Somerset Valley Players takes on Tim Kelly’s Korean War story.
By: Stuart Duncan
Sitting through the production of M*A*S*H at Somerset Valley Playhouse was rather like attending one’s 30th high school reunion. You know a lot of the names, but the faces changed and somehow things seemed different than you had remembered.
For most people, M*A*S*H began as a 1970 Robert Altman movie with Donald Sutherland playing Hawkeye (Capt. Benjamin Franklin Pierce) and Tom Skerritt playing his sidekick Duke (Capt. Augustus Bedford Forrest). They were a couple of surgeons assigned to a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) in Korea during many of the months of the Korean War.
The supporting cast was just as noteworthy: Lt. Col. Blake was played by Roger Bowen; Maj. Frank Burns, another surgeon, was played by Robert Duvall; Trapper John (Capt. John McIntyre) was Elliott Gould and Hot Lips (Maj. Margaret O’Houlihan) was Sally Kellerman.
And then, of course, there was the superb television series that starred Alan Alda and introduced other characters such as Klinger. But before any of these, there was a book, written by Richard Hooker, and after the movie and the start of the long-running TV series, there was a stage version in 1973, based on the original book, not the movie or TV show. And it is this version, adapted for the stage by Tim Kelly, that SVP is offering. Directed by Debra Case Schulze, with a cast of 29, it may surprise you, especially if you developed strong attachments to various characters through the years.
It begins in a familiar fashion. A solitary soldier, armed only with a guitar, slowly strums and sings the plaintiff "Suicide is Painless" tune that opened the movie and each TV episode. It is the lyrics that you may never have heard that are so devastating. Matt Viola, who plays Radar, sings both verses. And then we begin to meet the members of the 4077th unit. There is Lt. Col. Henry Braymore Blake, played with just a touch of lunacy by James Houston. Capt. Frank Burns is played by Tom Johnston and Father John Patrick Mulcahy is Daniel Roth. Capt. John "Trapper" McIntyre is played by Joseph Zedney. Later we will meet "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Deborah Boehm) and in a neat "doubling" of roles, the dean of Hawkeye’s old school and an Army major (both handled wonderfully by Ellen K. Beagle).
But the bulk of the action involves Hawkeye and Duke, and those roles are played by Joe Berardi and Michael A. Iacovelli. Don’t expect an Alan Alda impersonation in fact, be prepared to nod more closely to the novel than either the film or the TV series and to have a sly smile on your face for the entire two hours. And be prepared to meet Ho-Jon (Shan Raju), the Korean tentboy who so charms the medics that they plan for his eventual trip to the U.S. and medical school in the states.
M*A*S*H continues at Somerset Valley Playhouse, 689 Amwell Road, Hillsborough, through May 21. Performances: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Tickets cost $14, $12 seniors/students. For information, call (908) 369-7469. On the Web: www.svptheatre.org

