Sunset Playhouse has hit a hole-in-one with its production of A Fox on the Fairway.
This wickedly humorous play by Ken Ludwig, of Lend Me a Tenor fame, takes its inspiration from the English farces of the 1930s and ’40s. The play originally opened in 2010 at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, before heading to New Jersey and beyond. In Milwaukee, the show runs for only two more weekends.
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It centers on one madcap weekend in the tap room of the Quail Valley Golf and Country Club – during an annual golf tournament with its arch-nemesis, the Crouching Squirrel Golf and Racquet Club. As designed by Katie Johnson and filled with props by Lynn Ludwig-Franitza, the set gives off generic golf and country club vibes, providing a perfect stock backdrop to the antics of the high-energy cast.
Most of the action is driven by the rivalry between Quail Valley president Henry Bingham (Mike Owens) and Crouching Squirrel president Dickie Bell (Michael Fantry). Henry is married to Muriel (Colleen Hart), whom he not-so-affectionately refers to as Lady Voldemort, while he pines for longtime friend and flirty club board member Pamela Peabody (Tanya Tranberg), who is also Dickie’s ex.
Henry and Dickie make an outrageous wager on the tournament, and Henry thinks he has an ace in the hole with a new player on his roster. Before the tournament even begins, the smarmy Dickie snags Henry’s golfer. But not all hope is lost when Henry discovers that his new assistant, Justin Hicks (Jordan Paullin), is a virtuoso on the greens. But drama involving Justin’s new fiancée Louise Heindbedder (Sarah Briana Monahan) threatens to derail it all.
Director Brian Zelinski has assembled a cast with both great chemistry and physicality, as the actors chase each other on and off stage – putting, push-ups and a faulty microphone all come into play.
The barbs exchanged between Henry and Dickie, as well as Pamela and Dickie, come at the audience at a quick and sometimes vicious pace. Dickie’s wardrobe changes get progressively more ridiculous, and it’s worth crediting costume designer Kate Dombrowski for the eye-popping outfits the golfers wear.
Several audience members gave the cast a standing ovation after the funny epilogue, which involved rewinding and then fast-forwarding the action of the entire play. Although A Fox on the Fairway will be enjoyed by both golfers and non-golfers alike, the innuendos and implied infidelity might be too risqué for younger ones.
A Fox on the Fairway runs through Sunday, Feb. 4. Tickets are available online and are also available at the box office until showtime.
