Carol’s ‘Time’

The main character in “Hollywood Arms” is named Helen, but everyone knows who it really is.

It’s Carol Burnett, and this is the story of how she was raised in a down-at-heels L.A. boarding house by her mother and grandmother.

This 2002 comedy-drama, which opens at the Spokane Civic’s intimate Studio Theatre on Friday, was written by Burnett and her daughter, Carrie Hamilton. The story is based on Burnett’s 1986 memoir, “One More Time.”

Critics have described the play as similar to Neil Simon’s autobiographical “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” but transplanted to California.

“It’s a proverbially bittersweet tale set in the low-rent shadow of the Hollywood hills, about a dysfunctional but well-intentioned family and the sweet-tempered, responsible girl who grew up to become a star,” the New York Times’ Bruce Weber said of the play’s premiere at the Goodman Theater in Chicago.

“Hollywood Arms” may be about Burnett, but apparently the show’s real main characters are the two older women in her life.

The grandmother, Nanny, is described by Weber as “a flatulent, skinflint pessimist with a fondness for Kate Smith, sherry and Christian Science.”

The mother, Louise, “begins as flirty and breezy, girlish and hopeful and ends as blowzy, regretful and resigned.”

The play spans a decade, with Helen as a feisty 10-year-old in the first act and a 20-year-old poised for stardom in the second act.

“The apartment that Helen shares with Nanny (Louise lives down the hall, at least for a while) becomes a sitcom-worthy girl’s club, with three generations of the family in the perennial seesaw between communal irritation and mutual affection, and occasional visits from other characters, who on television would be called guest stars,” wrote Weber.

The play moved to Broadway in October 2002 and had a moderately successful run of 76 performances. Michelle Pawk, as Louise, won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. The Broadway cast also included Linda Lavin as Nanny.

The Civic’s production, directed by Thomas Heppler, features Jackie Davis as Nanny and Kate Vita as Louise. The young Helen will be played by Kate Cubberley, the older Helen by Paige M. Wamsley.

The rest of the cast includes Dave Rideout, Mark Hodgson, Logan McHenry-Kroetch, Antoinette Imholt, Quinn Klaue, David Denton and Andrew Raugust.