It’s quite a leap for Zac Efron from the “High School Musical” series to “Me and Orson Welles,” a coming-of-age comedy set against the background of Orson Welles’ legendary, fascist-themed 1937 stage production of “Julius Caesar.”
In truth, this charming, thankfully atypical film by Richard Linklater (“Before Sunrise” and its even more soporific sequel) belongs not to Efron but to British actor Christian McKay, who entertainingly dominates the proceedings as the young, hammy genius Welles.
The spare and foreshortened but powerful Shakespearean adaptation was the first production of the Mercury Theatre, which Welles and John Houseman (Eddie Marsan, effectively cast against type) founded after splitting with the Federal Theater following a battle over “Cradle Will Rock.”
“Me and Orson Welles” is, in effect, a sequel to Tim Robbins’ star-filled, self-important film about “Cradle,” but it’s far lighter on its feet.
Efron is the audience’s surrogate as a 17-year-old suburban lad who lands a small role in the production. He gets lucky with a production assistant (Claire Danes), but also has an eye for a younger writer played by Zoe Kazan (whose grandfather Elia was acting with the Group Theater at the same time).
These actors are playing more-or-less fictional characters, but pretty much everyone else is playing a real person, and it’s especially fun if you know the actors they are playing.
Ben Chaplin is the high-strung George Coulouris, Welles’ Caesar; James Tupper (“Men in Trees”) cuts a dashing figure as future movie star Joseph Cotten; and Leo Bill is extremely funny as the still-extant Norman Lloyd, future villain of Hitchock’s “Saboteur” and, still later, Dr. Auschlander of “St. Elsewhere.”
There are romantic rivalries and backstage crises aplenty as opening night approaches and everyone (especially the long-suffering Houseman) gripes about the imperious Welles, who tends to show up hours late for rehearsals.
In the end, though, Welles delivers. The film’s final half-hour is devoted to a fairly meticulous re-creation of the groundbreaking show — from original designs and Marc Blitzstein’s score — that fully demonstrates the genius that Welles would eventually bring to bear on his screen masterpiece “Citizen Kane.”
“Me and Orson Welles,” mostly filmed on London soundstages and an old theater on Britain’s Isle of Man, is one of the best pictures about the stage in recent memory.