By BILL LOCKWOOD
WALPOLE — Having opened last Friday, the Walpole players are presenting an excellent production of Neil Simon’s Pulitzer Prize winning drama “Lost in Yonkers.” It continues Saturday, April 13, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, April 14, at 2 p.m. at the Helen Miller Theater in the Walpole Town Hall on the Common in Walpole.
From 1961 through 2004 Neil Simon wrote some 30 plays and musicals, many of them Broadway hits, and many screen plays becoming one of America’s most known and popular dramatists. Community theater groups and regional theaters have often done his plays. Walpole players have done a couple in their 32-year history, most recently “Plaza Suite” in 2010. Simon is principally known for writing good comedy. He got his start writing scripts for the classic early TV shows such as Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows’ and “The Phil Silvers Show.”
Simon grew up in Depression era New York City, and that experience finds its way into the story of this play set during World War II in Yonkers, New York with struggling people who have hopes and dreams to be more than they are. “Lost in Yonkers” premiered Dec. 31, 1990 at the Winston-Salem Center for the Performing Arts in North Carolina and opened on Broadway Feb. 21, 1991 then ran for 780 performances. It won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The play tells the story of two early teen brothers played by Ben Robinson and Anthony Mitchell. Neither is new to the community stage, in spite of their ages, they both more than hold their own in a cast that shows more than professional quality in its comedic timing and it’s treatment of the sadness that underlies the family situation they portray.
One can tell they are enjoying their roles. Mitchell said, “I think it’s a lot of fun to do. Even from the stage it [the play] is fun to watch.”
The boy’s mother has died, and their father must leave temporarily to earn money to pay her medical debts in the industrial boom from the war. The boys are left with their grandmother and aunt Bella, played by Maggie McGlonn-Jennings, a newcomer to the area now living in Chester, Vermont and Karen Soohoo in her second appearance with the Walpole players; she was in “The Real Inspector Hound” last year.
Also in the cast are Gregory Higgins, who plays the boy’s father and is himself from New York City. He is new to the Walpole Players, but he has played three roles with River Theater Company in Charlestown, and has performed with groups in the Rutland area since moving here, and is one of three anchor men on the Bellows Falls access channel’s comedy “Fake’d 8 TV News”.
Higgins said, “I was extremely moved when I first read it. It’s a great play.”
Walpole Players regular Tom Durnford plays Uncle Louie, a small-time gangster on the run. He says he grew up near Brooklyn and actually had an Uncle Louie. Durnford said, “It’s a fascinating show that blends high comedy with some real drama.”
Another Walpole regular, Jenny Plante, plays Gert, another relative. She plays well the comic relief of a lung condition that frequently leaves her words short of air. Proving her versatility, she doubled as stage manager and played the Inspector in last years production.
Besides the story of the two boys, this play is really the story of their Aunt Bella’s struggles overcome obstacles to realize her hopes and dreams. Director Mike Wright rightly gives her the last place in the curtain call, both for the character she plays and for the performance she gives.
Director Mike Wright has assembled a cast who match their characters well, and he had done an excellent job of balancing the comedy and pathos of the family’s situation. The well done, authentic-to-the-times-looking set complements the action. And the jazzy period transition music really gives the audience the feel of the times.
Wright, an experienced actor, singer, and director, whose only other directing of a Simon play was “The Odd Couple” with River Theater Company a few years ago said, “The cast is terrific. They worked really hard. Some have pages of dialog. They did a really good job.”
He also notes that of the many Neil Simon plays, “this one is more family oriented.” He notes that not many have “kids”, and when you work with them in community theater you must compete with things like soccer practice, scouts, homework, and the like. One would never know that with this production.
Tickets are $10 and are available at Joanie Joan’s Eatery in Walpole, at 14 Westminster Street in Walpole. Tickets are also available at the door.
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