STAGE REVIEW : ‘Groucho in Revue’: It Takes All Night to Hit Its Marx

Strange. The big problem in putting together “Groucho: A Life in Revue,� you would have thought, would be how to deal with Groucho’s last years, which were not always funny.

Find a way around that, and it wouldn’t seem to be too much of a trick to evoke the Groucho of the movies and “You Bet Your Life,� as familiar a comic archetype for this generation as Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp was for the last.

But it’s not until Frank Ferrante’s Groucho puts on his beret that “Groucho: A Life in Revue� comes into focus at the Pasadena Playhouse. And by that time in the show, like Groucho, we almost have to be going.

Ferrante suggests that at his age Groucho is ready to go. A good wisecrack takes him years to deliver now. Not that he hasn’t adjusted his timing. He finds himself being interviewed by a beautiful young reporter (Anastasia Barzee) who tells him that her mother interviewed him when she was a young reporter.

“And . . . are you the result of that interview?� Groucho asks patiently. It’s a joke, of course. Then again, it’s possible the girl is his daughter. They don’t tell Groucho everything these days.

Anyone who saw Groucho’s last appearance at the Music Center can vouch for the accuracy of Ferrante’s portrait of him as a very old artist. You almost start worrying that he’ll fall and break his hip. Yet the mind is still working, taking advantage of a naughty old man’s freedom to say whatever he thinks. As with Hal Holbrook’s Mark Twain, actor completely dissolves into character. And this actor hasn’t reached 30.

End of rave. The first three-quarters of the show is a disappointment. It is hard to understand why. The authors are Groucho’s son, Arthur Marx, and his partner, Robert Fisher, who certainly know their material. In fact, they once wrote an amusing musical about the Marx Brothers, “Minnie’s Boys.�

“Groucho: A Life in Revue� tries just as hard to amuse--with two or three interludes of introspection, as Groucho wonders why he’s not closer to his brothers and why he keeps losing at marriage--but it only brought moderate laughter from a friendly house Sunday in Pasadena.

Perhaps we missed seeing all the Marx Brothers clowning around together. We do see Chico and Harpo, but not at the same time, as they are both portrayed by a devoted young actor named Les Marsden.

As proof of Marsden’s devotion, he actually plays the harp. And he does Harpo’s silver-stealing routine, pretending not to notice as the forks and spoons come clanking out of his raincoat sleeve ad infinitum. Who, me?

We laugh, respectfully. But not helplessly, as when Harpo does it. And it’s not wrong to use the present tense here, for Harpo is available at our favorite video store. Why pay $28.50 for an imitation?

One reason might be to find out more about the real Harpo, Chico and Groucho. But we learn nothing that we didn’t know already: They grew up poor, had a domineering mother, didn’t always get along and had individual frailties--Chico’s gambling, Groucho’s stinginess and misogyny.

The latter provokes a telling moment when Groucho’s last wife (in effect, all his wives--Barzee, again) regretfully tells him where to put it. Deeper than that the show doesn’t care to go, until the last scene, where old age provides a built-in ground-note.

Just about everything earlier depends on Ferrante’s portraits of Groucho as a teen-ager, an upstart vaudeville comic, an arrived movie star and an acerbic TV wit. These vignettes are probably just as well-researched as Ferrante’s portrait of Groucho at 80. But there is something mechanical and not totally pleasant about them, as if we were watching an action figure who wouldn’t blink if we passed a hand in front of its glassy eyes.

The high-pitched voice, for instance. Even if it’s based on Groucho’s actual voice-print from the Bell Laboratories, it sounds like a robot. It’s also strange to see Groucho bantering with an audience member who has given him nothing to banter about--another suggestion of a windup performer (though actually dictated by the script and by Arthur Marx’s staging).

We also notice that, although Ferrante’s youth gives him no trouble at all when Groucho gets to be 80, it keeps betraying him when he’s 50. There’s a jitterbug sequence when he and Barzee (she’s everywhere) are entertaining the boys oversees, after which Groucho complains: ‘I’m getting too old for this.�

But he’s not even breathing hard. Nor do we believe him in the “You Bet Your Life� sequence, where he misses Groucho’s studied contempt for the whole tacky business of quiz shows, which was the only reason to watch “You Bet Your Life.�

Again, though, the last quarter of “Groucho: A Life in Review� is brilliant. Maybe you could arrange to come just for dessert.

Plays at 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena, Tuesdays-Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 5 and 9 p.m. and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. Closes Nov. 5. Tickets: $28.50. (818) 356-PLAY.

‘GROUCHO: A LIFE IN REVUE’

Arthur Marx and Robert Fisher’s play, at the Pasadena Playhouse. Director Arthur Marx. Scenic and lighting design Michael J. Hotopp. Costume coordination and design Susan Denison Geller. Sound design Jon Gottlieb. Musical director Jim Grady. Wig design Victoria Wood. Production stage manager Diane Tardiff. With Frank Ferrante, Les Marsden, Anastasia Barzee and Rick Roemer.