Review: These "Bleacher Bums" Are Batty for Baseball at Contra Costa Civic Theatre

If you find yourself at the Contra Costa Civic Theatre's opening play of the season, you will have to shout, "Cubbies wooooo." Many times. If you don't, some zealot on stage whose face is painted half red and half blue will scream at you until you do.

Of course it's all in good fun. Last weekend, the theatre, 50 years old this year, opened its 2010/2011 season with the play "Bleacher Bums," the story of one game in the life of diehard Chicago Cubs fans.

The charming production, directed by Joel Roster, is about more than baseball. It's about unrequited love between ardent fans and a team that hasn't won a National League pennant since 1945 or a World Series since 1908. (Remember those stats – although they're also in the program. If you answer his questions correctly, one of the actors will toss you a bag of peanuts before the show.)

Saturday night's show drew a mostly middle-aged and older crowd of season ticket holders and a smattering of teenage baseball aficionados. The playhouse has a homegrown feel to it, and the audience was full of good sports who dutifully rose and sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" when so ordered by one of the characters.

"Bleacher Bums," conceived by actor Joe Mantegna, who wrote the play with ten screenwriters and comedians, centers on a group of fans who sit together in the right-field bleachers at every game. They have little in common except reverence for the Cubbies.

If you aren't particularly fond of baseball, it takes a while to get pulled into the story. But before you reach the seventh inning stretch, you're pretty well hooked.

 "Bleacher Bums" is ultimately about connection and relationships. People rip each other's feelings, make bets that go south, and experience marital discord and searing disappointment. Also love. Love blooms in the bleachers between a young woman, Melody (played by Briana Gardner) and a very funny blind man, Greg (Michael Perez).

Zig, well played by Joe Fitzgerald, a Civic Theatre veteran, is a working-class older man who always bets with his heart  -- and loses.  So does his wealthier friend Decker (Craig Eychner). Also in the right-field bleachers is Richie, (Marcus Klinger) a seemingly obnoxious young hanger-on who just wants to be accepted.

By far the funniest character is a guy known only as "Cheerleader," played with extraordinary gusto by Henry Perkins. Everyone who's ever been to a game or seen one on TV knows this guy. He's painted his body in Cubs red and blue. He's equipped with air horns, whistles and banners. He cheers himself hoarse at every game.

Cheerleader invades the sanctity of the right-field bleachers and makes a giant pest of himself, but he also has a gift for helping put the home team ahead.

And they need all the help they can get. The Cubs disappoint, then rally, then disappoint again. During a particularly heart-wrenching Cubs screw-up, Zig declares: "They should be up here betting, and I should be down there playing."

The characters fork over hundreds of dollars to a bookie, Marvin, played by Billy Raphael. Zig's wife Rose (Ann Kendrick) shows up and declares their marriage is over unless Zig ceases his out-of-control gambling. Then Rose ends up getting sucked into the action herself. The one discordant note in the casting – or perhaps the make-up – is that Kendrick plays a woman her own age and Fitzgerald is considerably younger. So it was initially confusing and then a bit of a stretch to accept them as a married couple.

That said, "Bleacher Bums" is ultimately heartfelt and funny. The cast works hard to make the play a memorable experience from the first pitch to the bottom of the ninth.

"Bleacher Bums" runs through October 3, 2010. The Contra Costa Civic Theatre's website is www.ccct.org. For reservations call 510-524-9132.