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On the heels of the closing weekend of "Broke-ology" at Copaken Stage, Friday evening KC Rep continued Kansas-themed theatre at its UMKC Stage with William Inge's 1955 comedy, "Bus Stop", directed by Steven Cosson. KC Rep's next work, "Venice" (co-written by Artistic Director Eric Rosen), is in pre-production, marking an artistic milestone with three works overlapping one another.

Very funny throughout, "Bus Stop" also provides glimpses into the serious side of human intimacies through the happenstance interactions of an eclectic group of characters at a snowbound "diner in rural Kansas, about 20 miles west of Kansas City, Missouri." There is Elma, the naïve high school student/waitress (played with wide-eyed, innocent perfection by Blair Baker) who nearly falls for the hauntingly creepy advances of middle-aged patron Dr. Lyman (played with spectacular range by Mark Robbins); bus driver Carl (David Fritts) who obliges diner proprietor Grace's (Cheryl Weaver) itch for an extra-marital romp in her over-the-diner apartment; and young cowboy Bo (Jedadiah Schultz) who has to learn - quickly - how to temper and mature his courting demeanor to win over Kansas City chanteuse Cherie (Adria Vitlar). Vitlar plays the role made famous by Marilyn Monroe in the 1956 movie adaptation. She nails the blonde bimbo persona while injecting a likeable and endearing vulnerability.

"Development" characters enhance and foster these relationships: Sheriff Will (Jim Gall) acts both as Cherie's protector from the initially over-aggressive Bo while seeking to coach Bo on how he might improve his awkward wooing; fellow (but much older) cowboy and father-figure, Virgil (Gary Neal Johnson), tries unsuccessfully to keep Bo from pushing Sheriff Will too far while also coaching him to soften his demeanor towards Cherie; and, in a different pairing, Grace offers motherly tutelage to Elma, which includes issuing a stern warning to her about Dr. Lyman's not-so-innocent attentions.

Probably the funniest part of this play is the way Inge lobs these intermingling plots to the audience. After making some fairly subtle overtures towards Grace, Carl announces to the entire diner that he's intent on taking a long, two hour walk to get some fresh air - in a blizzard. This is followed not long afterwards by Grace's sudden "headache", for which she has to retire to her upstairs apartment to "recover". Only the audience initially appreciates the humor in events that are completely unrelated in the eyes of the other characters. Sheriff Will eventually puts 2 and 2 together, at which point everyone, audience included, enjoys watching him torture Carl with his discovery.

Cherie, to whom we are introduced ahead of Bo and Virgil, is intent on ditching Bo, who has become convinced after the briefest of courtships that she has agreed to marry him and move to his Montana ranch. This makes the over-the-top, bombastic entrance of Bo all the more entertaining, and sets up his inevitable climactic conflict with Sheriff Will. In exploring the character's undercurrents, Schultz does a fine job of revealing Bo's vulnerabilities even as the character continues to put up an aggressive and self-assured front that the audience gradually realizes Bo himself doesn't even believe.

On the flip side of "funny" lies the palpable audience discomfort watching Dr. Lyman slowly lure Elma into his personal space towards a potentially life-altering scenario that could forever taint her innocence. There was a collective, non-verbal "ooohhhh nooooo..." as the audience gradually became aware of his nefarious intentions. Whether by excellent casting or artistic execution, Mark Robbins' "Dr. Lyman" was perfect in the most disturbing of ways. In the universe that included only the audience and the play's cast, the only people who knew what he was really up to were Dr. Lyman and the audience! It was eerily realistic how he would intermittently pull Elma aside, making ever-more-aggressive advances while skillfully masking his intentions from the other characters.

I was equally impressed with the subtlety with which Gary Neal Johnson developed Virgil. With little or no lines for much of his early scenes, Virgil first comes across as a minor character - a mere on-stage sidekick to Bo. But as we learn more about him - including that he was Bo's father's best friend, raising Bo since the age of 10 after his death - it becomes more and more evident that his character has a deeper meaning that will help deliver poignant closure at play's end.

