[NEohioPAL] Berko review: NOBODY DON'T LIKE YOGI (Actors' Summit)

[Roy Berko]

Yogi-isms flow forth at
Actors’ Summit
 
Roy Berko
 
(Member, American Theatre
Critics Association)
 
--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--
 
Lorain County Times--Westlaker
Times--Lakewood News Times--Olmsted-Fairview Times  
 
COOLCLEVELAND.COM
 
Yogi Berra, the subject
of ‘NOBODY DON’T LIKE YOGI,’ now in production at Actors’ Summit,  is a baseball legend. But, he may be
best know for his “Yogi-isms.”  He
is responsible for numerous American English malapropisms.  Classics include: "This is like
deja vu all over again," ""You've got to be very careful if you
don't know where you're going, because you might not get there." "If
you come to a fork in the road, take it." And, the logically illogical,
"It was impossible to get a conversation going; everybody was talking too
much."
 
‘NOBODY DON’T LIKE
YOGI’ is Tom Lysaght’s tribute to Berra , a Hall of Fame catcher and World
Series manager, who was known as a warm and fuzzy guy devoted to his family and
baseball.  He is also noted as one
of the few people who stood up to legendary tyrant, George Steinbrenner,
renowned owner of the New York Yankees.  
 
Steinbrenner was born
in 1930 in Rocky River. His father, Henry Steinbrenner, owned a Great Lakes
shipping company, which George operated for many years.  His years of success as owner of the
Yankees was balanced by his twice being suspended by baseball for legal and
ethical violations.  His run-in
with Berra, which resulted in Yogi’s firing, centered on Steinbrenner
questioning not only Berra’s managerial choices, but making accusations against
his son. 
 
The play is set on
the afternoon of the Old Timer's Game in 1999, when Yogi returned to Yankee
Stadium after staying away for 14 years, since vowing never to return after
Steinbrenner fired him.  Berra,
concerned about his lack of education and public speaking abilities, centering
on his belief that “I’m not inwardly outgoing," wanders the manager’s
office and locker room telling stories about baseball, the players, and his own
life.  (His narration is backed up
by slides of the people about whom he is speaking.)
The play reaches
its logical climax as Yogi gives a heartfelt speech to a sold out Yankee
Stadium.  But, then, Lysaght
decides that, as Yogi might say, “The end is not the end if you don’t stop when
the end ends at the end.”  The
writer tacks on another fifteen minutes of repeating himself, drawing a moral
to a story that has already moralized.  The night I saw the show, the audience became restless during the
tacked-on segment. 
The New York production
starred Ben Gazzara.  Reviews
reveal that Gazzara showed an inner strength of a man who, while deferential,
was unyielding. 
 
It is ironic that the guy
of misplaced words is being portrayed locally by George Roth, a Yale graduate
who was a two-time Jeopardychamp.  Though maybe a little too
intellectual, Roth’s characterization has a clear focus.  It may surprise many who have never
heard Berra speak that he did not have a New York accent.  Born in St. Louis, his articulation was
Midwestern, with a slight Italian intonation.  Roth’s task is daunting.  He holds sway for almost two hours, alone on stage, speaking
line after line.  As the woman in
front of me asked at the end of the show, “How can any person remember all
those lines?”  I guess a Yale and
Central School of Speech and Drama in London graduate can, and make sense of
them.
 
CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:  Though a little overly long and a bit
languidly paced, ‘NOBODY DON’T LIKE YOGI’ is well worth seeing.  It’s fun and interesting.  The story is an eye opener, the acting
excellent, and it’s nice to think about baseball’s opening day being only
three-and –a- half months away.
 
For tickets to ‘NOBODY
DON’T LIKE YOGI,’ which runs through January 24,   call 330-342-0800 or go to actorssummit.org.  Actors’ Summit is located at 86 Owen
Brown Street in Hudson.  
  Roy Berko's blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 through 2009, as well as his consulting and publications information, can be found at http://royberko.info

His reviews can also be found on www.coolcleveland.com and NeOHIOpal (to subscribe visit http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/neohiopal.)