‘Story of My Life’ in Wilmington

Bud Martin, one of its New York producers, never lost faith in the piece. When he was the head of Act II Playhouse in Ambler in 2010, Martin produced The Story of My Life there, starring Tony Braithwaite. Now Martin is in his second season as executive director of the Delaware Theater Company, and he has remounted it superbly.

The story is partly similar to Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along in its depiction of a man who becomes a celebrity and loses touch with his former best friend. Yet Story of My Life’s intimate approach is the opposite of Merrily’s showbiz razzmatazz. And Story offers a secondary theme: the protagonist’s absent-minded, non-malicious neglect of his old friend.

In Merrily, a successful songwriter callously turns his back on his pals and becomes, in effect, the piece’s villain. In Story, on the other hand, the lionized novelist simply loses his focus and motivation, as many perfectly ordinary people do.

I’d bet that many people in the audience this month left the Delaware Theater resolving to call a former friend and re-establish contact. For all the fine qualities of Merrily, I find myself more haunted by The Story of My Life.

Small decisions

The two-character play depicts two guys who’ve been each other’s closest friends since elementary school. While Alvin devotes himself to a bookstore he inherited from his father, Tom finds success in writing stories about his childhood. He moves to the big city, makes a series of small decisions that gradually erode his old friendship, and drifts away from Alvin.

Rob McClure, bursting with the physicality and quirkiness he displayed in the title role in Chaplin on Broadway, makes an ideal Alvin. Ben Dibble, fresh from his triumph as Leo Frank in Parade at the Arden, wins sympathy with his portrayal of the conflicted Tom. This is a tough role to nail, because we need to see Tom as a man who never intended to hurt his friend but does so anyway.

Floating bookshelves

Both actors were excellent in their singing of Neil Bartram’s words and music. Dibble’s baritone voice combines sweetness with vulnerability. McClure’s assertive sound provides a nice contrast.

Tom Fosnocht conducted a six-person orchestra in Jonathan Tunick’s lovely chamber-like orchestrations.

Scenic designer Dirk Durossette’s set featured a stepladder and free-floating white bookshelves, as if they were only a recollection of a past. Bud Martin’s lovely direction appropriately featured manuscript papers flying and snow angels flickering.