"Molly's Delicious," the amiable and rather trite comedy that Arizona Theatre Company opened Saturday night, centers on the romantic trials and tribulations of an older married couple and three silly youngsters.
The long-married lovebirds Lindy and Cindy, always at each other's throats, own an apple orchard in small-town Minnesota that's lavishing them with bushels and bushels of fruit (not to mention a bumper crop of metaphors).
As the play opens, Cindy is beside herself about her naive niece's situation: Alison (Adelia Saunders, cute as a button) is single, pregnant and endlessly hopeful that the baby's father, Jerry, will make her endlessly happy when he returns from Vietnam.
But Aunt Cindy's convinced that there's something rotten about the spit-shined apple of Alison's eye. He hasn't even bothered to answer any of Alison's lovey-dovey letters. And so Cindy decides to play saboteur/matchmaker and invites Alec, the dorky son of a local mortician, over for some pie.
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Alec is destined to become a funeral director, just like his dad (nicely played by Roberto Guajardo). Alec, who dreams of planting wildflowers instead of people, is already fond of Alison, a fellow dreamer he says is too pretty for him.
"No, I'm not," says she.
"Technically, you are," says he.
Set in 1965 and first performed about 10 years ago, Craig Wright's play is a dated and lightweight exercise that's not well served by an acting style that can only be called overripe. The director, Aaron Posner, has staged "Molly's Delicious" in broad strokes that became less grating as the two-hour production rolled along.
But despite the cartoonish behavior, which often comes off just as flat as Kris Stone's simplistic set design, "Molly's Delicious" emerges as a surprisingly winning tale. However pat the ending, it's almost guaranteed to put a smile on your face.
Much of the production's appeal comes courtesy of the two ingratiating actors who play Alison's suitors: Joe Binder nails the adorable core of Alec, and Andrew Pastides sees to it that Jerry is dripping with charisma. A second-act scene between the two, in which Jerry begs to be horrified by Alec's shop talk, is priceless.
Stephen D'Ambrose and Barbara Kingsley are less convincing and more forced as Lindy and Cindy, but the relationship they create does provide for a few laughs along the way.
"Molly's Delicious" is miles away from challenging, and you might forget it entirely by the time you get to your car, but there's a childlike optimism to it, an undeniable sweetness, that's not all bad.
Review
Arizona Theatre Company's production of "Molly's Delicious," a comedy by Craig Wright, is at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. It plays 7:30 p.m. Wednesday; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 7:30 p.m. Friday; 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. March 28; 7:30 p.m. April 3; 2 p.m. April 4; 7:30 p.m. April 11; 7:30 p.m. April 12; 7:30 p.m. April 13; and 2 p.m. April 14. Tickets $26-$47. Call 622-2823.
