[NEohioPAL] Review of "Lost in Yonkers" at the Cleveland Play House

Bob Abelman r.abelman at adelphia.net
Fri Jan 15 00:06:00 PST 2010


Acting fuels CPH's excellent 'Yonkers'

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review appeared in the News-Herald 1/15/10

 

If the characters from Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie had landed on Ellis Island, settled near the Bronx, and were seen through the borsch-colored glasses of comedic genius Neil Simon, they would be the family in Lost in Yonkers. 

 

Set in the Great Depression, The Glass Menagerie reveals the unfulfilled dreams of the singularly doomed Wingfield family. The play is narrated by Tom Wingfield, a young man who escapes the life he loathed but not the guilt of what he left behind.

 

Left behind is an overbearing, suffocating Southern belle mother who, by living in the past, has found the only means available to exist in an unpleasant present.  Left behind is a shy, physically and emotionally challenged sister, who is as fragile as the glass animals she collects, and who yearns for the tender touch of a gentleman caller.  Left behind are the memories of a father who deserted the family and set into motion the Wingfield's sad legacy.  

 

Currently on stage at the Cleveland Play House, Lost in Yonkers takes place during World War II and is about the Krunitz family.  The play is told through the perspective of two teenage boys, Jay and Arty.  When their father leaves for the Deep South, they are left with their domineering, suffocating German grandmother, whose every action is influenced by her tragic past.  Also living in the apartment is their emotionally disabled aunt, Bella, who yearns for the tender touch of a gentleman caller.  

 

Unlike The Glass Menagerie, this is a comedy and, more to the point, a Neil Simon comedy.   

 

As such, the narrators crack wise rather than wax poetic, learn to understand rather than loathe the family matriarch, and find humor rather than heartache in their dire circumstances.  Alex Wyse and Maxwell Beer are brilliant as the boys.  They serve as absolutely charming conduits to Simon's storytelling and execute his frequent one-liners as if they were normal conversation.  

 

In this play, the father leaves not because of his own wanderlust but to take a job to pay off his late wife's hospital bills.  He also returns to rescue his boys.  Played with great sensitivity by John Plumpis, the father is an endearing and sympathetic character.  His transitions from debilitating terror inspired by his tyrannical mother, to tenderness toward his boys, to debilitating terror are delightful.

 

In this play, the emotionally challenged Bella is outrageously outgoing rather than pathetically shy, increasingly self-reliant and optimistic rather than wallowing in dependency and depression, and a great source of comic relief and poignant reflection.  Bella is a marvelous creation magnificently portrayed by Sara Surrey.  

 

The equivalent of a collection of fragile glass animals can be found in Bella's assorted siblings, who reluctantly come to visit Grandma Krunitz.

 

Eddie, Jay and Arty's father, is a broken man further weakened by his wife's recent death.

 

Gert, played with impeccable comic timing by Patricia Buckley, can't utter a breath without her eroding lungs aggressively fighting back.  

 

Louie, played with great heart and energy by Anthony Crane, is a gangster whose moxie is compromised by a moral compass instilled through years of his mother's cold yet calculated child-rearing.  

 

Veteran actress Rosemary Prinz is masterful as the formidable, emotionally-vacant Grandma Krunitz, creating a portrait of a stoic survivor as rich, textured and detailed as set designer Michael Schweikhardt's magnificent turn-of-the-century Yonkers apartment.  She is a damaged and hurtful old woman.  Every entrance, every line and every exit is an exercise in pain management. for her, for her family, and for the audience.

 

Director Michael Bloom has beautifully balanced all that is hilarious and harrowing in this play.  He has established the kind of discipline that has his actors delivering punch-lines without excess and exposing their vulnerable underbellies without fanfare, resulting in very natural performances that are a pleasure to witness.  

 

This production certainly benefited from having run for two weeks at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre in Florida before opening here.  Imagine what the audiences at the Paper Mill Playhouse will be experiencing several weeks from now, when this must-see production moves to New Jersey.

 

Lost in Yonkers continues through January 31 in The Cleveland Play House's Drury Theatre.  For tickets, which range from $45 to $65, call 216-795-7000 or visit www.clevelandplayhouse.com.
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