From the beginning, the audience is led to believe that something is aloof about protagonist Elwood P. Dowd. Rumors of his misbehavior drive his family to anxiety as they await his appearance at a social gathering. Or, they would like to believe he has better things to do. Before the audience is introduced to the titular Harvey, they have formed a paradoxical relationship that cannot yet be fully understood. How is that a man who is the talk of the town also seems to ostracize those in his life, even leading to threats of throwing him into a psych ward to hopefully cure what ails him?
The answer seems equally confounding when Elwood makes his entrance into the parlor. He is jovial, upbeat, without a care in the world. However, there is one detail out of place. When sitting down, he acts as if there’s someone next to him. This is revealed to be Harvey: a seven-foot-tall rabbit who accompanies him everywhere. Given Elwood’s penchant for drinking and attempting to cope with his traumatic past, it’s easy to understand the delirium that would propagate from that situation.
Despite spending a fair amount of the play’s running time centered around psychological debates, the show is more interested in asking why Elwood is “crazy.” He isn’t hurting anyone, and Harvey is more of an invisible and comical roadblock in a scene. It’s a show that in the modern age could be reduced to cynicism, but here is given such earnest treatment as it attempts to reflect the value of naivety, of giving into wonderment and not allowing anyone to hold you back. It’s a premise played to the utmost potential of laughter and delivers a tightly wound comedy full of witty dialogue and slapstick that is given life by a charismatic cast at Long Beach Playhouse.
Credit must be given to Tod Walker as Elwood. In a cast full of side-eying skeptics who fall into their own humility, he’s never afraid to believe in himself. The genuine passion Walker has when delivering the lines creates a likable, eccentric personality. In lesser hands, he could be mistaken as crazy, but here he’s wide-eyed without feeling childish, where he can be a self-proclaimed alcoholic without it becoming farcical. He is a man without conflict, save that everyone around him struggles to cope with his level of assurance.
The subtext of the story is especially fascinating for a 1940s comedy. While almost every scene features a lighthearted levity, playwright Mary Chase fused her work with commentary on how the mentally ill were treated after World War II. In one such case, she discusses how Elwood’s sister, Veta Louise Simmons, becomes mistaken for a patient, only to be treated to conditions that could be read as horrifying if not for the breezy tone brought on by a flirtatious staff who want nothing more than to call out of work and center their pursuits around romance. It’s not treated with any grim circumstance, but Chase plants enough moments of doubt to make the comedy have a tinge of dark remorse, allowing for a deeper study of how figures like Elwood could be treated and what is ultimately lost.
Even so, the cast of this performance makes the most of the limited stage space. With constant running through the aisles, they make the scenes feel like winding mazes, where characters are constantly entering and exiting. It’s a world where mishaps occur frequently, suggesting that everyone might be crazier than Elwood. That, or they are at least struggling to maintain an order in a system that has a few cracks in its logic. It’s a story that pushes through the institutional logic to find emotion and, eventually, the blind faith that makes a character like Harvey emotionally affecting. Given the limitations of greater “doubt” the show has at anthropomorphizing Harvey, it’s up to a committed cast to make it land, and it does well enough.
At the end of the day, Harvey is a timeless comedy because of how much it relies on character to build a compelling story. Even if its views on medical practice are rooted in a bygone era, very little dampens its larger appeal, especially with eccentric figures who all get their moment to shine and produce a rollicking afternoon of theater. It has heart and plenty of ideas on its mind to pad out the running time. Even if Harvey is never seen, the efforts to make his presence felt are more than successful, leaving a warm feeling of silliness running through the crowd. If they don’t believe by the time the lights go up, then who knows when that’ll change.
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