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‘Wally’s Cafe’ serves up nostalgia
NILES — “It doesn’t matter where you are, but who you’re with” is the message of “Wally’s Cafe,” a slight comedy now playing on the Trumbull New Theatre stage.
Set entirely in the eponymously named diner in the California desert over a span of 41 years, the play’s best attribute is its nostalgic tone.
It’s filled with one-liners, although few elicit big laughs. Debra J. Nuhfer directs the play, written by Sam Bobrick and Ron Clark.
“Wally’s” has the feel of a decades-old TV comedy — minus the salty subject matter that arises in the second act. The fact that it runs a scant 105 minutes with two 10-minute intermissions only reinforces the sitcom style. The longest act is only 30 minutes.
But if the script is nothing to get excited about, the well-chosen cast of three pumps the characters full of life and fun.
The play revolves around Louise and Wally, the husband-wife duo who run the lonely diner that’s too far off the highway to get much business.
Played by Lois and Dave Schneider, the couple bicker, battle and love each other like an old married couple (I couldn’t help thinking of them as a milder “Married With Children,” without the children). The Schneiders have great chemistry, which isn’t surprising, since they are married in real life.
In Act 1, set in 1940, the young couple from New Jersey is getting ready to open the diner, which has cost them their life savings. Louise, with the thick Jersey accent, isn’t thrilled, but she can’t override Wally’s unbridled optimism.
The set really looks the part, with its curtained windows, soda bar and kitchen window, where Wally in his cheesy chef’s hat can be seen working the grill.
In walks a disheveled young woman named Janet Chester, who is hitchhiking her way to Hollywood, where she plans to become a song-and-dance star. Maria Wright is right on as the bubbly, schmaltzy and yakky blonde with a singing voice like fingernails on a chalkboard and no rhythm.
Open and naive, the small-town girl tells her hosts that she plans to change her name to Jeannette Cheshire once she hits Hollywood: “I’m keeping the initials the same because of my luggage.”
However, Janet’s lack of cash keeps her at Wally’s, where she becomes a waitress and a part of the feisty family.
The first act is heavy on the exposition, and even at a half-hour, it goes slow.
But “Wally’s” does pick up steam. Act 2 is in the diner in 1958. Nothing much has changed except maybe some rock tunes on the juke box (and the price of a Wally Burger, as listed on the signboard, has jumped from 15 cents to $1.95). Janet finally made it to Hollywood but has returned to the diner. Business is still slow. Combine that with the simmering conflicts, secrets and unhappiness that have long been broiling in the desert heat, and things finally come to a head. Janet is fired.
But things get all warm and fuzzy in the final act, set in 1981 (Wally Burger, $5.25). The older and wiser trio reunites and realizes the diner was home all along.
The pat ending is a tad bittersweet and more than a little far-fetched, but everything is wrapped up nicely — like a good sitcom.
X“Wally’s Cafe” will be performed at Trumbull New Theatre, 5883 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles, at 8 tonight and Saturday, and May 15-16; and 3 p.m. May 17. Call (330) 652-1103.