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closeRip Van Winkle, the protagonist of the Great American Melodrama’s latest show, is not your typical hero.
A drunk who’s squandered his family’s fortune, Rip prefers hunting, fishing and debating politics at the local tavern to working on his own farm. He’s henpecked by his wife and hounded by his landlord.
“He’s not a cruel man,” explained Billy Breed, who plays the title character in “Rip Van Winkle,” based on Washington Irving’s classic tale. “He loves his wife. He loves his children. He just doesn’t see the consequences of his actions.”
When Rip slips into a magical slumber for 20 years, however, he must remedy his misdeeds.
Performances of “Rip Van Winkle” alternate this summer with the spoof “Gold Fever at the Rough and Ready.”
“It’s great, fun summer entertainment,” said Eric Hoit, the Oceano theater company’s artistic director. “We look for our big boo/cheer shows in the summer, and both of them fit the bill.”
A classic tale
According to Breed, “Rip Van Winkle” combines elements of fairy tale, comedy and classic 19th-century melodrama.
Actor Joseph Jefferson crafted the play in 1859 after reading “The Life and Letters of Washington Irving.”
Dissatisfied with other stage versions, he teamed up with playwright Dion Boucicault.
Like Irving’s story, “Rip Van Winkle” takes place in New York’s Catskill Mountains, in the years preceding and following the American Revolutionary War.
Rip Van Winkle is a “simple good-natured man” beloved by everyone in his village — everyone, that is, except for his fed-up wife, Gretchen (Suzy King), and landlord Derrick von Beekman (Chuck McLane), who wants Rip’s property for his own.
When Gretchen throws her husband out of the house, Rip heads for the mountains and settles down for a nap.
He awakens two decades later to discover that his daughter Meenie (Katie Worley) is being forced into marrying Derrick’s dissolute nephew (Casey Ross). It’s up to Rip to right his past wrongs.
John Keating plays Meenie’s true love, Hendrick, while Melodrama newcomers Spencer Doyle and Isabella Melsheimer play the couple as young children. Natasha Harris rounds out the cast as Hendrick’s sister.
“It’s such a great classic story,” Hoit said of “Rip Van Winkle.”
However, he added, it takes a special kind of actor to make lazy, irresponsible Rip likable for modern audiences. That’s why he cast Breed, a Melodrama favorite who transforms every year from miserable miser to generous soul as Ebenezer Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol.”
Breed said he’s enjoyed tackling the challenges of playing Rip.
He must speak with a Dutch accent and physically transform from a middle-aged man to a 60-something codger.
“You have to take a jump in believability,” he said.
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