{"id":94388,"date":"2014-06-19T09:38:49","date_gmt":"2014-06-19T13:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=94388"},"modified":"2014-06-24T09:11:59","modified_gmt":"2014-06-24T13:11:59","slug":"jerry-adler-richard-kline-star-in-the-sunshine-boys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/06\/jerry-adler-richard-kline-star-in-the-sunshine-boys\/","title":{"rendered":"Jerry Adler, Richard Kline Star in ‘The Sunshine Boys’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jerry Adler and Richard Kline star in the Connecticut Repertory Theatre Nutmeg Summer Series production of Neil Simon\u2019s \u201cThe Sunshine Boys,\u201d a comedy about the reunion of a one-time vaudeville team for a television special. The CRT production, which runs from June 19 to June 29, is directed by Vincent Cardinal, head of the dramatic arts department and artistic director of CRT.<\/p>\n

\"Adler<\/a>
Adler and Kline on stage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Adler and Kline are actors whose faces are familiar to millions from their work in television, and who also have had extensive careers as award-winning directors for television and the stage. Adler is best known for his role as Herman \u201cHesh\u201d Rabkin on HBO\u2019s \u201cThe Sopranos\u201d and more recently as Howard Lyman on the CBS drama \u201cThe Good Wife.\u201d Kline is remembered as Larry on the classic situation comedy, \u201cThree\u2019s Company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both also teach acting, with Kline operating the Richard Kline Acting Workshop in New York City and Adler, who received an honorary degree from UConn in 2013, serving as an adjunct professor in the School of Fine Arts, where this past year he taught a class in comedy. They spoke with UConn Today before a rehearsal for the play.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> It\u2019s often said by actors that comedy is harder to do than drama. <\/em><\/p>\n

JERRY ADLER:<\/strong> It\u2019s only harder because of the timing. Timing is what\u2019s important in comedy.<\/p>\n

RICHARD KLINE:<\/strong> I tell my students there\u2019s a certain rhythm, music to comedy. If it\u2019s not honored, then the jokes fall flat or the laughs don\u2019t come; especially with Neil Simon. This is maybe my seventh show with Neil Simon. He\u2019s been criticized for his one-liners, or his jokey presentations. But he came from writing for Sid Caesar \u2013 he was a joke writer with Woody Allen and those guys. The challenge is you have to honor the jokes but still be real and be characters and have real situations on stage.<\/p>\n

JA:<\/strong> That\u2019s what\u2019s difficult; to still be real and honor the timing element of the comedy. With Doc [Simon], every other line is a joke line. You have to be very careful. It\u2019s difficult to time. Right now we\u2019re not sure where all the laughs are. It\u2019s difficult to time it out. Once we get rolling, we\u2019ll know where the laughs are and [we\u2019ll] work towards that.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Often actors talk about that difficulty with timing when you have so much going on in a comedy script.<\/em><\/p>\n

RK:<\/strong> This show presents a special challenge because within the play is a vaudeville sketch. That\u2019s a whole different venue and a whole different way of presenting the material. It\u2019s very one-dimensional.<\/p>\n

JA:<\/strong> We\u2019re actors playing actors in that sketch.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Do you have to make a mental adjustment at that point?<\/em><\/p>\n

RK:<\/strong> A mental and a physical adjustment.<\/p>\n

JA: <\/strong>You\u2019re leaving the character that you played in the first act and become somebody else in the second act. It\u2019s very difficult.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> With your backgrounds as director, how do you then follow the show\u2019s director in staying on track?<\/em><\/p>\n

JA:<\/strong> We\u2019ve been honoring Vince Cardinal, who has been directing us beautifully. He is allowing us to maintain ourselves.<\/p>\n

RK:<\/strong> He\u2019s been working with two directors, so basically his job is to turn the lights on \u2026 I\u2019m just kidding. He\u2019s giving us free rein, but I think he\u2019s blocked the show beautifully. It\u2019s nice to have a third eye and a guy who\u2019s had as much experience as Vince to check in with.<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> Working with a show that is fairly well known for a long time, what\u2019s the challenge for you to make the character your own and bring what you can to the character? <\/em><\/p>\n

JA:<\/strong> You have to forget all of that and go for the truth of the character. You can\u2019t incorporate what you think the audience believes, or remembers, or is waiting for. You have to play the character.<\/p>\n

RK: <\/strong>We\u2019re not mimics. We\u2019re trying to create living, breathing characters. At the same time, we\u2019re trying to land the jokes.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/strong>What are your thoughts about the role and career of someone who is primarily a character actor and can continually get roles? <\/em><\/p>\n

JA:<\/strong> I find myself being typecast in Jewish roles. I\u2019m lucky enough to get the ones that work. My experience is that there is a small keyhole of parts that I can play. That\u2019s why it\u2019s fortunate that I can find a part like this that I can play at my age.<\/p>\n

RK:<\/strong> I never thought of myself as a character man until I got older, when my hair turned gray, and then I started playing judges and lawyers. I always thought of myself as the second banana, never as the lead guy. But I enjoy the diversity. Then there\u2019s the musical comedy thing, which I love doing. I played the role of the Wizard in the national company of \u201cWicked.\u201d I tell my students if you possibly can, take singing and dancing lessons because if you\u2019re a triple threat, you\u2019ll be available for more work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sunshine Boys\u201d will be performed from June 19 to June 29 at the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre. Evening performances for the CRT Nutmeg Summer Series start at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Matinee performances start at 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. In conjunction with the \u201cSTAGECRAFT: 50 Years of Design at Hartford Stage\u201d exhibition at The William Benton Museum of Art, patrons can save $5 on a ticket for the Nutmeg Summer Series by using the offer code \u201cBENTON\u201d when ordering a regular price ticket. For more information, visit <\/em>www.crt.uconn.edu<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two actors known to millions from their work in television discuss their roles in CRT\u2019s summer production.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":94298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-94388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 19:23:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94388"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94398,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94388\/revisions\/94398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/94298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94388"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=94388"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=94388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}