George Axelrod’s play, The Seven Year Itch, opened on Broadway on November 20, 1952, almost seven years to the day after World War II ended in Europe, signaling the start of the marriage and baby boom in the U.S. The comedy about adultery (the title refers to the feeling that men supposedly get after seven years of marriage) proved enormously popular with audiences, running for almost three years and being made into a film by the famed comic director, Billy Wilder. The film version notably featured Marilyn Monroe as The Girl and included the famous shot of Ms. Monroe’s skirt being blown up by wind from a subway grate. The play’s title also entered the cultural lexicon of the 1950s.

Mr. Axelrod would go on to write Broadway hits such as Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and Goodbye Charlie, as well as film adaptations such as Bus Stop, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and The Manchurian Candidate. His works were firmly rooted in his times, however, and because they are dated they are not often revived.

So, Carlsbad’s New Village Arts Theatre took something of a risk in resurrecting this 1950s sex comedy as light summer fare to open its tenth season. The risk pays off: an adroit cast and detailed direction brings the laughs to life, even if the play creaks more than a little.

Daren Scott and Jacque Wilke

Photo by Adam Brick

While Marilyn Monroe’s presence dominated the film version, the play actually belongs to Richard, the man with the seven-year itch. New Village Arts’ Richard is Daren Scott, whose Middle-American looks and eternal state of awe allows him to hold interest even while on stage alone for long periods of time.

Director Amanda Sitton had little choice but to set the play at the time it was written, because much of the circumstances would have contemporary audiences snorting in disbelief. Richard is left alone in his New York apartment for the summer because his wife (Melissa Fernandes) and son (Jonah Gercke) have decamped to the shore for the summer. Even though the family is at best middle class (Richard designs marketing campaigns for a publisher who recycles literary works as mass consumption paperbacks), their apartment is large by New York standards (Tim Wallace’s design strategically locates all of the necessary elements), and they are planning to move to an even larger space. Despite the fact that Richard lost a job at a major publishing house and is getting by trying to figure out a sexy title for a mass-market version of Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter, they can afford for wife and son to be away for the summer.

Ms. Sitton understands that contemporary audiences will immediately view such a life as a fantasy, so she plays up the fantasy elements of the script. Collapsing three acts into two and combining some characters, she creates a world where Richard’s “itch” can tickle his imagination in many ways, from fantasizing that his wife is having an affair with another man (a nice turn by John DeCarlo), to seeing The Girl who has moved in upstairs (Jacque Wilke) as being the most sensual creature on earth. Richard’s fantasies are abetted by a Greek chorus of sexy women (Kelly Iverson, Lisa Dempsey, and Frances Regal) and a Freudian analyst (Eddie Yaroch) whose book of case studies is one of Richard’s marketing projects.

Of course, when Richard seeks to act on his fantasies he is nowhere as suave and debonair as he imagines himself. Mr. Scott captures this duality beautifully, in his appearance, his detailed movements, and in the ways he interacts with Ms. Wilke and the real and imagined characters in his life. Ms. Sitton, herself an award-winning actress, has definite ideas about pace, timing, and style, and her detailed direction is a joy to watch (notice in particular how scenes build and how the cast never shrieks, even when things get loud). The company responds to her direction with skill, and Ms. Fernandes proves herself to be a particularly effective comedienne.

As today's news brims over with oil spills, high unemployment, and foreclosures, perhaps a little 1950s fantasy is a most welcome thing. Get your fill with The Seven Year Itch, running through August 22 in the Carlsbad Village.

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