Review: Naples play 'Scapino' pokes fun at lawyers, Florida, mafia and more

Sleazy lawyers. Romance in the sun. Even the thought of mafia types making their way to sunny Naples seems believable in the latest offering from Gulfshore Playhouse.

"Scapino" — a Southwest Florida take on the French playwright Molière's play of nearly 350 years ago — seems ambitious enough. Jeffrey Binder, associate artistic director of Gulfshore Playhouse, adapted Molière's classic with quick-hit comedic daggers for audience members, who roared throughout Saturday's opening night performance. 

The play remains in Naples throughout, beginning with Octavio (played by Jack Berenholtz) lamenting how his father, mafioso family head Don Albert (Gerritt Vandermeer), wants him to marry the daughter of another don, as in Don Geronte (Larry Paulsen).

Berenholtz creates a hybrid Tony Danza-meets-Vinnie Barbarino (John Travolta's character in the 1970s sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter"). He tells his tale with his assistant Sylvester (Phillip Taratula) nearby. 

Then in walks Tony Scapino (Binder), a Naples disbarred attorney looking for his next scheme. Scapino tells Octavio he has a plan (which shockingly involves thousands of dollars) and sets out to bilk the mafia bosses out of their cash and some dignity. 

Octavio tells Scapino how his father's desire to see him wed has him seeking guidance from "the man upstairs." When Scapino asks him if he means God, Octavio replies: "No, the man upstairs, Uncle Vinny," who lives on a second floor of a house.

The play is rife with such mafia and Florida references, about how things get shady in Boca Raton around the time of the "early-bird" dinner special, and how Naples is "swarming with cold-blooded killers," as the audience laughs.

Octavio's new bride he met in BO-ka (as it's often pronounced during the show), Chloe (Monica Rae Summers Gonzalez), brilliantly plays up her character as a dimwitted dame who's fallen for Octavio. At one point, he describes Chloe as only Octavio can: "Her hair was silky and tempting like a bucket full of Ding Dongs." 

The second act continues this twisted romantic story, with a few twists. Jade Radford plays Heather, a sassy, empowered millennial who zings insults at the older characters.

And Binder's Scapino ramps up the edginess when he imitates voices of various tourists, including a Russian and how he "voted 600 times in the last election," with reference to accusations of the Russian government meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

Binder pauses for a second or two, then looks to the audience and asks: "Too soon?"

More:Moliere's 'Scapino' brought into 21st century at Gulfshore Playhouse

Everyone on stage digs deep into his or her character, making for a richly funny few hours at the Norris Center in downtown Naples. Paulsen as Don Geronte and Grayson Powell as his son, Leo, make for some funny scenes poking fun at the generation gap.

Gulfshore Playhouse has gone bold in 2018. The theater company next month will unveil architectural plans for a new multimillion-dollar, 400-seat theater.

And now here's "Scapino," a bold, creative stroke of comedic genius built for Southwest Florida audiences and maybe even beyond.

'Scapino"

Where: Gulfshore Playhouse at Norris Community Center, 755 Eighth Ave S., Naples

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays (8 p.m. Feb. 25) through March 18, with audience talkbacks and other events on various days

Tickets:$20-$64

To buy: gulfshoreplayhouse.org or 866-811-4111