Few fans, reporters, or buddies continually show love for a childhood hero the way Hall of Fame football writer Ray Didinger has for Hall of Fame 1960s-era Philadelphia Eagles receiver Tommy McDonald.
As a child going to Eagles practices in Hershey, Didinger carried McDonald’s helmet as they walked together from the training ground to the players’ dorm. As a premier sports reporter for two Philadelphia dailies, Didinger turned McDonald’s gridiron exploits into legend. As a friend following both men’s retirements, Didinger was instrumental in getting McDonald considered for and voted into the NFL Hall of Fame.
In case that wasn’t enough, Didinger put his history with McDonald into a play, “Tommy & Me,” intended to be a summer one-off during Philadelphia’s fringe season. Yet, since its debut in 2015, it has played somewhere in Eagles territory every season in a production helmed by Joe Canuso for Theatre Exile.
Last year, one venue was New Hope’s Buck County Playhouse. Producers there — Alex Fraser, Robyn Goodman, and Josh Fiedler — were so impressed they called Canuso to see if they count mount their own production with a different director and design elements this summer. According to Fraser’s opening night welcome speech, Canuso said he’s been waiting for such a request for years.
The Bucks County rendition, directed by Nick Corley and fielding a top-notch cast of Gordon Clapp, Karl Kenzler, Matthew Lamb, and William Bednar is a slam-bang heart-pumping, heartwarming touchdown with a two-point conversion as BCP shows Tommy McDonald’s actual Hall of Fame acceptance speech after curtain calls.
Many playwrights have written tributes to those they admire. In “Tommy & Me,” Ray Didinger offers as sweet and amusing a valentine as anyone could pen for a boyhood hero. Sincere and funny, “Tommy & Me” captures Tommy McDonald is all of his brilliance, bombast, and hidden resentment. More than “un homage” to an idol, it is a smart, engaging play that captures the relationship between two people who happen to be in the same Hall of Fame, one as a writer, one as an athlete. “Tommy & Me” would stand up as a play if its characters were not well known and its story was fictional. For someone who never wrote a play, Didinger covers all the yardage in providing plot, conflict, humor, pathos, heart, and even suspense in a neat, joyful package.
Most skillful of all, Didinger and Corley pass one of the hardest tests a theater piece faces. It makes you worry whether something you know must happen, McDonald’s induction to the Hall, will happen, as if you didn’t have a clue about the outcome. You fret with Ray and Tommy as each year’s vote is taken, sharing their disappointment and eventual victory.
Gordon Clapp, whom I interviewed for a different publication prior to seeing BCP’s production, got it entirely right when he said he likes “Tommy & Me” for its old-fashioned style and values. It isn’t political. It doesn’t advocate anything. It simply, but movingly, tells a story of two guys whose paths cross in interesting ways.
Clapp contributes way more than articulating exactly what I saw on “Tommy & Me’s” opening night. He gives a spirited, vivacious, uninhibited performance that not only makes you love Tommy McDonald as much as Didinger does but shows you all the habits and behaviors that give Didinger and others concern about Tommy’s stability.
Clapp lives up to all Didinger says about McDonald. In addition to being the show-off Tommy was famous for being, Clapp shows the player’s vulnerability. He shows you how Tommy uses much of his hijinks to mask insecurity about being smaller than the average player, being scoffed at by coaches and colleagues because of his size, and being ignored by a Hall that has inducted some whose statistics and accomplishments are nowhere near McDonald’s. Clapp shrewdly reveals how McDonald feels about being traded by the Eagles in 1964, pretending at first the move didn’t matter to him, being just part of football, then exploding Tommy-style about the Eagles’ ingratitude and the expected disrespect he received from coach Joe Kuharich (offset by a compliment he gets from Vince Lombardi).
Tommy calls 11-year-old Ray a football encyclopedia, and you see what he means in the dialogue given to and performances provided by Karl Kenzler and Matthew Lamb as McDonald at two different ages — Kenzler as the adult, Lamb as a child.
Kenzler perfectly contrasts Clapp’s performance. In doing so, he not only balances Corley’s production but gives insight into the actual Ray Didinger, especially in terms of professionalism, easygoing style, and modesty.
Kenzler has to be more than a character. He also serves as host and moderator, introducing new beats to the story and setting up each scene.
In doing this, the actor is pleasantly passive, often giving up the stage to Clapp or his young alter ego, Lamb, yet keeping command and rising to each occasion when Didinger, rather than McDonald, is charged with creating the show’s drama.
Lamb is all precocity. His exchanges with Kenzler are sharp and often funny, as when the younger Ray rues in some way how the older Ray turned out. Lamb adds to the brightness Clapp establishes and is a good foil to the calmer, more subdued older Didinger.
Tommy McDonald is also seen in younger form. William Bednar, besides looking great in a vintage Eagles uniform — Kelly green — shows you the combination of playfulness and confidence Clapp takes to the next level. Bednar’s McDonald is a natural with kids. His kindness to Ray makes an impression Didinger carries when he passes from fan to a professional whose objective role precludes him showing emotion or taking sides, whether he’s doing so or not.
Corley assembled a sterling cast. He also conceived an excellent production that eschews clutter and goes for direct and earnest encounters between characters.
Simplicity is Corley’s watchword. He lets Didinger’s dialogue and his cast’s abundant talent do the heavy lifting. He provides the tone that lets “Tommy & Me” find power and emotion that is as guileless as the rest of the production.
Stools and benches, painted Eagle green and moved as needed, serve as the only scenery. A sense of place and an insight into the adult Didinger and McDonald are given by projections by Brian Pacelli that not only establish location but can be used as screens to show a crucial McDonald touchdown or serve as a flow chart Didinger can use in promoting McDonald to the Hall.
Lisa Zinni’s costumes capture the style of both leads. Joanna Straub’s sound designs goes from supplying cheers of fans to simulating a boom box playing the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive.” Paul Miller’s lighting takes us from the sunny practice field in Hershey to the muted textures of offices and homes.
Tommy & Me, Bucks County Playhouse, 70 South Main Street, New Hope, Pennsylvania. Through Saturday, June 17, Tuesday and Thursday, 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday,8 p.m., and Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, 2 p.m. $32 to $65. 215-862-2121 or www.bcptheater.org.
