Playwright: Eugene O'Neill. At: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St.
Tickets: 312-443-3800; GoodmanTheatre.org; $20-$75. Runs through: July 23
Ah, Wilderness! is a classic sentimental comedy given a sweetheart of a production by director Steve Scott.
It's a summertime treat from its airy beachfront setting ( Todd Rosenthal ) and warm-hued lighting ( Aaron Spivey ), to its comfy costumes ( Amy Clark ), to its engaging performances generating appreciative laughter. It's one of three terrific shows about life in early 20th-century America running concurrentlyParade ( Writers Theatre through July 15 ), set in 1913 Atlanta; Ragtime ( Griffin Theatre through July 22 ), set in New York about 1912; and Ah, Wilderness!, set in 1906 New London, Connecticut. Parade and Ragtime are large-scale dramatic musicals about tumultuous social forces shaping 20th-century America, while Ah, Wilderness! celebrates the enduring values of close-knit family life. It's a hat trick not to be missed, a potent trio about times imagined to be simpler and easier.
Ah, Wilderness! is the most fantastic ( as in "fantasy" ) of the three as it comes from Nobel Prize laureate Eugene O'Neill ( 1888-1953 ), that alcoholic and tubercular master of loss, loneliness and despair. Set in the town where O'Neill grew up, Ah, Wilderness! is the flip side of his great autobiographical work, Long Day's Journey Into Night.
In this one O'Neill imagines life in New London with a functional, pillar-of-the-community family headed by well-matched, warm-hearted and insightful parentsnearly the opposite of his actual family. Set on July 4, 1906, the play revolves around Richard Miller ( Niall Cunningham ) and his dad, Nat Miller ( Randall Newsome ). Richard, representing O'Neill himself, is 17 and fancies himself a poet and socialist. In due course, Richard gets drunk for the first time, is really kissed for the first time and woos his high school sweetheart as his occasionally flummoxed father guides him with tolerance and small-town wisdom, assisted by wife Essie Miller ( Ora Jones ). It could be a sitcom pilot if O'Neill didn't elevate the familiar family circle with wit and intelligence, and take plenty of time to establish the characters. The play ends with a scene so lovingly tender it may bring tears to your eyes.
Several of the actorsbut not allsound miked, which is disconcerting at first but quickly fades as the play unfolds with perfect charm and ease. The pace is leisurely but never slow, moving along with judicious cuts and on-the-nose comic timing. Each chief character has a big moment or two, with famous highlights being Uncle Sid's ( Larry Bates ) Act I drunk scene during a family lobster dinner, and Nat's facts-of-life talk with Richard late in the play. You'll like these peopleeven the surly bartender ( Joe Dempsey ) and the prostitute ( Amanda Drinkall ). ( Didn't I mention them? ) You'll like this play, and you'll like this production. It's "paradise enow," as stated in The Rubiyat, from which the play takes its title.