With 180 episodes over six seasons to choose from, Kim Flagg had her work cut out for her.
As producer and co-adapter, alongside Rick Sparks, of “I Love Lucy Live on Stage,” the sitcom writer made a list of requisites to help her decide on the two episodes to be featured in the theatrical tribute to one of America’s most beloved television shows.
It’s a list she rattles off when approached by fans hoping to see one of their favorite episodes from the 1950s sitcom — starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, and Vivian Vance and William Frawley as their landlords and friends Ethel and Fred Mertz — onstage.
“People always ask, is it the vitameatavegamin, is it the candy factory, is it the grape-stomping, which are all wonderful and classic episodes,” says Flagg, who watched every season of the show, which aired on CBS from 1951 through 1957, while taking notes. “I’d be thinking, ‘This is funny, this is good,’ and then I would think, ‘Where’s Fred?’ He wasn’t even in it. That was one of my requirements, having all four characters in the show.”
She also wanted episodes that featured the Ricardos’ New York apartment and the Tropicana nightclub, where Ricky is a singer and bandleader — and Lucy often tries to commandeer the spotlight.
“Those are so iconic, the audience would miss them. With the Tropicana, that brings music. With the live stage show, the music adds a lot of fun and energy for the audience,” says Flagg. “I also wanted the famous cry, and I wanted the classic theme of Lucy trying to get into the show.”
And so “I Love Lucy Live on Stage,” which brings its national tour to the Merriam Theater in Philadelphia Thursday through Sunday, takes audiences back in time to the Desilu Playhouse studios to watch the filming of two classic episodes: 1952’s “The Benefit,” where Lucy tries to get in on Ricky’s performance at a women’s club benefit show, and 1953’s “Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined,” in which vision-blurring drops can’t deter her from a jitterbug audition.
Flagg and Sparks, who also serves as director, wanted to create as immersive an experience as possible, which is why the stage adaptation also includes a host who entertains the audience and explains the production process, as well as appearances by the Crystaltone Singers, performing jingles from the shows’ sponsors during breaks in filming.
“It is a tribute and more of a valentine to ‘I Love Lucy’ but also to that era — the early 1950s,” says Flagg, who, as Tim Allen’s head comedy writer for more than a decade, has collaborated with the actor on several projects, including the ABC sitcoms “Last Man Standing” and “Home Improvement.”
“I Love Lucy” has always been a favorite. Flagg grew up laughing with Ball, Carol Burnett and Gilda Radner.
“I loved Lucy’s innocence and naïveté. She was kind of like a 6-year-old in many aspects, which would include trying to get her way by crying. But she had such an honest, kind of wide-eyed, excited love for life,” she says. “Her comedic timing was a great influence on me. That got me interested in comedy.”
The actor whom she cast as Lucy, however, never saw a single episode until she landed her audition. Sirena Irwin, who originated the role when the show premiered in Los Angeles in 2011, grew up without a television. But she had a reliable window into Lucy’s comedic world after taking an acting class with Paula Stewart, a good friend of Ball’s, who co-starred with the icon in the Broadway musical “Wildcat.”
Stewart advised Irwin on how to approach the character and invited her to her house to see some of the items Ball had left her, including personal notes and a backgammon table with matches from Pips, the Beverly Hills club where Ball frequently played, tucked into the drawers.
Eventually, Irwin watched every “I Love Lucy” episode on DVD.
“What strikes me even now and struck me then is how funny it is, how I can watch the same episode multiple times and it’s so funny. There’s something so honest about all of their performances, even if it’s in this heightened world, that the viewers believe it,” she says. “My favorite thing about Lucy Ricardo is her willingness to do anything, to go anywhere. She’s not held back by fear or self-doubt in any way. I think that’s a lovely human quality.
“I’m not afraid to try anything. I think it’s fun.”
While one of the biggest challenges in casting Ricky, played by Bill Mendieta, was finding an actor with the right Latin accent — “When Bill got up to audition, he nailed that Cuban accent,” says Flagg — the perfect Lucy needed to possess more than great comic timing.
“We were also looking for a stage actor who was very grounded, who was capable of bringing truth to the role,” says Flagg. “We didn’t want a look-alike. We would much rather have a great stage actor who could capture the essence and spirit of Lucy Ricardo.”
Irwin, who in addition to her many stage credits has voiced multiple characters on “SpongeBob SquarePants,” among other TV roles, employs a similar reference point.
“The more I watch (Lucy), she’s very rooted to the earth. She has her moments where she flips and then it almost looks like she’s suspended, like she’s floating. But you can’t come to that crazy, zany, over-the-top place without having a beginning of being rooted and grounded with the earth,” she says. “That’s what allows people in so they can laugh when the turn happens.”
She acknowledges those who believe no one could ever, nor should they, attempt to do Lucy justice.
“I don’t feel I’ve ever approached this saying I am Lucille Ball. I am Sirena Irwin,” she says. “I just have the joy and opportunity to bring Lucy Ricardo to life.”
