Reviews

Directed with gusto by Randall Wise and John Doyle, the production is relatively humorous and surprisingly sweet. With fluid staging, the directors make the most of the inherently theatrical spirits. The angels and ghost of Joe are unseen and unheard by the other characters, and Wise/Doyle employ slapstick, satire and the old talking-to-thin-air routine to maximum effect. Best at playing with the illusion is Bill Rahill, who repeatedly steals the show as Joe's understandably defuddled manager, Max Levene.
J. Cooper Robb
Philadelphia Weekly

Under the direction of Iron Age's Randall Wise and John Doyle, the primary roles of Joe, the boxer (David Dallas); Bette, the girl he falls in love with (Joy Orlemann); and head angel Mr. Jordan (Ray Saraceni) are well-cast and played.
Douglas J. Keating
Philadelphia Inquirer

The charms of the Iron Age production is in discovering and reviving a forgotten script. Written in the 1930s, the comedy is simply a sweet story. It is directed without irony.
The sublimely named actor David Dallas captured the energy, earnestness, and simplicity of the everyman Joe Pendleton. Ray Saraceni, a company fixture, used his trademark stentorian manner to create an apt Mr. Jordan. Anthony M. Giampetro, who played Carter in the Iron Age production of Simpatico, turns that character inside out to play the oily murderer and gigolo Tony Abbott.
Joy Orlemann was appropriately beautiful and chaste as Joe's love Bette Logan. Jennifer Margasak was believable as the witch, adulterer, betrayer and murderer, Julia Farnsworth.
This reviewer particularly like the performance of Iron Age regular Bill Rahill as fight manager Max Levene. Rahill carried off well the part of a man who believes he may be losing his mind but chooses to ignore the potential crisis because of his greater faith in his friendship with his fighter, Joe. Thomas Crognale as the police detective Williams gave a winning performance. It's a shame there wasn't more of a part for him because he had the features and demeanor to make Williams a very interesting character.
Special mention should be made in this review of the inclusion of Radnor High School senior Scott Adams in this production.
This production shows there is value in simply telling a story. For those who like the feeling of innocence in a parable, this may be a production for you. Those who know and like the two movies may want to add this play to their references.
Jim McCaffrey
Main Line Life

David Dallas' Joe Pendleton is excitable and hyperactive for a dead guy. He brings a common-man touch to the Farnsworth persona, hardly even bothering to pretend to be the mogul. Ray Saraceni is effective in the part of the head angel Mr. Jordan. His efficient, professional manner makes him an excellent foil for the spunky Joe. Rounding out the trio is Bette, the daughter of the wronged businessman. Joe Orlemann plays the ingenue with a charming innocence.
As the couple plotting (and implementing) Farnsworth's murder, Anthony Giampetro and Jennifer Margasak mug with over-the-top villainy. Watch for a particularly funny bit of business as they contrive to hide a gun from sight. Bill Rahill plays the boxing manager Max Levene with a comic shiftiness, drawing laughs easily with a well-timed gesture or mannerism.
Wise's set is consistent and arresting - a blue-and-white draped heaven soon gives way to a blue, gold, and black art deco mansion living room. Wise and Beth Case's costumes also deserve mention: the angels are garbed as flight attendants and airline pilots. Each is equipped with a Palm Pilot to keep track of the celestial comings-and-goings; it's a nice futuristic touch compared to the world of 1939. All told, Heaven Can Wait is the sort of comedy they don't make anymore. It's a straightforward story with a likable, bullheaded protagonist, something adults and children can enjoy.
Rob Steager
Arcade

In the winning "Heaven Can Wait" Iron Age Theatre and the Montgomery County Cultural Center have concocted a classic home brew that is a steaming mug of cynicism and con games, laced with just enough frothy whimsy and sentimentality to encourage quaffing at a luxuriously indulgent pace. In this canny revival, directors John Doyle and Randall Wise have astutely avoided any gratuitous updates, glazing the melodrama with a perfect sort of 1940s patua that so radiantly authenticated their Requiem for a Heavyweight.
Ray Saraceni is an oasis of calm and sophistication as Mr. Jordan.
As Joe, David Dallas works mightily to maintain the indefatigable pace of supercharged athlete fonding of describing his physical condition as "in the pink."
Bill Rahill is an engaging jolt of wise-guy panache, playing Joe's scrappy fight manager with the sleazy hustle of a, well, fight manager. In one of the play's most hilarious and memorable, if pithy, scenes he cautiosly approaches Mrs. Farnsworth's impossibly adorable Yorkshire terrier (known as Jesse offstage), wondering if the dog is in fact his old friend Joe come back on four legs.
Rose Evans is all too briefly enjoyable as Farnsworth's bewildered housekeeper.
Anthony Giampetro manages a wildly successful 90-degree turn from his boxing role in the aforementioned "Requiem" to take on the haughty, effete Tony Abbott, clicking charisma-wise with Jennifer Margasak - as glamorously dry as the martinis her character, Julia Farnsworth, no doubt imbibes - to form the murderous romantic duo.
Winsome Joy Orelmann, as the daughter of a businessman ruined by Farnsworth who falls in love with Pendleton/Farnsworth, seems to effortlessly evoke one of those lovely and oh-so-sensible heroines of vintage black and white films.
Heaven may be able to wait, but cultural center audiences have no such luxury, as this joyous moral lesson about selflessness and selfishness concludes its run on April 16.
Gary Puleo
The Times Herald