@denverpost.com or twitter.com/bylisakennedy
“HARVEY” Written by Mary Chase. Directed by Gavin Mayer. Featuring Torsten Hillhouse, Kate Gleason, Missy Moore, Steve Cole Hughes, Jeffrey Roark, Graham Ward and Audra Blaser. Through Feb. 22. 2 hours 20 minutes. At the Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd., Arvada. Tickets $38-$48 via arvadacenter.org or 720-898-7200.
