[NEohioPAL] Rave Review of George Roth in NOBODY DON'T LIKE YOGI at Actors' Summit

[Neil Thackaberry]

*REVIEW: 'Yogi' is a skillfully woven one-man show *

By Kerry Clawson
Beacon Journal staff writer

POSTED: 06:10 p.m. EST, Jan 11, 2010

In *Nobody Don't Like Yogi*, legendary ballplayer Yogi Berra comes across as
the guy from the old neighborhood you could always trust.

Actor George Roth skillfully weaves an emotional tapestry in this one-man
show at Actors' Summit, quietly revealing how humble the legendary Yankees
catcher is and how deeply rooted in family he remains. So proud to wear the
Yankee pinstripes, Berra talks about how he never witnessed a fight among
teammates the whole time he played for the Yankees. All of the team members
were married; none was divorced.

My, how things have changed.

The play by Tom Lysaght, set at Yankee Stadium on Yogi Berra Day in 1999,
explores Berra's return to the stadium after a 14-year feud with Yankees
owner George Steinbrenner. He's nervous about the speech he's about to give
but has come home out of obligation to the fans.

''I'm not inwardly outgoing,'' Berra explains.

This man with the eighth-grade education is famous for his many
malapropisms, called Yogi-isms. Some, including ''It ain't over till it's
over,'' are so pervasive, it's surprising today to learn the source.

Even the play's title, in its double negative, makes an odd sort of sense —
much as Berra does — in actually affirming how beloved the former athlete,
now 84, is.

Under the direction of Neil Thackaberry, Cleveland-area actor Roth takes us
through a nicely paced, 90-minute performance. Berra's words at times are
full of tender simplicity and at others, brimming with emotion.

Wearing a baggy brown suit, Berra talks about his meager upbringing in an
Italian neighborhood in St. Louis, where he dropped out of school in eighth
grade to help support the family. Photos on overhead screens show Berra's
family and fellow ball players, but the word imagery goes much further when
he speaks about being at his mother's deathbed, or the day he met his wife.

We can just imagine Berra asking his future wife Carmen, a waitress, what
the ''Spanish quickie'' (spinach quiche) is on the menu.

The tension in *Nobody Don't Like Yogi* mounts as Roth enacts Berra's
infamous 1985 confrontation with Steinbrenner, which ended up getting him
fired as the Yankees manager. Berra would not accept personal insults
against his son Dale, a Yankees player.

Lysaght's script uses baseball as a metaphor for life more than once. Rather
than getting into insider baseball tales, the play delves into who Berra was
and what his values were in his years with the Yankees.

Berra didn't believe in chastising a player in front of his teammates. He
believed that baseball, the only sport to list errors on the scoreboard,
could be cruel enough.

This old-school player and manager reveled in the passion of the sport.
Berra may never have been worldly, but thanks to this production, we see
that he was both honest and wise.

*Details *

*One-man show: **Nobody Don't Like Yogi. *

*When:* Through Jan. 24, 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays.

*Where: *Actors' Summit,* *86 Owen Brown St., Hudson.

*Onstage:* George Roth.

*Offstage:* Tom Lysaght, playwright; Neil Thackaberry,
director/set/lighting; MaryJo Alexander, costumes/props; Mindi Bonde, stage
manager.

*Tickets:* $26-$29; senior citizens, $23 Thursdays and Saturdays; students,
$7.

*Information: *330-342-0800.
 ------------------------------

Arts writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or
kclawson at thebeaconjournal.com.
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