TACT's revival of Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers marks two firsts: the first NYC revival of a
Simon play in the context of classic American drama -- and by a company
specializing in classic revivals at that. The second -- arguable, I suppose --
is what may be TACT's first real breakout production. I don't remotely mean to
imply that TACT hasn't had acclaim and renown and established itself as a
company of significance, but with rare and modest exception, I've experienced
their productions as respectable and a little academic; mounted with a kind of
no-frills accuracy but little in the way of real, invigorating juice. With
Lost in Yonkers, though, director
Jenn Thompson, a recent addition to the TACT family, is squeezing the fruit of
the play for all it's worth.
Here’s
a borrowed, slightly modified Wikipedia reduction I’ve used before, with cast
names interpolated:
Lost in Yonkers set in 1942, is a coming of age tale that
focuses on brothers Arty (Russell Posner) and Jay (Matthew Gumley), left in the care of their Grandma Kurnitz (Cynthia Harris) and Aunt Bella (Finnerty Steeves) in Yonkers, New York, because their desperate father, Eddie (Dominic
Comperatore), has to work as a
traveling salesman to pay off loan shark debts incurred following the death of
his wife after a long illness. Grandma is a severe, frightfully intimidating immigrant who terrified her children as they were
growing up, damaging each of them to varying degrees. Bella is a sweet but
mentally slow and highly excitable woman who longs to marry an usher at the
local movie house so she can escape the oppressive household and create a life
and family of her own. Her brother Louie (Alec Beard) is a small-time, tough-talking hoodlum who is
on the run, while her sister Gert (Stephanie Cozart) suffers from a breathing problem with causes
more psychological than physical problems. Missing much of the sentimentality
of the plays comprising Simon's earlier Eugene trilogy, Lost in Yonkers climaxes with a dramatic confrontation between
embittered mother and lonely daughter that permanently and surprisingly alters
the dynamic of this eccentrically dysfunctional family.
Ms.
Thompson’s cast is generally excellent (the kids are unusually savvy and
natural comedians for their age) but I have two small…I won’t even call them
caveats, but rather, points that drew my attention outside of the play. The
first is Alec Beard’s portrayal of shady uncle Louie. It’s an attractively
comic performance, with the appropriately soft hint of menace and danger-magnet
under the surface; but Mr. Beard (complicit, I suppose, with Ms. Thompson) has
let it fall just a tad too conspicuously into the modeled on Cagney and
Bogart trope. What’s unclear is
whether we’re watching the actor’s idea of what Louie is organically or if he
sees Louie as a guy who re-invented himself along the lines of certain cultural
icons. In any event it’s a little bit of distracting artificiality in an
otherwise well-modulated performance. And then there’s Ms. Steeves as the
mentally challenged Aunt Bella. She struck me as just a little too old for the
woman-child, especially given Bella’s desire to have her own children. (I did a
little web browsing and found Ms. Steeves’ age—not to be revealed here—and
in fact, one could argue that she’s just on the cusp of too old, not there yet; and that giving Bella
just that much more time on the personal calendar is a perfectly legitimate way
for director and actress to add to the character’s sense of loneliness and desperation.)
But I may know the play too well. She gives a decent, sensitive performance,
and I wonder how it might land with those seeing Lost in Yonkers for the first time.
Which,
if you never have, I urge you to do. I can’t think of a better way to make its
acquaintance. Veterans of the Simon ouvre are also not discouraged…
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