| . | 05/14/2009
It Pays to Advertise
By: Victor Gluck
Brian Cooper and Scott Kerns
(Photo credit: Derek Meade)
With “Ponzi schemes,” “Mad Men” and “Enron” among the current buzz words, the 1914 comedy, It Pays to Advertise, has become pertinent all over again. Metropolitan Playhouse which specializes in plays from America’s rich literary past has rediscovered this delightful satire of business and advertising. According to the program notes all of the advertising statistics quotes in the play are absolutely true – for 1914. It seems that even before World War I, Madison Avenue pitchmen were already the hidden persuaders of American commerce.
It Pays to Advertise is collaboration between Roi Cooper Megrue (1883 – 1927) and Walter C. Hackett (1876 – 1944). Although their names have been forgotten today, in their own era they were prolific playwrights. Megrue’s play Seven Chances (1916) was remade as the Renée Zellweger/Chris O’Donnell comedy, The Bachelor in 1999. As a director, Megrue piloted Jesse Lynch Williams’ Why Marry? to the first Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Hackett wrote or co-wrote many plays that went on to become Hollywood movies including TheWhite Sister which was filmed three times. It Pays to Advertise, their only collaboration, proved so popular after its year run on Broadway that it was novelized in 1915, and filmed five times, including two television productions.
It Pays to Advertise is a classic well-made farce. Cyrus Martin, the Soap King, is tired of his ne’er-do-well son Rodney living as a man about town with no employment since his graduation from Harvard. Martin and his secretary Mary Grayson (with who Rodney is secretly in love) come up with a plan to force Rodney to get a job. Rodney, however, has been reunited with his college chum Ambrose Peale, a fast-talking pitchman now working for a Broadway flop.
Together Rodney and Ambrose hatch a scheme to promote a non-existent product through advertising and then sell the successful company before anyone guesses their swindle. But just as in Mel Brooks’ The Producers, nothing goes as planned for either Rodney or his father. However, there is a happy ending and both father and son end up proving that it pays to advertise. The play takes a good many comic swipes at business ethics, capitalism and, of course, advertising. It is quite remarkable how many of the advertising slogans from 1914 are still recognizable today.
Although this is old-fashioned dramaturgy, director Michael Hardart keeps the pace bubbling along and the fine cast is in sync with the play’s rhythms. Scott Kerns is quite charming as the playboy hero who discovers the romance of business in order to win his girl. As the slick pitchman, Brian Cooper runs him a close second. Maire-Rose Pike is all efficiency and cheerfulness as the secretary who is playing a double game. In the Edward Arnold role as the conservative father, George C. Hosmer brings a great deal of authority.
Nalina Mann is delightful as a phony countess with a terrific French accent who sees the new entrepreneurs as an easy touch. Aaron Gaines as the effete son of one of Mr. Martin’s competitors creates a comic portrait of a man of leisure, while his butler Johnson is all stuffy hauteur. Robert Leeds and Sarah Levine also demonstrate versatility in multiple roles. Set designer Heather Wolensky has made a clever use of the black box space with entrances for the actors on four sides. Rebecca Lustig has created an attractive collection of 1914 fashions.
In reviving It Pays to Advertise, Metropolitan Playhouse is living up to its mission of unearthing worthy plays from America’s theatrical past. After almost a century, It Pays to Advertise continues to be a delightful comedy, as well as extremely prescient and topical in our current world. Michael Hardart’s entertaining production mines the play for all its comic potential.
It Pays to Advertise (through May 31)
Metropolitan Playhouse, 220 E. 4th Street, in Manhattan
For tickets, call 212-995-5302 or http://www.metropolitanplayhouse.org
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