I don't think I ever saw the same play on stage in two different productions (other than various Shakespeare works), but tonight Beverly and I drove 40 miles out to Malibu to see Dick and Jerry Van Dyke in "The Sunshine Boys."  This was at a beautifully-designed little theater on Pacific Coast Highway, just a short distance from Zuma Beach.  The theater was actually smaller than the auditorium that held Dan Roebuck's production.  Every seat was taken, and the audience seemed to love the play--we all leaped to our feet when the Van Dyke boys came out for a curtain(less) call--after an amusing, planned pause.
    I was surprised to see that Jerry also directed the play, his wife produced it, and the display of donors featured only two names for the highest (i.e. most money) slot--one was Dick Van Dyke.  I was also surprised that Jerry, not Dick, played the "Walter Matthau role," the same part (Willie Clark) Dan had in the production in Burbank.  Dick, of course, was the other--Al Lewis.  The play followed the original script for the most part, allowing a few bits for the Van Dyke brothers to do trademarks--Jerry kind of slathered some phrases together, Dick frowns at an ottoman--then deftly dodged around it, just as he does in the other opening for THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW.  They ran a few clips from the show, including some of Jerry as Rob's sleepperforming brother Stacey.  At one point, Al stoutly declares he does a very good british accent; Willie replies he sounds as bad as Bert in "Mary Poppins."  (Dick has been given a lot of grief over the years for his inaccurate Cockney in that movie.) There was a very big change, however, in the second act.  In the play, Lewis and Clark try to stage "the doctor bit" for a current TV show, get partway through it, then Clark blows his stack and has a heart attack.  All that was gone, replaced (delightfully) by the Van Dyke brothers singing and doing a touch of soft-shoe to "Two of a Kind."  It does end, however with the spitting and the poking and Willie's collapse.
     Late last year, Dick Van Dyke was in rehearsals for a one-man show about his career, with singing and dancing and this and that, but he sprained a tendon or something and the show had to be called off.  He seemed nimble enough tonight; I hope he does the canceled show.
      We didn't notice anyone standing around talking to the Van Dyke boys afterward.  I'm not sure what I would have said.  Dick Van Dyke is one of the most likeable performers I've seen, up there with James Garner.  Is there anyone who doesn't like Dick Van Dyke or James Garner?  (That is, the people themselves, not necessarily how they played this or that character.)  If so, I've never met them, nor would I want to.  I feel an actual affection for Van Dyke, like I would for a favorite uncle.  I don't know how I could say that to a perfect stranger, someone I've only seen twice, both times in a play.  (The other was a fairly lavish traveling production of "The Music Man.")