The Marley Show: A Letter

To the cast and crew of The Marley Show,

I have to thank all of you again for your wonderful production of our play. And I don’t think I ever thanked you for the flowers; thank you! I’m sorry I was not able to attend your Saturday performance, though I would have much rather stayed in Callicoon than move back into The College of New Jersey. For the longest time, my one thought about your production was simply, “Wow!” It was wonderful, unreal, and just plain great to me all at the same time. Only now am I trying to expand on my one-word reaction, and hopefully give you a more coherent response to your terrific production.

Someone mentioned something about the Slim and Sarah scenes seeming different than the rest of the play. I never got to answer then, but this was somewhat intentional. Dean and I had three different little plot lines going through; Moe getting “killed”, Slim fighting the bank, and Bill getting the ring. We wanted these three guys to exhibit three different styles of comedy to go with this. Moe was sort of the musical comedy-style hero, brimming with optimism, awkwardness, and jokes that no other characters laugh at. Bill’s scenes were heavy on physical comedy, and we wanted to make it seem like a Three Stooges pie fight might break out at any minute. And Slim’s scenes were supposed to poke a little fun at more serious plays. Slim’s battle with the bank could have straight out of a bad Ibsen play, though I doubt Ibsen would have focused his drama on absurd elements like teddy bears and newspaper puppet shows.

I was really impressed that you as a cast were able to combine all of these styles into one cohesive show. The audience wasn’t jarred at all as you went from the funeral home to Moe’s house to Eva’s car. Dean and I spent our whole writing time wondering if the audience would buy it, and you sold it better than we thought possible.

Just some random recollections of the performance: Elisabeth, I was so upset that nobody laughed at the “Force of destruction/Godzilla Movie Marathon” line! You delivered it perfectly, but the audience didn’t take to it. Your town needs to see more Japanese monster movies!

I was surprised how well the Delano/Eleanor bit went. People were chuckling throughout it, and I know I heard a few murmurs of “Eleanor and Delano; I’ve never noticed that before.” But the real triumph was in the timing of that bit. I spent a long time beating my head against the wall because I just couldn’t tell if that exchange sounded right outside of my head. But you two worked that bit perfectly. The audience loved it, and it just sounded so right. I wanted to get up and shout, “That’s it! That’s exactly it!” That bit was in questionable condition when I wrote it, but you brought it to a vibrant life.

And Morgan, your accent work was great. As Dean and I were writing, we though Mel was going to have a voice one notch below “leprechaun” on the stereotype level, but you gave Mel a much better voice, and I think that highlighted the heart of the character.

I still laugh every time I think of Del’s lack of watch at the end of his first scene. That’s something so perfect you can’t write it, and it’s exactly what the character of Del would do. That bit worked so smoothly, and it just cemented it in my mind that you guys really have a lot of talent, and I feel so lucky that you applied it to my play.

In the end, though, the only thing that matters is what you did for the audience. And I’ve got to tell you, you had the audience pleased throughout the play—there wasn’t a single point I saw where the audience wasn’t enjoying themselves. It’s so difficult to be that entertaining, and it was wonderful how well you pulled it off. Dean and I wrote the play, but you made the people like it, and that’s one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever received, and I can’t thank you guys enough. Good luck in all of your future pursuits, although with the talent and hard work all of you have, you won’t need any luck.

Thank you,

Mike Mariano

• Delaware Valley Central Production
• The Marley Show