Mrs. Truckle, a pious Christian wife played by Elizabeth Berkley (“Saved by the Bell,” Showgirls) accidentally whacks a sick, old man she is nursing with a large armoire door late in the first act of “Sly Fox.” The audience chuckles, knowing the “sick, old man” is really the virile Foxwell J. Sly trying to seduce the unsuspecting Truckle.
Watching director Arthur Penn’s production of the California gold-rush era comedy feels like getting whacked over the head with a large piece of wood.
Despite its attempts to provoke themes of greed, jealousy and lust, the production is overwhelmed by its ridiculous sense of grandeur. “Sly Fox” is so top-heavy with obvious gag jokes, sexual innuendos and rapid-fire dialogue that it fails to achieve the satirical humor the material is capable of.
The show opens in Sly’s (Richard Dreyfuss) lavish bedroom overlooking San Francisco Bay.
Sly is on his deathbed, and a host of eccentric characters all hope to cement their place as Sly’s heir through offerings of gold.
Sly’s ever-cheery indentured servant Simon Able (Eric Stoltz) has the task of pulling the wool over the collective eye of this greedy group, made up of Sly’s lawyer, an old miser, an accountant and the local prostitute.
An energetic Dreyfuss quickly reveals to the audience that Sly is not dying, just making a fortune by duping everyone else with his pretenses. Dreyfuss is animated as the seasoned con-artist pretending to be a feeble old man, trading personalities as easily as Sly can.
Sly’s greatest disappointment is that he can’t witness the other characters’ desperate attempts to claim the chest of gold sitting at the foot of his bed. With the help of Able, Sly launches a plan to exploit the vultures hovering around him.
Sly wants the miser Jethro Crouch (Rene Auberjonois) to forsake his son’s inheritance and the jealous accountant Abner Truckle (Bob Dishy) to offer his beautiful wife to Sly in the name of the fortune.
Amid the current cultural wars over issues such as same-sex marriage and films about Jesus’ crucifixion, “Sly Fox” has great potential as a play in which Christian morality is clearly present but has an often ambiguous function. Penn’s production is dotted with Christian symbolism, including an abundance of stained glass and Cathedral windows and Able’s betrayal of his master.
However, the wealth vs. morals theme gets buried underneath the pile of sexual innuendos and one-liners that saturate the play.
The cast is full of talented comedic actors like Rachel York, who plays the prostitute Miss Fancy, and Peter Scolari, who plays his role as the chief of police with Fred Willard absurdity.
But the characters are more like caricatures, and the actors have little room to do anything other than wink-wink the jokes to the audience.
Despite these flaws, “Sly Fox” does not fail to entertain. The production’s warp-speed timing leaves the audience perpetually amused, and watching Sly con a bunch of greedy yokels is admittedly hilarious.
But for all its potential as a clever comedy of human vice, the production chooses instead to smack the audience over the head with an unrelenting barrage of gag jokes that just aren’t as sly as they think.