The Seven Year Itch at American Century Theater

The Seven Year Itch— that moment when you get bored with your spouse and cheat—is best known as the film that nearly shows Marilyn Monroe’s underpants beneath a billowing white halter dress. But, no such scene exists in the play. And, yes, George Axelrod’s Itch originated on Broadway as a three act comedy in 1952 and closed three years later.

Though it’s the decidedly different Billy Wilder film adaptation that has stayed with the ages (consistently ranking in lists of top American films/romantic comedies), Axelrod gave us the titular euphemism now fully cemented in the American lexicon and a play that may be less timeless than it’s movie counterpart.

Helen Sherman (Emily Morrison) has headed to New England to summer on the beach, leaving her husband, the zhlob-y Richard Sherman (Bruce Alan Rauscher), home alone in New York City. Left to whittle away his evenings, he begins to ponder all things love, sex, and past potential extramarital affairs, and we get a front-row seat to his inner monologues.

Soon, he encounters the upstairs subletter. Known simply as “The Girl” (Carolyn Kashner), she’s a ditzy, young redhead with a cloying voice. Richard is instantly smitten, inviting her over and dreaming she’ll turn up in a glittery evening gown because, obviously, she’s the Jezebel to his Andy Griffith.

Axelrod’s adulterous tale is full of funny zingers (“I’m strictly a one-night guy”) and dialogue (“Helen goes away, and I run amok.” He was also a keen observer of male behavior: Richard believes that at 42 he looks 28, laments that ladies age poorly, and is convinced that most women have hit on him during some banal, obligatory interaction (like at work).

Typical. Male. Ego. Even today.

Rauscher swings from confident to self-doubting easily—mostly he’s an uninteresting and highly- conflicted idiot. Kashner’s Girl is definitely sexy, and Rauscher’s Richard is definitely not. There’s no real chemistry between them; their kisses and conversation feel like chaste father-daughter exchanges.

But the main supporting cast gives the show its flavor: Steve Lebens as Dr. Brubaker plays the absent-minded, no-nonsense psychologist deadpan, straight laced and buttoned up, which makes the awful things coming out of his mouth (commit criminal assault before murdering because you must “walk before you run”) divine. Ric Andersen as the acquaintance Tom McKenzie is perfectly smarmy with his pencil mustache in fantasy sequences seducing Helen in mating dances more chicken than tango.

Axelrod’s play, however, feels dated. Watching an innocuous, nameless, chatty, sex-kitten of a girl written as only a prop to facilitate Richard’s dream of infidelity decide that, after one night with him, marriage (which she shunned initially) is in her future was like listening to nails on a chalkboard.

While the play has absurd moments—especially when jumping into Richard’s mind— The American Century Theater’s production is too couched in reality to be a fun, campy, tongue-in-cheek, wink wink, performance that helps us laugh not just at Richard, but at infidelity and the archetypal male that believes he can trade-up his used Ford of wife for a Ferrari while he, himself, remains a defunct Oldsmobile.

Nothing is really wrong with The American Century Theater’s show—especially when considering they play it as if it’s still 1952 (when it was written)—but nothing about it is spectacular, bold, or fresh either.

The Seven Year Itch . by George Axelrod . Directed by Rip Claasen .  Featuring Bruce Alan Rausher as Richard Sherman, Carolyn Kashner as The Girl, Emily Morrison as Helen Sherman, Steve Lebens as Dr. Brubaker, Ric Andersen as Tom MacKenzie, Rachel Murray as Miss Morris, Rachel M. Loose as Elaine, Chanukah Jane Lilburne as Marie,  Elaine A. Farrell as Pat, and Ethan Ocasio/Xavier Wolf as Ricky Sherman . Production Mnager, Ed Moser .  Associate Production Manager and Stage Manager, Lindsey E. Moore . Set Design and Construction, Trena M. Weiss . Carpenters, Robert Teague and Michael Salmi .  Lightning Designer, Marianne Meadows . Sound Designer, Ed Moser . Costume Designer, Rip Claasen . Properties Designer, Hannah Schneider . Assistant Stage Manager/Board Operator, Chris Beatley . Produced by American Century Theater . Reviewed by Kelly McCorkendale.

THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH
Closes Oct 11
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