Review: History has leading role in 'Harry' ("Give 'Em Hell, Harry,")

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2624&u_sid=2341257

Published Saturday | March 3, 2007
Review: History has leading role in 'Harry'
BY BOB FISCHBACH
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Making history come alive as theater can be tricky business.


Talky business.

But the Omaha Community Playhouse's production of "Give 'Em Hell, Harry," about the White House years of Harry S. Truman, has some effective weapons in its arsenal that do the trick.

The first, and most impressive, is Matt Kamprath in the title role. Kamprath doesn't look much like Truman, who had a blockier build and a more round face. So it is doubly impressive that Kamprath pulls off this role that will be so familiar to playgoers of a certain age.

He does it with a combination of carefully reproduced speech patterns and physical movement that successfully bring the 33rd president to life on the playhouse's main stage. More than that, Kamprath has captured the spirit of the man.

And that's almost all the show needs, since Truman has about half the lines and is onstage nearly the entire show.


Matt Kamprath captures Truman's speech patterns.

What Kamprath doesn't evoke, technology does. We hear the recorded voices of historical figures. Quotes, still photographs and newsreel footage of events from the Truman years are projected on the rear wall of the set, front and center above the president's desk.

It's quite a history lesson: President Franklin Roosevelt's 1945 death, World War II's end, a rail strike, Truman's uphill run for election in 1948, Korea, the firing of Gen. MacArthur, the start of the civil rights movement and more.

If a new Cabinet member or war general appears onstage, we get a photo of the actual man. If the president visits his home in Independence, Mo., there it is before us. If he addresses Congress, we see the actual event.

And when the atom bomb is dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945, we get not only the conflagration and mushroom cloud but the devastating reality of the original ground zero, including a horrible image of a child's corpse, frozen as it fell.

The photo, and spirited Oval Office debate, bring home the gravity of the decision Truman faced on whether to drop that bomb - to save lives by ending the war early, at a cost of tens of thousands of civilians.

Kamprath gets particularly strong support from Derrick Crawford as his office aide, Bill, who serves as narrator; Melissa Jarecke, who is just right as the first lady; Eric Wilson-Lopez as an impassioned anti-bomb nuclear physicist; and Joyce Torchia as Truman's elderly mother.

Pacing was uneven at Friday's opener, particularly in transitions between scenes. Shaving 10 or 15 minutes off the hour and 20 minutes run time could help as the show settles in.

Director Hughston Walkinshaw and company deliver a well-staged show that entertains as it enlightens. Despite a bit of colorful cussing, it's not a bad way to give your teens a history lesson.