" - "

Show article text (OCR)

I n 1963. shortly after directing his first Broadway play. Gene Saks was asked to attend a new Nell Simon comedy that was having problems. The play was Bareloot in the Park. Mr. Saks went to a tryout in Bucks County, Pa., formulated his suggestions and sought out the playwright. "He was so overrun with compliments, I don't think he even knew I was there," Mr. Saks admits. "I kept trying to force my opinion in, but he was so overwhelmed by congratulations." These days Neil Simon regularly asks Mr. Saks' opinion. Although the director balks at the label, hl3 track record suggests he is the leading interpreter of America's most successful and prolific playwright. Since 1967, Gene Saks has directed four of Mr. Simon's movies beginning with "Barefoot in the Park" and five of his plays, including the playwright's recent semi-autobiographical trilogy. On Tuesday a road company production of the trilogy's final installment, "Broadway Bound," begins a four-week run at the Mechanic Theatre, the fourth stop on a 10-month, 14-city tour, stretching from Fort Lauderdale to Dallas, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles. Mr. Simon's plays aren't the only works Mr. Saks has directed over the past 20 years, but they've certainly kept him busy. An interview has to be wedged in between auditions for the playwright's latest creation, "Jake's Women," which Is about a man's relationship with the various women in his life. During a lunch break, Mr. Saks, 66, leans back In an aisle seat In the empty theater and theorizes about what makes him so well suited to transfer Nell Simon's words to the stage. "We have similar tastes. We feel the same things about characters, about humor, about emotions," he explains. They also agree that Mr. Simon has the final say. "We've never had a knock-down, drag-out battle," the director says. "I'm sure he would win If we did because his word really Is the ultimate. I work to put his vision up there, not my vision." Emanuel Azenberg, Mr. Simon's producer, says, "I think that in many respects they compensate for each other. Neil is very Impulsive, quick to make decisions. Gene Is very contemplative. It works out." The rapport between playwright and director has been especially strong during their work on the trilogy, the first two parts of which, "Brighton Beach Memoirs" and "Biloxi Blues," were Tony Award winners for Mr. Saks. The trilogy a more serious series than Mr. Simon's trademark comedies focuses on the coming of age of the playwright's alter ego, a character called Eugene M. Jerome. "The trilogy, starting with 'Brighton Beach," was something I had a real affinity to," Mr. Saks says. "My family was not that different from Mr. Simon's). We came from the same social strata or sub-strata." Born of middle-class Jewish parents in New 'York City, but raised in Hackensack, N.J., Mr. I Saks Is the same age as the fictitious Eugene (Mr. Simon Is six years younger). Like Eugene ' in "Brighton Beach Memoirs," Mr. Saks says, "I used to play baseball all by myself in the back (yard." Also like Eugene, Mr. Saks served In World War II: Mr. Simon entered the Army after the war was over. More significantly, the director recognizes a great many of his mother's characteristics in the character of Eugene's strong-willed mother, Kate Jerome, the central figure in "Broadway Bound.". "My mother was religious, but she wanted religion on her own terms," he says. "I can hear her saying to God, 'That's OK; know what's best,' and Kate would say that, too."

Mr. Saks' casting of Kate is perhaps the best indication of both his vision and the playwright's trust in him. In the original Broadway production, Kate was played by Linda Lavln, who won a Tony. Recently, she was replaced by actress Elizabeth Franz, an actress perhaps best known for the title role in Christopher Durang's "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You," although she also created the role of the younger Kate in "Brighton Beach Memoirs." In the production of "Broadway Bound" coming to Baltimore, Kate is being played by the British-born actress Carole Shelley, last seen at the Mechanic in her Tony Award-winning role in "The Elephant Man." "You try to find the best actor who is good for the part, Just as you did in the original," Mr. Saks explains. "I try to keep an open mind and accept people with physical differences." Although it took some persuasion to convince Miss Shelley that she could master a Brooklyn accent, the actress who first worked with Mr. Saks on the movie version of The Odd Couple" admires the director's approach. "Often," she says, "a director just wants anyone who plays that part to play it just like whoever played it first. They've found the formula and they want to stick to it." On the contrary. Mr. Saks says that when he recasts a show with new actors, "I think it's imperative that you let them express themselves as actors." Mr. Saks has a reputation as a director actors like to work with, and the reason may be that he's worked as an actor himself. Before turning to directing, Mr. Saks appeared in the Broadway productions of "South Pacific," "The Tenth Man" and as Chuckles the Chipmunk in "A Thousand Clowns" (a role he later repeated on film). He was spurred to direct, he says, as a result of "flattery from other actors about my ability to help them in roles In plays In which I was acting." His background has served him well; as a director, Mr. Saks acknowledges, "the fact that 1 was an actor has gained me a great deal of credibility … I have a rather fertile imagination of character because 1 as an actor am an imaginative actor." Miss Shelley, who turned down the role of Kate Jerome twice before finally accepting It, claims working for a former actor has made her job easier. "I think always that it's wonderful when a director has been an actor because he understands your process because he had one of his own," she explains.

In addition, she says, a director trained as an actor can communicate in a kind of shorthand, as well as have the ability to demonstrate what he wants by example. "When he feels the need to interpret something for you, he does," she continues, "and he clarifies it by showing it to you minimally." Although Mr. Saks is best known as Neil Simon's director, his Broadway directorial credits also Include "Half a Sixpence," "Same Time, Next Year," and "Mame," which starred his former wife, Eieatrice Arthur. His shows haven't all been hits, though. About a decade ago he directed several productions including a Cy Coleman-Russell Baker musical called "Home Again" which never made it to Broadway. Despite this rough period, Mr. Saks, like many successful directors, has been asked to take over the direction of productions that were in trouble. Four seasons ago he replaced Mr. Simon's own brother, Danny, as director of the distaff version of "The Odd Couple" (which tried out at the Mechanic). Last season he replaced Joan Micklin Silver as director of the musical "Rags," which closed after four performances despite his last-minute efforts. "You search for reasons that shows close," he says philosophically. "It had some wonderful things in it, but it was not i satisfying overall." Mr. Saks rarely does any acting anymore; his most recent appearance was in the movie "Lovesick" four years ago. "With every year I get more frightened to do it," he admits. The role he's most comfortable playing is that of director, and most specifically, director of Neil Simon's plays. A director, he says, is "part teacher, part father" and also "a leader in the imagination of possibilities." To that job description, actress Carole Shelley adds, "A good director is a brilliant psychologist, and I think that's where Gene is smarf enough and canny enough to understand his actors. With me he needed to be very supportive and very loving and very convincing and he was all of those things. If he'd ever shouted at me I think I would have fallen down." ; If Mr. Saks understood Miss Shelr ley's fears, it's probably because he's felt them himself. Making the transition from actor to director was a lot like becoming a grown-up, he Insists not unlike the journey Eugene Jerome makes in "Brighton Beach Memoirs," "Biloxi Blues" and "Broadway Bound." .'. "Most actors as are children are in a terribly vulnerable position," he explains. They rely on a parent or director to protect them from failure." j Do Mr. Saks' actors think of him ns-a father? ixYflc ;hpllpv nantips and then admits she does. "1 wanted to please Gene on opening night," she says, "so I'd have to say I looked toward my dad for my pats on the back." Mr. Saks occasionally pays surprise visits to shows he has staged, and the road company of "Broadway Bound" may find him in the wings any day now. Like a good father, he feels It his duty to check up on the productions he sends out Into th world. "I don't know where I'll drop in next," the director says with a grin. "1 think they will need some loving care along with way."

Jean Michael Saks