When a cast is this solid, it’s tempting to just say that everybody did what they needed to and then move on. But that wouldn’t make for much of a read, and it would certainly sell the actors short. As Willie Clark, Kevin Adams is the clear star of the show. He’s funny, charming, cantankerous, and believably unconcerned with the realities of his situation…Co-star Timothy H. Lynch’s Al Lewis has a bit less stage time, but its a credit to his strengths that I keep having to remind myself of that fact. In classic vaudevillian style he’s the thin man to Adams’s fat man, a hard-of-hearing straight man to Adams’s forgetful clown…
Productions at Keegan stand out due to the strengths of the relationships between characters, and The Sunshine Boys is no different.”
Both men, in turn, are pains-in-the-ass of Peter Finnegan’s Ben Silverman. Finnegan provides the anchor for both the plot and the emotional development of the other characters…Finnegan puts some real emotional weight behind the character, balancing the over-the-top antics occurring on-stage. The supporting cast does just fine, but Kecia A. Campbell deserves special mention for her role as a nurse late in the production. It can be hard to make an impression when you’re showing up for the first time in the third act, but Campbell manages to hold her own against Adams playing Willie at his worst.
It’s great to see a production where the whole crew really seems to get behind a script…Director Michael Innocenti has managed the delicate balancing act of going for the big laughs without losing sight of the real emotion of the piece. More than anything else, you can sense the absolute glee that that everyone on stage has running through the bits.
