Theater Review : Difficult Labor Delivers Too Little of ‘Too Late’

STANTON — Summer Arthur Long’s “Never Too Late,” one of the last hits in the twilight of the Broadway sitcom, deserves the many revivals it gets in community theaters. It’s well structured, often funny, and its audiences get a kick out of the once outrageous idea of a couple past their prime facing a surprise pregnancy.

The mistake director John Craig makes in the production at Stanton Community Theatre is thinking that the script doesn’t require more than getting some actors together and letting them act funny. His tempos are brisk enough. His casting is careless.

Harry and Edith Lambert (Tom Hardy, Linda Van Dine) are saddled with their adult daughter Kate (Monica Suter) and son-in-law Charlie (Ed Kirkland). Charlie works at Harry’s lumberyard.

The news of Edith’s pregnancy is a bomb that starts an avalanche of cliched folderol: Edith decides to redecorate a spare room as a nursery and finds out after all these years that she has a checkbook and can write checks; Kate, who knows not from cooking or cleaning, has to take over the chores, and the men become more incompetent than usual.

It takes expert skills to make it all work. Van Dine, way too young to play Edith, is the only one who has any connection with the necessary reality and any understanding of the comic style. Hardy remains monotonously cantankerous and unfunny throughout.

*

Suter wears what she obviously thinks are funny costumes, pouts and stomps around angrily like a 5-year-old and misses every laugh she might have. Kirkland is much too old for the son-in-law and, in trying to act younger and bouncier, just looks silly.

Ken Rugg is Mayor Crane, who lives across the street, and he plays the role in stereotypically uptight style. Rugg’s distinctive beard identifies him immediately doubling in the small role of a contractor. In minor roles, Shirley Kirkland and Nick Fahl make less than notable appearances.

* “Never Too Late,” Stanton Community Theatre, New Community Center, 7800 Katella Ave., Stanton. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m. Ends Saturday. $8. (714) 758-8292. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

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Tom Hardy: Harry Lambert

Linda Van Dine: Edith Lambert

Monica Suter: Kate

Ed Kirkland: Charlie

Nick Fahl: Dr. James Kimbrough/Policeman

Shirley Kirkland: Grace Kimbrough

Ken Rugg: Mayor Crane/Mr. Foley

A Stanton Community Theatre production of a comedy by Summer Arthur Long. Directed by John Craig. Scenic design/stage manager: Elaine Fischbeck.