Arthur Laurents, the man who gave us such memorable theatrical personalities as Mama Rose and Gypsy Rose Lee in Gypsy and Tony, Maria and Anita in West Side Story, introduces us to a truly unique cast of characters in Shattered Globe Theater’s production of Invitation To A March. Set during an early 1960s summer on the South Shore of Long Island, three families are brought together and come dangerously close to falling apart.
Eccentric Southerner Lily (Eileen Niccolai), the widowed mother of sleeping beauty Norma (Joey Honsa) —a narcoleptic bride-to-be—is anxious for her daughter’s wedding to handsome, but boring young lawyer Schuyler (Mike McNamara) to take place. He is a catch and her daughter’s ailment is the hitch. Schuyler’s parents DeeDee (Linda Reiter) and Tucker (Doug McDade) arrive at the house that Lily is renting for the summer from controversial town resident and single mother Camilla (Rebecca Jordan), equally anxious to meet their future daughter-in-law.
The house is familiar to DeeDee and Tucker because they used to summer nearby, and then they realize that Camilla, the woman who owns the house, was a source of strife in their marriage during one of DeeDee’s pregnancies, 21 years earlier. It seems that Tucker strayed, and became romantically involved with Camilla. To make matters worse, Aaron (Adam Joyce), was born of their indiscretion, although Tucker never knew about him.
Invitation To A March has fairy tale elements (a kiss from the sexy and unpredictable Aaron awakens Norma from one of her naps in a way that Schuyler’s kisses couldn’t), doses of comedy (DeeDee can’t remember Lily’s name and calls her “every flower in the garden,” except the one she was named for) and a fair share of drama. It also has cumbersome asides to the audience that never work quite right. The free-spirited Camilla never earns the empathy she tries so hard to elicit from the audience, while DeeDee and Lily are at their best (and most entertaining) when they are at each other’s throats. Norma’s brother Cary (Neal Simons) is as much of an unpleasant nuisance as the device of breaking down the fourth wall. The play would have been much better without both.
However, the love triangle between Norma, Schuyler and Aaron is the main reason for seeing this production. Each of the performers brings a summer-like heat to their characters that simmers and boils over repeatedly, without ever evaporating. The different drummer to which these characters marches has an inconsistent sense of rhythm, but they eventually find a way to get in step.