When it comes to dramatizing the lives of famed comedians, the challenges are exponential because humor requires a unique mix of skills, timing and delivery that is almost impossible to recreate. And so I offer high praise to the duo playing Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner who embody the comic legends with supreme finesse.
Playwright Cary Gitter framed the play around a TV interview with Wilder (Jonathan Randell Silver). The famed talk show host Dick Cavett lent his voice for the production. At first Wilder refuses to discuss his relationship with Gilda (Jordan Kai Burnett) who passed away from ovarian cancer in 1989. But very quickly she appears as a ghost urging Wilder to tell their story. And so it unfolds in basically chronological order with their first meeting as co-stars in the 1982 film Hanky Panky.
Gitter did a lot of homework researching the couple, and it shows, depicting them with hints of the comic genius that turned them into stars. In his unforgettable roles – Willy Wonka and Frederick Frankenstein among them – Wilder’s brand of comedy paints him as neurotic, insecure and sweetly vulnerable. We see all these traits in his relationship with Radner who seems to be the more centered of the two despite exhibiting insecurities of her own. He has panic attacks and carries a comfort handkerchief when anxiety haunts him. And he readily admits to having intimacy issues with Radner. She on the other hand is determined to marry him even though she’s still in a marriage with G.E. Smith, the Hall & Oates guitarist who coincidentally became Saturday Night Live’s bandleader in 1985. After she divorced Smith, she moved into Wilder’s Pacific coast home in L.A.
They had their ups and downs; and it was often Radner who had to talk Wilder out of his manic episodes. Gitter takes some artistic license crafting a scene in which Wilder is having a panic attack that looks and sounds a whole lot like his breakdown in the cult film classic The Producers when he played the anxiety ridden Leo Bloom.
Silver and Burnett are wonderful together. They bear a physical resemblance to the characters. right down to the wild hair. (Kudos to Bobbie Zlotnik for Hair, Wig & Makeup Design) But more than that, they’ve managed to capture the comedians’ essence. Of course no one could equal their comic mastery but just watch Burnett do an extended riff channeling Radner’s stable of SNL characters – Roseanne Rosannadanna, Baba Wawa, Emily Litella, Lisa Loobner, etc. She comes pretty close. And Silver is just as splendid playing Wilder as a comic genius drowning in “a swamp of self pity” who never seems to realize just how good he is.
Joe Brancato directs with consummate flair and sensitivity. He makes expert use of Christian Fleming’s versatile set with its cushioned chairs and banks of video monitors featuring projections designed by Brian Pacelli.
In the script, Gitter quotes a line from Wilder’s autobiography, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: “We didn’t get along well, and that’s a fact. We just loved each other, and that’s a fact.” It’s a dynamic that Brancato evokes beautifully, staging their emotional swings with authenticity and tenderness. And whoever choreographed the pair of goofy dances they perform, reminiscent of a wordless 1979 sketch with Radner and Steve Martin on SNL, deserves a shoutout. It adds yet another layer of charm in this compelling work.
When Wllder experiences an existential crisis wanting to do “something important with the time I have left instead of frittering it away on drivel” Radner sets him straight, saying ”We’re two funny people. That’s our gift. That’s what we have to offer the world.” Bravo to this fine production and especially Burnett and Silver who do a terrific job reminding us just how special their gifts were.
Gene & Gilda opened July 27, 2025, at 59E59 and runs through September 7. Tickets and information: 59e59.org
