Solid Gold Cadillac

With a plot that includes small shareholder revolt at boardroom fat cat
salaries and tiny companies being taken over by much larger ones and then
promptly annihilated, the one thing you can’t say about Howard Teichmann
and George S Kaufman‘s 51-year-old Broadway comedy {The Solid Gold
Cadillac::L0457492718} is that it’s dated.

First seen on Broadway in 1953 and in the
West End in 1965, it could still be plucked from the pages of the Daily Mail
or a scene from a Michael Moore film. Throw in a corporate scandal of
aggressive lobbying for government contracts to the company’s former
chairman who is now installed in Washington, and Donald Rumsfeld immediately
comes to mind.

But despite the strenuous efforts of an engaging, hard-working cast in Ian
Brown‘s slick production, what you unfortunately also can’t say about {The Solid Gold
Cadillac::L0457492718} is
that it is particularly funny, either. The gentle air of amusement soon
gives way to a feeling of bemusement that someone thought it a good
idea to revive such a lame, tame play. You can just imagine a producer
reading the script and thinking, “What a hoot! This is just like today!”, but
forgetting that a satirical comedy actually has to be funny.

As it is, the team has done what they can to enliven it on its return from the
comedy graveyard. It’s always a treat to see Patricia Routledge, and she’s
the main attraction here as a sometime Broadway actress Laura Partridge who
attends the 59th Annual Shareholders’ meeting for the General Products
Corporation of America, in which she has ten shares, and proceeds to wreak
havoc with her enquiries about the inflated executive salaries she spots in
the annual report.

In an attempt to keep her quiet, the Board offer her a
job with the company – the specially created position of Director of
Shareholders’ Relations – and she’s installed in Room 2762 and given a
secretary (Lucy Briers).

Soon, she’s dictating letters to thousands of small shareholders – a fact
that the Board’s treasurer Clifford Snell (Teddy Kempner) points out is
costing the company $95 a week in postage. Then she’s despatched to
Washington DC to try to bring former company chairman Edward L McKeever
(Roy Hudd), now working for the administration, around to awarding it
government contracts.

While Routledge and Hudd employ a complete battalion of comedy tricks and
tics to chivvy things along, they fight a losing battle against a script that
simply doesn’t give them the material to work with. They’re a potentially
volcanic stage team, but the lava, never mind the laughter, runs sadly dry.
As both wrestle with some mild physical comedy – he out of a parade of
office exercises, she out of rifling through the contents of her desk – I
smiled, but I didn’t once laugh.

– Mark Shenton