I was so totally looking forward to seeing The Matchmaker at American Players Theatre because I wasn’t familiar with anything by Wisconsin native Thornton Wilder beyond Our Town. From the preview posts and media, I knew it was a comedy. So I was also looking forward to some fun and laughter but I didn’t expect it to be totally HILARIOUS! And director Brian Cowing pulled out all of the stops and pushed the cast into a realm of slapstick, farce, and delightful merriment that as I said, I wasn’t really expecting. The timing and delivery is impeccable and brings each comedic moment to the fore. I LOVED THIS SHOW!
For those of you in a hurry, short review: The Matchmaker is a marriage of a Shakespeare comedy: mistaken identities, confused goals and aims, cross dressing, misdirection, and an end that ends well; versus an Oscar Wilde treatise: precise language, class idiosyncrasies, puns, jokes due to misplaced environments, and of course, fun at the expense of social convention. And from both writers: the very human and desperate longing for love and personal relationships by people who don’t know exactly what they are looking for.
Now, on with our adventure. PUDDING. YKIYK
So where did The Matchmaker come from. Originally Wilder wrote a comedy in 1938 named The Merchant of Yonkers. It was based on a 1842 play by Austrian playwright Max Reinhardt called He’ll Have Himself a Good Time. Wilder’s comedy was a huge flop. But in the 1950s there was some renewed interest in the play, so Wilder rewrote and reworked it into The Matchmaker. And in the rewrite the focus shifted to the matchmaker, a widow, Dolly Gallagher Levi.
And who is our matchmaker? For our play, a particularly vivacious Tracy Michelle Arnold! Arnold as Levi, is at once, shy and sly, coy and bold, innocent and manipulative, and most often the direct instigator of much of the action, for good or bad. And Arnold’s Levi is a master of covert behavior. The other characters seldom know exactly what is going on but the audience does. Because Arnold keeps them in the loop via a few asides, a variety of winks and nods, and the casually glanced sneer or wicked smile. Arnold’s effective use of body language tells much of Levi’s story.
The other central character of The Matchmaker is the widowed food and provisions merchant in Yonkers, NY, the gruff and curmudgeonly Horace Vandergelder. Triney Sandoval is the focused and ‘sensible’ Mr. Vandergelder. Sandoval very effectively rails against all of the fools in the world while claiming to be one of the few sensible people. Yet in Sandoval’s accomplished hands, Vandergelder proves to be living the adage, there is no fool like an old fool. LOL! But at the age of 60 he decides that his household would benefit if he took a wife. I am not quite sure that he ever actually states that he would personally benefit, but his voiced positions aren’t necessarily feminist. But in his quest for a wife, he has employed Mrs. Levi as a matchmaker. And the main action starts when they head off to New York City so that Vandergelder can propose to the widow, Mrs. Irene Molloy. Except Levi has other ideas.
Well, before we go to New York, there are some other notables that we need to explore. Yes, Vandergelder owns a rather large provisioning business and has two young employees, Cornelius Hackl as his chief clerk and Barnaby Tucker as an apprentice. Colin Covert plays Hackl, as a dreamer and adventurous young man full of energy and ideas but little real world experience. Tucker is played by Trevyn Wong, a much younger man, a bit naive, but no less curious, and not to be left out agrees to accompany Hackl. Although tied to the store, when their boss heads off to the city they create a distraction that allows them to head out for the city too…for an adventure. What could possibly go wrong? And believe me, they find adventure. And for some odd reason, Vandergelder hires an ‘intern’ at the last minute. One, Malachi Stack, who is well past intern age and arrives unbidden with a handful of questionable references but works his way into a job. Brian Mani’s Stack is clearly a man of the world, albeit a ne’er do well man, and maybe a bit fond of drink. ??
Oh, wait, there are two other characters from Yonkers that we need to name before we all run off to the big city. Vandergelder’s niece, Ermengarde, played as a naive but curious and full of life young woman by Kelly Simmons. And the love of her life, the artist Ambrose Kemper, a suave and persuasive young man as played by Jonathan Gardner. These young lovers want to get married but Vandergelder is totally against it saying that Kemper won’t amount to anything…Kemper denies that…of course. So Vandergelder devises a plan to send Ermengarde off to New York to stay with a Miss Flora Van Huysen, but she and Kemper thwart his plans by running off together.
And now we are in New York and mayhem ensues. I won’t go all spoiler here and try to just keep to a brief outline. As part of their adventure, our two intrepid young men from Vandergelder’s store linger on the street admiring the inhabitants of a millinery owned by Mrs. Molloy, Vandergelder’s intended. They are quite taken with the ladies and as it turns out the ladies are quite taken with them as they watch them approach the store. Mrs. Molloy as played by Phoebe Gonzalez is my favorite character in the play. Gonzalez is full of life and curiosity and despite her verbal denials seems to be enjoying her life a great deal. And when the young men enter there is a bit of forced conversation that is trying to find its way to flirting. The second woman in the shop is Ama J. Kuwonu as Molloy’s assistant, Minnie Fay. All goes well until Vandergelder shows up and the men have to hide in a closet and under a table. Hilarity ensues and this scene includes one of the great lines of the play, this place is crawling with men. And a bit of Cowing’s staging here brings on a bit of Buster Keaton timing and improbability.
But at this point, Mrs. Levi is in complete control as she convinces Vandergelder she has a better match for him, and gives Hackl a far more appealing and urbane background story, and maneuvers all of the characters to an expensive chic restaurant…and the confusion continues to Miss Van Huysen’s, as misdirection and misidentity continue to prolong our enjoyment of The Matchmaker. And yes all’s well that ends well and everyone has their match although maybe not the ones they or we expected. But ones that we all can approve of.
Now, a bit of a side note. Without benefit of a stage manager ala Our Town, how does Wilder fill in the blanks or convey important plot arcs to the audience? Well here in The Matchmaker, there are plenty of asides from any number of characters meant only for us and a number of vibrant soliloquies that keep us in the know. The most engaging and surprising soliloquy comes from what would seem at first, a minor character…Malachi Stack. But as delivered by Brian Mani it is a spellbinding and intriguing speech about the virtue of harboring only one vice at a time.
And it is always a treat to see how APT will build the sets on their open rustic thrust stage in the woods when the action calls for elaborate interior settings. Scenic Designer did an amazing job with this challenge and throughout the evening transformed a store into a millinery into a restaurant to a sitting room into a train (well that last bit may have been influenced by last year’s 39 Steps a bit). And what luscious period costumes from Tracy Dorman. But I felt for the cast being so elegantly clad in 80+ degree weather.
And thanks to Brenda DeVita and staff for bringing another uproarious comedy to APT!
The Matchmaker runs in repertory from now until October 2, 2026 at the Hill Theater at the APT in Spring Green WI. Additional information here. Run Time: 2 Hours 45 Minutes, including one 20-minute intermission.
Isn’t The Word Full Of Wonderful Things? Indeed.
