Actor takes on challenging role in ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’
Adam Hogue has tackled his fair share of highprofile leading roles on Mid-South stages, everyone from children’s hero Aladdin to John Proctor in Arthur Miller’s allegorical drama “The Crucible.” But none has been quite like his latest, a part that has the DeSoto County native competing against one of the most beloved actors of all time.
“With somebody like Cary Grant, you’re not going to do it much better,” Hogue says of his characterization of Mortimer Brewster in Kudzu Playhouse’s production of the dark comedy “Arsenic and Old Lace,” which opened Thursday and runs this weekend and next at the Southaven Performing Arts Center.
“So I just tried to find that fine line of being myself and incorporating some of the elements of the brilliant actor as well as portraying this awesome character.”
Grant, who once topped Premiere magazine’s list of What: Kudzu Playhouse presents “Arsenic and Old Lace” When: March 1-9 Where: Southaven Performing Arts Center, 2101 Colonial Hills Drive Show times: 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday. Tickets: $10, $5 for students and seniors. Tickets available at the box office one hour before show time and online at kudzuplayers.com. the greatest movie stars of all time, played Brewster, a New York theater critic who unearths deadly family secrets on his wedding day, in Frank Capra’s 1944 film version of Joseph Kesserling’s play.
Though Hogue uses Grant as a guide to deliver something familiar to fans of the film in the audience, he doesn’t compare himself to his legendary predecessor. And to put his own spin on things, he relies on the unique portrayals of his co-stars, including Jamison White as Brew- ster’s brother Jonathan, Missy Handwerker and Kelly Stevenson as the Brewster boys’ innocentlooking aunts, and Emily Chateau, fresh off a turn in DeSoto Family Theater’s “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” stepping in at the last moment for another actress as Mortimer’s new bride, Elaine.
“This cast is phenomenal,” says Hogue. “You’ve got so much talent on one stage you kind of get lost as far as who to watch. There’s so much going on, you probably have to come see it twice just to get the full scope.”
Helping guide these actors is one of their own, local theater veteran Cassidy Porter. The Senatobia native is familiar to local theatergoers for her Allie Award-winning turns in area productions like “Jekyll & Hyde” and “Barefoot in the Park.” But with “Arsenic and Old Lace” she is making her directing debut.
“She’s done a great job,” says Hogue, who has costarred with Porter in “Cats” and “The Fantasticks.”