Set Design (Andromache Chalfant), in particular, was exceptional. It looked like someone had sliced a real 1950s-era diner in half, length-wise, and placed it on stage. Above this, on a second level, was Grace's apartment. However effortless it appeared, an impressive amount of work and attention to detail went into delivering a set that looked like it had literally been - delivered. Add to this the equally realistic outdoor backdrop - the audience looks out towards the diner's entrance at a dark, snowy night - and the staging comes together magnificently:  every time someone came in or out, you half expected to feel a blast of cold air.

Eventually, of course, the road between the diner and its next stop (Topeka) clears and the stranded patrons are able to move on. Bo and Cherie have come to a mutual understanding about their relationship (thanks in no small part to both Sheriff Will's and Virgil's guidance); Carl and Grace seem to have forged a mutually-rewarding, if vapid, understanding about their "arrangement"; and Dr. Lyman has a moral epiphany (or just hits rock bottom one too many times) that spares Elma learning too soon about the treachery of dirty old men.

As I alluded to earlier, the closing minutes of the play reveal a deeper meaning. The last two characters on stage are Virgil - who opted not to return to Montana with Bo and Cherie - and Grace, who is closing up for the night. With no place to go, Virgil is left to hope he can wake the small town's innkeeper for a room; short of that, as Grace puts it to him, he is "literally out in the cold." Virgil dejectedly meanders out front, where we can see him pausing to light and smoke a cigarette. As he does so, Grace finishes closing up before she retires to her apartment, where we can see her slump herself - equally dejected - into one of the kitchen chairs. The paralyzing cold and snow that has dissipated to free the other characters to return to the normal course of their lives - some improved substantially like Bo and Cherie; some simply not made worse, like Elma; and some with at least a hope of redemption, like Dr. Lyman - has left Virgil and Grace with only uncertainty and emptiness.

And so it is that with the closing curtain, Cosson's interpretation of "Bus Stop" reveals itself to be equally enjoyable, funny, disturbing and enlightening. The characters are as surprisingly deep as that first step into a blizzard's deceptive snowdrift:  you expect only to sink up to your ankles, but you wind up hip-deep in something far more challenging.

REVIEW:
Kansas City Repertory Theatre
Bus Stop
By William Inge
Directed by Steven Cosson
Runs March 12 - April 3 (reviewed Friday, March 19, 2010)
Spencer Theatre
4949 Cherry Street, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-235-2700 or online at www.kcrep.org

Top Photo: "Bus Stop" at the KC Rep. Cast members Cheryl Weaver (Grace) and David Fritts (Carl). Photo by Don Ipock.

By Christopher Guerin

Traditional and New Classical music, and Theatre Contributor (Past writer)
Christopher Guerin holds degrees in Music Education, Music Business, and Music Theory & Composition, the latter from the University of Massachusetts (Lowell) College of Music where he co-founded the college's Composers' Guild, and, in 1985, won the Artin Arslanian Composition Award. During college, he also obtained some musical theatre experience as a member of pit orchestras for Threepenny Opera and My Fair Lady. Since 1989, Christopher has been in the very non-artistic corporate sector, where his creative energies have been put to more mundane endeavors 

Christopher credits his musical motivations to his late father, who was concertmaster of the Springfield (MA) Community (pre-cursor to the city's current Symphony) Orchestra and performed popular music on radio in the 1930s. Christopher began his classical training in 1972 at age 10, began teaching at 16 (continuing to take private students throughout college), and traveled extensively with a youth orchestra - including to New Zealand in 1980. After college, and until 1989, Christopher focused on the business end of music as a successful sales manager for one of New England's largest music chains.

Over the past 20 years, Christopher's expertise has focused on medicine as a life risk underwriting officer for a large Midwest insurance group. His past duties included responsibility for risk underwriting in Pacific Rim markets where he traveled extensively to Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand and Burma. Time permitting, he has continued to compose intermittently throughout this period. Christopher is married to Paula, a fellow musician he met during college, and together they have "composed" their magnum opera in three very creative children - an architecture student (go K-State!), an aspiring classical pianist, and a budding writer/journalist. He and his wife relocated from Massachusetts to the Kansas City area in 1997.