When Doug and Sherry Kay Yetter took over the Annapolis Dinner Theatre last month in a flurry of behind-the-scenes corporate activity, they immediately contacted three local actors who had starred in a recent production of Leonard Gershe's play "Butterflies Are Free."
Scott Nichols, Kelly McPhee and Carol Cohen all agreed to resurrect the play at the newly renamed Chesapeake Music Hall. Mr. Yetter, the director, brushed the principals up a bit, added David Reynolds to the cast, and -- voila! -- "Butterflies" is on the boards through February.
I cite this brief history because it explains how a show worked into a theater's rotation so quickly can be this good. The venue may be new, but these actors have this funny, charming, rather anachronistic play so inside them that their affection for the material and for each other is obvious.
"Butterflies" is the story of Donald Baker, a witty, intelligent aspiring musician who has been blind since birth. Now he is rebelling against his obnoxiously co-dependent mother and has taken a small apartment in Manhattan as he tries to figure out his next move.
The love interest is his flighty, ditsy neighbor, Jill. She deals with emotional commitment the way vampires handle daybreak.
Of course she falls for her neighbor, but can a wacky aspiring actress, whose earlier fling with marriage lasted a whole six days, find lasting happiness with the sensitive, sightless Romeo next door?
Enter Momma. From Scarsdale, no less. She, of course, wants Donald back home, dependent and under her thumb. You can imagine how happy she is to meet the goofball actress in the next room.
The show is full of clever, Simonesque dialogue. "Do you have a sixth sense?" Jill asks Donald. "If I did," he replies. "I'd still only have five, wouldn't I?"
At times the play gets too cute, but the people are worth caring about. The characters grow before our eyes. When they finally emerge from all the cute banter, their dilemmas are achingly real.
The performances are uniformly excellent. Donald is nothing if not cute, and, face it, nobody in these parts can do cute better than Scott Nichols. His smile is warm, his comic timing exemplary, and he adds many convincing physical mannerisms to convey Donald's blindness. Most importantly, Mr. Nichols connects believably with the females competing for Donald on the most fateful day of his life.
Kelly McPhee portrays Jill as a space cadet supreme with numerous physical affectations to match, but when it's time for Jill to tell off Momma or bare her innermost fears minus the flower child silliness, her characterization is right on target.
Carol Cohen is her usual remarkable self as the overbearing mother whose ultimate conversion to her son's cause isn't the least bit treacly or contrived.
David Reynolds dons an Afro and does a nice job as the crazy Broadway director for whom Jill seems all too willing to dump Donald.
Things lapsed badly in the kitchen under the 1993-1994 Dinner Theatre owners, but things are looking up on the chow front under the Chesapeake Music Hall's new management. There was a lot to enjoy, from chewy mozzarella sticks and crisp salad croutons to delicious Italian herbed chicken breasts.
"Butterflies Are Free" plays through Feb. 25. For prices and information, call 626-7515.