Insert Laugh Here: Audio Theatre creates 1940s-style comedy

A man that loves Humphrey Bogart so much that he makes the extreme decision to get plastic surgery to look like him and starts attracting clients that look a lot like classic stars of the 1940s with cases for him to solve sounds a lot like a convoluted plot from a classic black-and-white flick. Such is the conceit of NWA Audio Theater's new show, "The Man With Bogart's Face." Based on a novel -- and a 1980s movie -- by Andrew Fenady, the show is a comic romp and fond send-up of Bogart's movies like "The Maltese Falcon."

"It takes place in the 1940s, when Humphrey Bogart was in his prime," says director Debbie Goff, who last directed Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" for the company. She says she's excited about the prospect of introducing a new generation to Bogart. "He was very famous in the 1940s but passed away in the 1950s. Unless you were an aficionado of his work, you might not know him. It's a bygone era that only people of a certain age are going to remember. But the great thing about this play is that it's really funny, and you don't have to know a lot about Bogart to find it hilarious."

The NWA Audio Theater frequently produces work that is more on the dramatic side. Goff says a comic production is a bit of a departure.

"We did a comedy last spring, but this is the first time I've seen a comedy in quite some time," she says. "It's harder to express comedy in a radio play -- so much of comedy is physical. But this script has so many plays on words and all kinds of different characters that are unexpectedly hilarious. I think it's going to be a breath of fresh air for our audiences.

"We've been rehearsing for a month now, and we're still laughing over the script every time we get together. I think our audience will just love it."

NAN What's Up on 03/08/2020