Prince George's Little Theatre's 'Harvey'

What would you do if you were walking down the street and saw a giant white rabbit leaning against a lamppost? If you were Elwood Dowd (played by Mike O’Donnell), you would stop and talk with him. Endowed with a hefty trust fund left by his mother, Elwood spends his days gallivanting in bars with his new friend Harvey, who is invisible to everyone but Elwood. Unusually charming and extra-ordinarily polite, Elwood has something of an alcohol problem.

Naturally, his controlling older sister Veta (Millie Ferrara) finds Elwood’s behavior humiliating, a threat to her social standing and to the marriage chances of her daughter Myrtle Mae (Heather Harris). Veta consults with staff at the nationally acclaimed but actually dysfunctional local sanatorium. There she comes into contact with Nurse Kelly (Rachel Simms) and Dr. Sanderson (Peyton Johns), who seethe with unresolved sexual tension, and the somewhat sinister orderly Wilson (Rich Fogg). Presiding over a situation that quickly dissolves into chaos is the sanatorium’s founder himself, Dr. Chumley (Danny Brooks), who becomes fascinated to the point of obsession with Elwood’s case.

The play’s lovingly eccentric characters also include the family lawyer Judge Gaffney (Eliot Malumuth); Dr. Chumley’s very proper wife Betty (Sherry Fogg); the reigning queen of the local social set Ethel Chauvenet (Shirley Greenwald); and a cab driver with a keen insight into his fares, E. J. Lofgren (Patrick Ready).

“Harvey” opened on Broadway in 1944 and ran for over four years, winning along the way the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for drama. In the 1950 movie, James Stewart gave one of his finest performances, indelibly etching into our cultural memory the story of a gentle man who lives his dreams. There have also been three television adaptations (1958, 1972, and 1998).

The play is directed by Keith Brown of Greenbelt. Also from Greenbelt is Patrick Ready (E.J. Lofgren). Cast members Rich Fogg (Wilson) and Sherry Fogg (Betty Chumley) are from Gambrills, while Millie Ferrara (Veta) and Eliot Malumuth (Judge Gaffney) are from Laurel. Heather Harris (Myrtle Mae) is from Crofton, Rachel Simms (Miss Kelly) is from College Park, and Peyton Johns (Dr. Sanderson) and Shirley Greenwald (Ethel Chauvenet) are both from Columbia. Mike O’Donnell (Elwood) is from Washington, D.C., and Danny Brooks (Dr. Chumley) is from Annapolis.