“Gene and Gilda”

The loving, challenging romance of Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner

By Alix Cohen

Comic actors/writers Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner met in 1980 on set of the forgettable caper film Hanky Panky. They married four years later, weathered severe troubles, and were together when she died of cancer in 1989. Wilder remarried in 1991 and passed in 2016.

This is a sweet play about the couple’s coming together and staying together despite idiosyncrasies of both personalities. It’s staged as a live CNBC interview of Wilder by Dick Cavett whose voice was recorded for the role. Hesitant to be frank about his relationship with his deceased wife, Wilder is emboldened by her ghost. He rises from a studio chair to enact, rather than describe the past, returning to answer questions.

In her autobiography It’s Always Something, Radner wrote that for her, it was love at first sight. The actress goes on to admit she tried to seduce Wilder early on. Having been twice divorced and aware she was married, he politely declined, despite her assurance that liaison was over.

Playwright Cary Gitter gives Radner (Jordan Kai Burnett) the sexual aggression of a guided missile. She divorces and shows up at his house with suitcases, chipping away at Wilder’s armor until he realizes how good she is for him. That too is clearly depicted with encouragement, professional discipline, and infinite patience.

Wilder (Jonathan Randell Silver) emerges much like Leo Bloom from The Producers. He’s oversensitive and self deprecating; hyperventilates, has physically demonstrative meltdowns, and employs a comfort hankie like Leo’s blankie. Expressions of anxiety are directly out of the film and musical. Assuming Gitter additionally read Wilder’s candid Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art, we have to give this some credence. I found the likeness difficult.

Radner deals with push/pull commitment until an incident with her beloved dog shows Wilder the woman he thought of as clingy could be independent. Hollywood, pastiche style dance sequences are charming. (No choreographer is listed. Movement consultant- Ryan Kasprzak) Friends called them “constant honeymooners.” Radner mostly takes care of him until she’s ill and they trade accountability.

Projection Design by Brian Pacelli tries too hard to fill honeycomb squares by Set Designer Christian Fleming. Modular furniture offers ample opportunity for directing creativity. Gregory Gale’s Costumes are spot on.

Both actors resemble those they play, Jonathan Randall Silver a bit more than the attractive Jordan Kai Burnett. His personification is also closer to that which we’ re familiar. Burnett is believably smart, spunky and determined, if not channeling Radner.

Director Joe Brancato uses the set with imagination. Both actors listen. Chemistry is apparent.

Were this not recognizably Wilder and Radner, it might be Hallmark. Still, it’s unabashedly an adult love story at a time we can use a few more.

Photos by Carol Rosegg

Penguin Rep Theatre presents The New York Premiere of
Gene & Gilda by Cary Gitter
Directed by Joe Brancato
59E59th Street Theaters https://59e59.org/shows/show-detail/gene-gilda/
Through September 7, 2025