On The Stage

James Maitland Stewart: The Actor Recalled and Recalling

Kevin Allardice
Mirror contrtibuting writer
  
   There was a moment during James Maitland Stewart, a one-man show about the late actor, when I recalled another impressive Jimmy Stewart impersonation — Dana Carvey in an old “Saturday Night Live” skit in which he portrayed the beloved actor as a crazed alcoholic whoremonger. It had absolutely nothing to do with the play I was watching, only that I longed for something other than I was being given.
   In a nutshell, the play is Stewart sitting — occasionally standing — in his den in the middle of the night, recounting various moments in his life. The year is 1994. Stewart has just lost his wife Gloria, and seems to be coping remarkably well. The actor is portrayed as exactly who we think he is, and the material is never more than amusing anecdotes gleaned from various interviews and biographies of the late actor. So it was quite natural that my mind wandered to Carvey’s more interesting—if sacrilegious—Stewart.
   While it is an entertaining and amusing trip down memory lane, there is no real impetus to travel it. There is no drama, in other words. Ultimately, the show suffers from its own admiration of the actor, and its unwillingness to take any liberties that might have made for a more intriguing play. Its appeal resides solely in the comfort offered by nostalgia.
   Steve Nevil plays James Stewart, and his performance is quite amazing, as he walks the line between an impersonation and a fully realized character. His Stewart is a charming and entertaining storyteller. The way in which he first acknowledges the presence of the audience is particularly clever. He suddenly looks out and smiles, then tells us that he knows we are here; we’ve always been here, out in the shadows, watching.
   It seems he is having trouble keeping track of his memories. He explains that he spends most of his time going through old memorabilia hoping to spark memories, fearful that he will forget everything. So he begins to tell us what he remembers, on the assumption that memory will preserve life.
   It’s a promising setup. His memories are interesting, but they never jump the hurdle of the past tense. One-man shows often face this dilemma: how can they be dramatic when the drama is already once removed? The successful ones overcome it by bringing the memories into the present, with the character reliving the emotions of the moment as if it is happening anew as he or she recalls it.
   James Maitland Stewart aspires to that, but his memories for the most part are locked in the past tense. Even the most dramatic stories are told with the distance and wisdom of hindsight. In a word, it is all very pleasant — not dramatic or captivating, but pleasant.
   There is one exception. In the last two minutes of the play, he finds a flattened penny that as a child he put on the train tracks on which the funeral train of President Warren Harding traveled through his hometown. Nevil performs this moment with a clarity that the entire play should have had.
   This particular story is the only one that really resonates because it is the only one in which there’s something at stake. It is his first confrontation with death, and here he is, at the end of his life, preparing for another confrontation with death.
   It is also the only moment in the show that would be interesting had the character been someone other than Jimmy Stewart, the only time that the play transcends its premise and becomes engaging rather than just entertaining.
   But this revelation occurs at the end of a very long memory lane (two acts seems long for a play with no real driving force behind it), and ultimately not worth the trip — both the figurative trip and the literal one. The address given for the theatre was “3333 Cahuenga Blvd., W. Hollywood,” but the theater is at 3333 W. Caheunga, Hollywood. That misplaced “W” added 30 minutes to my drive. But, like the play I was about to watch, by the time I realized how long a journey it was, I was already half way there.
   James Maitland Stewart is playing at Theatre West, 3333 West Cahuenga Blvd. thru May 16th. (310) 362-8838. www.theatrewest.org.