Review: Lost In Yonkers at The Village Theatre
For the first time, Villages Theatre produce Neil Simon’s award winning play, Lost In Yonkers. The play is the winner of four Tony Awards, including the Best Play, and the Pulitzer Prize.
The director, Brian Yorkey, is well known to Seattle audiences. Mr. Yokey shared the 2009 Tony award for the hit Next to Normal. Prior to bringing Next to Normal to Broadway from Village Theatre he received several Footlight Awards for his directorial work at the Village Theatre.
Neil Simon is one of the most talented and prolific playwrights of American stage, film and television. Some of his best-loved works have included Sweet Charity, The Odd Couple, Barefoot in the Park, and Brighton Beach Memoirs, and he has made a wonderful gem in this play. Lost in Yonkers is like a many facets jewel, that depending on which way the light shines on it, something else is revealed.
The play is set during the beginning of the World War II. It’s a story of a very dysfunctional family consisting of Grandma Kurnitz, her two adult sons (Louie and Eddie), daughters (Bella and Gert) and her two grandchildren Jay, 15, and Arty who is 13. Suzy Hunt plays Grandma, rules her household with an iron fist and she is so unloving and hurtful to her family. Her son, Eddie is in trouble and wants to leave his two sons with her for about a year but it’s no surprise that the boys do not want to live with Grandma, know matter what.
Still living with her mother is the youngest daughter, Bella (Jennifer Lee Taylor). Bella has some issues that today would be considered a slight disability. Mike Dooly as Louie moves back home to hide from a couple of mobsters, who do not have his best interest at heart.
This is a comedy, a deep tragic comedy that is richly written with strong characters. I was engaged in every scene developed by the actors from the moment they walked on the stage. The two young actors, with funny one-liners and observations on their family, are bittersweet. The story unfolds and it is not what you had imagined, it is hard and becomes more painful as the action continues. No one actor stands out in this performance because they all are exceptionally strong in their roles. Like a diamond with seven strong prongs.
Lost in Yonkers plays now through March 28, 2010, first in Issaquah before moving up to Everett. Tickets range from $17 – $59. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.villagetheatre.org.
– Ethel W.
