Fresh from a successful run in London -- and poised to open soon on Broadway -- CTG's production of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boysseems like a surefire L.A. hit. With Danny DeVito and Judd Hirsch playing the cranky ex-vaudevillians who are persuaded to reunite for a TV special, Simon's 1972 comedy is in good hands. DeVito and Hirsch worked for years together on “Taxi,” and their chemistry helps them create in convincing turns as the battling duo, Lewis and Clark.
British-based Thea Sharrock is, on the face of it, not the right director for a comedy based on New York Jewish humor and shtick, but she overcomes the obstacle by giving The Sunshine Boys a madcap pace and sheen that are right out of the "louder, faster" George Abbott school.
DeVito (as Willie Clark) does most of the heavy lifting in the play, which opens in the former's seedy upper West Side apartment and then briefly shifts in Act Two to the studio where the TV special is being shot. DeVito uses his diminutive size and skill at playing grouchy to excellent effect, winning laughs with just about everything he does and says. Hirsch (as Al Lewis) is the more subdued of the two, as befits his straightman role in the act.
Justin Bartha as Willie's nephew and much-stressed agent, is a bright and charismatic presence, and Annie Abrams as the voluptuous nurse in the bawdy TV sketch wins applause for her antics.
Simon doesn't cut as deep as he does with some of his later plays, but he's such a comic master, with the laughs coming in unending waves, that he can be forgiven just about anything.
