REVIEW: Funny Money

Dan Connell (back), Bob Leggett, Luke Terry cut up in Spotlight Theatre's production of Funny Money. Photo credit: Cat Smith

Denver's master of farce Pat Payne has brought yet another Ray Cooney laugh-fest to madcap life with Spotlight Theatre's current production of Funny Money, playing through December 20 in the small but mighty John Hand Theater. In his director's notes, Payne quotes British playwright Ray Cooney on the distinction between farce and comedy, and it's so helpful, I'm reprinting it here:

According to Cooney, "Comedy is frequently about an eccentric person in an everyday situation; whereas farce usually involves ordinary people attempting to deal with an eccentric situation."

That's a very practical way of putting it. What interests me most, is how a comical crisis can expose an otherwise normal person's character flaws. Farce can reveal the dark side of our sinful nature in a "no harm done" environment. We laugh, and in the case of Funny Money, laugh our heads off, but we're also aware that none of us knows our real character until it is put to the test.

Mild-mannered Henry Perkins (perfectly cast and brilliantly played by Bob Leggett) has the misfortune of accidentally picking up someone else's briefcase. Only later does he discover that it contains a fortune in untraceable currency. With no way in which to return the briefcase, and mindful that the true owner, who is certainly a criminal, now possesses his name and address from the contents of his own satchel, Henry decides to take the money and run.

What follows are a serious of increasingly preposterous complications involving his wife Jean (Linda N. Suttle) who doesn't want to go anywhere except to the liquor cabinet, his friends Vic and Betty (Luke Allen Terry and Amy Ratliff) who become enablers, a pesky taxi cab driver (Charles Hettinger) and no fewer than two detectives (Clint Heyn, Dan Connell) with different reasons for coming to the Perkins house. The farce reaches its climax when the owner of the briefcase (Michael Kienker) arrives to claim what is rightfully his, sparking an uproarious chase scene set to the tune of the Benny Hill theme song.

The bulk of the play's humor revolves around the hordes of imaginary relatives created by Henry, Jean and others as excuses for various characters' presence or absence, and the difficulty in keeping them straight. I wouldn't have been surprised if one of them finally announced that "I'm my own grandpa!" In addition to variations on this one joke, the complete disintegration of moral standards provides one comic shock after another. In the course of the play, the otherwise straight-laced characters sink to deception and outright lying, greed, alcohol abuse, bribery, implied homosexual activity, group sex and spouse swapping.

There's a "no harm no foul" caveat to the piece, and though the social order isn't fully restored, at least the play has a happy ending. But the idea of how a small sin can erode and then let loose a flood of degenerate behavior leaves a lasting impression. For this reason, Funny Money is a surprisingly, and perhaps unintentionally moral farce.

Spotlight Theatre's production of Funny Money plays through December 20, 2008 at the John Hand Theater, in the Lowry development. For information and reservations, call 720-880-8727 or visit online at www.thisisspotlight.org.