REVIEW: HILARIOUS, POIGNANT "GENE & GILDA" ENCHANTS IN ITS NJ PREMIERE @ GEORGE STREET PLAYHOUSE

By Ruth Ross

America’s comedic sweethearts, Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner were everywhere in the 1970s and 80s—he, in a myriad of classic, award-winning films made with Mel Brooks and she as an original member of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players on Saturday Night Live from its 1974 inception in  until she left in 1980.

The intimate story of their initial meeting (“a match made in mishigas), romance and subsequent marriage is the topic of Cary Gitter’s hilarious and poignant two-character play, Gene & Gilda, now getting its New Jersey premiere at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, where it runs through December 22.

Gitter frames the play’s “plot” as a live television interview given by Gene to an unseen host, sometime after Gilda's passing. Shedding his initial reticence to talk about the now-deceased Gilda, Gene jumps back into the past to give us a glimpse of the lives these two entertainers led behind the lights and camera—and the laughter.

Dead ringers Jordan Kai Burnett and Jonathan Randell Silver(above) for Gilda and Gene, respectively, fully inhabit their characters physically and vocally as they naturally and convincingly recite Gitter’s clever, wry dialogue. With his mop of curly hair, cuddly naivete and nervous tics and her effervescence and flat Midwestern twang, one would be hard put to not believe the two are really Gilda and Gene returned from the grave!

On a simple white set designed by Christian Fleming, director Joe Brancato manages to make the 80-minute running time not seemed rushed even though Burnett and Silver perform a great deal of physical comedy while delivering nonstop dialogue. I found myself wishing it would not end.

Quivering with anxiety, Silver hysterically rolls on the floor and eats paper as Gene bemoans the dearth of high-quality scripts being offered to him and his desire to do something important. He feels guilty about everything, often resorting to praying and a comfort handkerchief to alleviate his stress. It would be easy to turn such a man into a caricature, but Silver (and Gitter) invests his Gene with enough humanity to make him three dimensional, relatable and very sympathetic.

Burnett’s Gilda first appears in Gene’s head as her memory derails the interview. She physically drags Gene back into the past, and the play is off and running. In contrast to Gene, she craves company, and her aggressive personality, which could be off-putting, is quite winning and attractive! Burnett gets Gilda’s voice and body language exactly right, as she bounds around the stage, mugs for Gene, recreates her SNL characters Roseanne Roseannadanna, Emily Litella, “Baba Wawa” (Barbara Walters) and climbs on furniture. She’s a delicious whirlwind to behold—and experience!

Gitter doesn’t avoid the darker sides of Gene and Gilda’s lives, from his being sexually abused at a military academy and her food issues. These quiet moments of introspective revelation flesh out two complicated human beings and deepen the story of their relationship.

Gene & Gilda pays homage to an era of television and film long past, yet its comedy and pathos remain fresh and engaging. Just watching Burnett and Silver perform on the GSP stage takes us back to a simpler time when we could turn on SNL or watch a Mel Brooks film to see them, laugh uproariously and feel that all is right with the world.

You won’t want to miss Gene & Gilda. It is a work of biography and art—an artistic biography, if you will—that will make you laugh and cry at the same time. Kudos to George Street Playhouse, Cary Gitter, Joe Brancato and, of course, Jordan Kai Burnett and Jonathan Randell Silver for turning back the clock at this holiday season.

Gene & Gilda will be performed at the George Street Playhouse, 11 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick, through December 22. For information and tickets, call the box office at (732) 246-7717 or visit www.georgestreetplayhouse.org online.

Photos by T. Charles Erickson